(Sorry they are no pictures, we haven't had internet so pictures have not been uploaded!)
Today was our last day in Otavalo! We started the day off visiting a holistic medical center and then drove on a bus to beautiful Mindo where we were blessed to stay in a gorgeous hotel in the middle of the rain forest! At the holistic center we learned about the alternative medicine therapies that are very common in Ecuadorian culture. There are many midwives at the clinic that help deliver babies and there are also a lot of plants and herbs that they use to treat different kinds of ailments. A lot of us bought some ointments that contained different herbs mixed with bee's wax. The one most people bought was for healing of veins, respiratory ailments, and muscle tension due to stress. I am very excited to try it out! Sarah participated in one of their healing rituals to cure espantos. They rubbed an egg all over Sarah's body to capture the evil spirit within her and to diagnose her sickness. They then cracked the egg into a cup of water and based on the position of the egg they diagnosed her sickness. They had stated that she was scared of the water and asked her different questions. They asked her if she had recently been to the water and had been afraid of something or had hurt herself. We had been to the beach a little while ago and she said one of her biggest fears is sharks. She also said she had slipped in the shower and had hurt her leg. They then did the healing part which included rubbing rocks together (supposedly it helps because it is from nature). They also used another egg to pull out the bad energy or bad spirits. They then put some olive oil on her head as well as some red color (supposedly red helps you to be strong). They prayed to heavenly father before doing the ceremony. They would chant while doing it and then say shum, shum at certain parts of the body to call out the bad energy or evil spirits. At the end of the cerremony, Sarah had to eat the egg that they had healed her with. They luckily boiled it! Matt participated in another ceremony that involved the use of a guinea pig. I did not watch the ceremony due to personal preference, so I thought it would be best to share in the words of Matt!
"They did a treatment on me with a guinea pig. They called it a radiograph of a guinea pig. They rubbed the guinea pig all over my body. It died during the process as the midwife rubbed it very vigorously. She then skinned it and looked at it to give me my diagnosis. She saw problems with both of my feet and with my knees. My ankles have hurt me since my mission. My knees do hurt me from time to time. She said she saw some sort of hit in my left foot but I don’t recall having anything like that. She saw a lot of stress in my shoulders and said I am really preoccupied about things. She saw that my neck had a lot of tension and must hurt me and my right shoulder looked really messed up. She also saw a lot of pain in my lower back and I think she even said she saw arthritis (I have had lower back pain and neck pain for a while, I also tore my rotator cuff in high school). When she looked at the brain she said I was very preoccupied. She also saw a hit on my left cheek as it was inflamed on the guinea pig (again this one I don’t remember having). When she looked at the kidneys and I think she saw an enlarged bladder. She asked me if I hold in my pee sometimes and told me that I shouldn’t do that as it could give me problems with my prostate later on. She told me to eat watermelon or papaya to help. She also asked me if I had problems with constipation but I said I am pretty regular. She said she could tell I sometimes hold it in and should go when I need to go, not hold it in because I’m busy. She looked at the lungs and said they looked bad but it was probably related to the trip. She did not see anything wrong with my heart. She advised me to take a bath with some herbs to complete the treatment two times at night. She also told me to get a regular massage. It was an interesting experience at when the guinea pig was near my heart I felt almost like something passed from me to the guinea pig. She said that she felt a lot of her energy leave her when she was rubbing the guinea pig on my neck. I thought it was cool how they talked about the energy and everything. I thought it was interesting but that there was a lot of merit to what they were saying. They always starting by praying to God before doing the treatments. The lady for me talked about how Jesus 
Christ is the only way to return to our Father in Heaven. I know that God lives and that He loves all of his children wherever they are found.