"Kahula saika was instrumental in combating COVID-19"

With evident tiredness in her gaze and in her breathing rhythm, Ada Luz Bucardo recounted how she faced and managed to overcome COVID-19 for 16 days. "I was very careful, I was the one who brought the message to my family, I was the one who was watching that everyone was home on time," Bucardo confessed in a trembling voice.  

She didn't know where or when she was infected, but the symptoms were unequivocal. "I had all the symptoms: dry cough, flu, tiredness, there came a time when I couldn't smell or taste the taste of the food." That's where the ordeal started.

Traditional medicine was instrumental in recovery

"Every day," says Bucardo, "he drank Kahula saika, a tea with different medicinal plants that helps cure colds and respiratory diseases." The name of this miraculous drink, whose main ingredient is the ancestral plant "lula bakbak", is of Miskitu origin.     

Bucardo also drank ginger tea, lemon zacate, eucalyptus leaf, rosemary and cinnamon. Through these cotions, he says, he felt great relief: he breathed and the pains gave truce to his body.

She was treated with Western drugs with which health agencies and institutions are fighting coronavirus. However, he combined them with traditional indigenous medicine and "with the hand of God" he was able to overcome the deadly disease.

Serafina Espinoza, director of the Institute of Traditional Medicine and Community Development (IMTRADEC) of URACCAN, confirms the powerful healing properties of the plants used by Bucardo, adding that ingesting cuculmeca strengthens the immune system.

I never imagined we were going to have COVID-19 in Bilwi.

Ada Luz Bucardo is originally from Bilwi. He works with the Regional Government. She is the mother of two girls, for whom she prayed from her bed of pain and for whom she fought with all her energies, overcoming COVID-19.

Under the trees of his yard and with a new breath of life, Ada luz Bucardo told that he never imagined that this disease would reach Puerto Cabezas. "We only heard reports of the dead in other countries and never thought I'd see my friends and neighbors die of this disease," he said in a choppy voice.

Contagion and its painful effects

Ada Luz resisted believing she was infected with coronavirus. It was 16 days of torment in which he fought for his life. He will never forget that May 23rd, the day the virus would gain greater intensity, while feeling like he was losing consciousness. Every minute was more painful than the last.

"But I didn't let myself be overcome," says Ada Luz proudly. I was almost unconscious and every time I coughed I looked in my mind at my two girls and my mom giving me the strength not to die."

With tears rushing from her eyes as it began to rain that afternoon, Ada Luz Bucardo thanked her relatives and friends, the authorities of the Regional Government and the Ministry of Health for all the support provided in this harsh process. He thanked ancestral wisdom, because he felt he had regained his health, looking at life with optimism and faith.

From VFD-19 survivor to counselor

Bucardo has become a kind of counselor. Many people call her for recommendations. Therefore, from this space, Ada Luz asks "the families of Puerto Cabezas to take this pandemic seriously; I survived and today I bear my testimony so that people can understand that together we can overcome the coronavirus. We go to the nearest hospital unit so that we can be cared for on time, in the best way, combining Western medicine with the medicine of our ancestors."

Ada Luz does not desire for anyone all the suffering that this pandemic means. "I can't stand this deep pain, I only see my loved ones in photos and videos; this is hard for me, for my family."

The other side of the coin

Just as there are people who rejoice that Ada Luz has overcome the disease, there are others who discriminate against her, which has had serious repercussions on her and her family. It's sad, Bucardo meditates, especially when we need to be united the most.

"All I can tell you is to take care of yourself; take care of their families; coronavirus is in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and we don't know when this nightmare ends. Let us pray and stand together!"

Next installment: Expect the second part of this series of articles that will allow us to size the importance of ancient medicine, the meaning of "kahula saika" and how it is being a medullary part in the fight of COVID-19.