Yesterday I came back from Kiliki-Kawan, a village near Ubud. Karen and I went up as part of our team’s efforts to outreach to nearby villages. This project is being spearheaded by Victor who lives in Kiliki with his wife Kimur. Dan and I went up the first time, not knowing what to expect. Victor took us by car to his house (house is an understatement–it is a beautiful piece of Balinese architecture, built by his father over 30 years ago) where we had a our first hot shower in many days. the next morning we went to Pangin Wahan, another small village. we unpacked our kit of travel acupuncture supplies at the townhall and one of the villagers rang a huge wooden bell to announce that we were ready to go. We treated over 100 patients that day. When Karen and i went up again it was to a different village. we met some more complicated cases there, including a little girl with Cerebral Palsy named Rini. Dan had treated her earlier and I was able to treat her again. When Dan first treated her she could barely open her hand. After just one treatment she was much better. After her second treatment she was better again. So we invited her and several other folks who were challenging cases from the village to come down to Ubud where we would have more time and resources to work with them. One of these was a woman who I diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Wayan is only 18, had a 3 1/2 year old daughter and we all felt that much of what was going on with her had to do with family pressures. As a daughter-in-law she is living isolated from her birth family, obviously married very young. Young couples are under tremendous pressure to have children and the mom’s an dad’s we see are so very young. Victor later told me that when arrangements were being made for our patients to come here to Bumi Sehat, Wayan didn’t know where Ubud was. For those of you who have never been to Bali, that is as if you lived in Oakland and had never heard of San Francisco, or lived in Brooklyn but didn’t know where Manhattan was. It is tough on the young women because when they marry they have very little say over what direction their lives will go. There is tremendous pressure on them to have babies right away, and especially boys.
the village bell, and townhall
dan showing rini’s family how to massage
kimur, alejandro and victor



