A VODKA MASSAGE

[This entry was written 3 weeks ago. Before reading this entry, rest assured that now (3 weeks later) Joshua has recovered]
Joshua organized a group of boys to play some pick-up soccer yesterday. Somehow while he was playing he threw-out his lower back, and he limped home unable to stand up straight. He rested his back for a couple of hours in our room, but when dinner time came around, we had to explain to our host family why he was walking like an old man. Our family was extremely sympathetic and concerned. After dinner, Ejem (host mom) suggested that we take Joshua to a traditional healer whom would give him a back massage. We agreed, and he started bundling up for the walk (the temperature has dropped significantly in the past week), but as we were leaving, Ejem decided it would be best to ask Peace Corps before receiving care from a healer. Since it was after-hours and the Peace Corps office was closed, this would not be possible. The host fam quickly arrived at an alternative solution. In rapid Turkmen and enthusiastic hand motions they suggested that I give Joshua a back massage with what I could only interpret as some kind of medicine.
“Derman!” (Medicine!) they urged, as they showed motions of massaging Joshua’s back, and then they would point at me saying, “Sen, Sen” (you, you). At the time, we had only been studying Turkmen for three weeks, so our family was kind to simplify the language to an elementary level we could decipher. “Arak bilen, Derman!” they continued to urge. We got the basic idea, they wanted me to give Joshua a massage, they wanted me to use some kind of medicine to massage him, and they wanted me to do it right there in the family room. As our younger brother left the room to retrieve the medicine, Joshua remembered that “Arak” (the medicine our family was referring to) means vodka—it is commonly used for external and internal medicinal uses here.
Our host mother proceeded to pour a mug of vodka, which was then heated on the small gas stove used to heat the room. After heating the vodka, it was mixed with a small amount of animal fat. Joshua was instructed to lie on the bed in the room and pull up his shirt to expose his back. In some pain, Joshua managed to position himself stomach-down on the bed. With my host mother, host sister, and host brothers watching with great interest [and keen to give comments on my massaging techniques], I proceeded to massage the vodka onto Joshua’s back until the mug was empty. After we completed this 20-minute process, Joshua was instructed to wrap a waist band around his waist that was likely used previously on someone twice Joshua’s size. The waist band fell loosely around Joshua’s hips, but our family was so generous to offer the gift, so Joshua obliged and, after thanking our family, made his was to bed for the night.