Babci talks a lot. In fact, she talks non-stop when I’m around her. I understand why she does that. She grew up with a dozen people in her house and now it’s just her, so whenever I come over she feels like she needs to get all her talking in to make up for the days she’s had no one to talk to. She loves to go up to random people in the grocery store, cut them off with her shopping cart and tell them advice in broken English that most of the time the poor people are like “I have no idea what she said.” Sometimes I let the people fend for themselves, but other times when I’m in more of a hurry, I pry her away from whichever poor victim she cornered. I particularly cringe when she goes up to new moms and gives them child rearing advice because some of her old world methods are pretty scary.
I remember when I was a little girl and my mom put on “Banki” on my back to make me feel better. It’s the equivalent of leeches. Banki are these little circular globes that you swab with some alcohol, light on fire then stick on your back. The fire goes out, creates a vacuum and then you get these giant hickeys all over your body. The premise is that it’s a way to suck the bad blood out of you and make you feel better. It’s making a bit of a comeback in the holistic medicine community and is called “Fire Cupping”. I guess it’s a lot more sanitary than leeches. By the way, Babci swears that doing this makes her feel better when she’s really sick but I don’t know if it’s the placebo effect or not. (If you click on that photo, it’ll take you to pictures and a video, if you’re curious enough to learn more.)
When I was 5 I had pneumonia and it wasn’t getting better and despite my mom’s numerous healing methods so she took me to the hospital. It was like a circus around me and I was the freak show. The doctor who examined me had never seen the effects of banki in real life but learned about it in med school. He brought in all the young doctors to show them what my mom’s home remedy looked like. In a way, I was glad and relieved because I was afraid that my mom would get in trouble for child abuse. After all, my back was covered in big purple bruises. Luckily the doctor knew she meant me no harm and proceeded to treat my real symptoms after the freak show was over.
ASK BABCI
At any rate, the point of my post is that Babci loves to talk and I know there are more pearls of wisdom in her brain that I’m not accessing. I just never can think straight when I’m around her because she’s shooting off stories like a machine gun and most of the time they are stories I’ve already heard 10,000 times before.
I want to access some new ones and her opinion on various topics that she may not bring up on her own. I’m 100% sure she will be open to telling me stuff but I need some help in figuring out what to ask.
What would you ask Babci? It can be anything. The only thing topic that is taboo is sex. Everything else is fair game. Please help.
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