30. The Storyteller's Chair

I have just been reading a friend's blog in which she explains that she only writes about bad stuff because the positive stuff makes for very boring reading. In general, I would have to agree with her. No one wants to know how great a date was, but everyone enjoys reading about a disastrous date.

However, I also think it is important to acknowledge, once in a while, that there are reasons for hope and for optimism in the world. I came across one such yesterday, as I went to look around the recently refurbished playground in the tiny village in which I am currently living, out here in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland.

There is a new pulley system which my 12 year old nephew loved. There is also a rather ingenious wooden sculpture of a large ant which you can climb up and sit on. However, I was most struck by the storyteller's chair in the corner of the playground, and the little circle of seats surrounding it. The chair itself has a niche carved into it for storing the wood-bound storybook. The stories are printed on weatherproof cards and the original Romantsch version - with pictures - is translated on subsequent pages in French, Italian, German and English. Romantsch is a little known dialect which developed from the Latin spoken by the Roman legionaries who were stationed here. It is still spoken in this valley and a few neighboring ones, by a dwindling number of people. I am happy that people are proud of their language, that they are sufficiently open minded to tell their stories in four other languages simultaneously, and that they still believe in the importance and value of storytelling.

If you walk down the Spinas valley, there are five more of these storyteller's chairs, each with a different storybook.

There are many places where this could never happen. However, examining this storyteller's chair, I felt that all was right with the world.

29. First Solo Ayahuasca

On Saturday June 19th I did my first solo Ayahuasca experiment.

The day before I had been on a long hike up over the snow covered Fuorcla da Val Champagna (2500m). Climbing the last 100 metres took over an hour - I kept breaking through the snow, sometimes up to my waist. Exhausting work, but good exercise.

On Saturday I rested. I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a Greek salad and two nectarines for lunch and a few cashew nuts mid-afternoon. I placed a vomit bucket next to my beanbag and laid out a few of the ritual cigar-cigarettes from Iquitos. I built a fire in the hearth at 20.00, then I set light to the palo santo wood which Otilia the shaman had given me. The fragrant smoke of this wood is used like incense by Amazon Indians; it is also said to banish evil spirits. I walked around the house, fumigating with a piece of smoking wood and seriously questioning my sanity. However, I didn't want to take any chances.

I was, I must admit, a little nervous. People have been known to do crazy things under the influence of Ayahuasca. I was all by myself in the house. What's more, I did not know how strong the brew was which I'd brought back from the Amazon. I had 500ml which was supposed to be sufficient for 6 doses. I decided to be careful and to give myself a half dose of 50ml.

At this time of year it does not get dark until 21.30/22.00. I spent a couple of hours thinking about what I hoped to get out of the Ayahuasca experience. One thing I would like to glean is convincing firsthand evidence of a spirit world - the experience of a dimension which is inexplicable to science as we know it.

I took the Ayahuasca at 20.56. It was less viscous than I remembered, less noxious and a little bit fizzy. Presumably it had started to ferment. Then I sat on a beanbag, opposite glowing cinders, for an hour. It slowly grew dark outside. I put on a CD of icaros, the traditional Amazon songs and chants. I felt nothing out of the ordinary, other than hunger and boredom.

I waited another hour. Still nothing happened. Then I decided that the dose must have been too weak, or the brew I had bought was a fake. I got up, switched on the lights and made myself a hearty meal. I felt shortchanged but decided to compensate with a spliff and a line of ketamine. I then settled down to watch another episode of The Wire. I had a sense of unfamiliarity about both the program and my surroundings. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the episode and was able to go to sleep immediately after.

I have boiled the Ayahuasca brew again in order to burn off any alcohol from fermentation. I read online that it is advisable to do that. Next time I will administer a larger dose.