This Is My Baby Part 1

In honor of my birthday on Monday and the fact that Yuko and I went to see Juno which is all about birth and parenting, I’m finally sitting down to write about a topic that in Bali was both miraculous and heartbreaking. Birth: an ever-present theme for us during our time in Ubud. Not only was our acupuncture clinic in Ubud hosted by a birthing clinic, Yayasan Bumi Sehat, but we were also staying in “The Ashram” which was, in essence, a dormitory for volunteers at Bumi Sehat (four midwife volunteers, a chiropractor, three acupuncturists, many mice, geckos, mosquitos and bats) and more volunteers living off site.

–the upstairs dormitory and the kitchen/livingroom, a gecko (if you look closely you can see the wing of a flying termite in its mouth)

The midwife volunteers had traveled to Bali to be part of the highly dedicated and super-busy Bumi team. As a roommate I quickly became used to the middle-of-the-night phone call asking for the on-call volunteer midwife to head over across the street to the clinic.

Bumi Sehat (www.bumisehatbali.org) is an amazing birthing center, providing skilled midwives in a clean and caring environment, all free and open to any woman who needs support. The moms there may have been coming to the clinic all along for pre-natal visits, or they may show up by motor scooter at midnight with the baby on its way.

At Bumi there are two main birthing rooms, which open out onto a small courtyard with couches where the families and especially husbands wait during the sometimes long labor process. It was part of the backdrop when Dan or I went over to the Bumi office late at night to blog to see several dads-to-be sprawled on the green plastic couches—or sometimes snoozing on our acupuncture clinic tables—with a lone television broadcasting soccer games to the geckos and other open air inhabitants.

Dads getting ear acupuncture

My first day there I was providing post-partum moxa therapy to a recent mom who was sitting on one of those couches when I began to hear screams and cries coming from the adjacent room. Nobody seemed too concerned, except for one worried looking young guy who kept raising his gaze towards the room expectantly. Watching the midwives bustling in and out quickly confirmed that a birth was in progress, and towards the end of my 20-minute moxa treatment, the cries of a new life announced its presence to the world. That separation of a half-open window was the closest I had ever been to a live birth.The next day I was about to get a bunch closer.

Newborns and their happy families.

Unfolding

Wow, back in NYC. airplane travel: strange to traverse such huge distances and worlds in a relatively short time. Tonight I did the only sensible thing I could do to re-enter life in Brooklyn, walked down to my local Park Slope hang-out for spaghetti and meatballs and broccoli rabe.

It’s strange–I never thought I would find the streets of New York to be quiet, but after the village of Nyuh Kuning, Park Slope feels quiet and lonely. I feel the lack of the Balinese people and the human net of voice and activity that they weave. No women dressed in fine lacy shirts carrying offerings on their heads for the temples. No men in sarongs hanging out by Bumi Sehat, or tired dads and dads-to-be sleeping on the couches and treatment tables outside the birthing rooms.

It’s also the difference of architecture. Even when you are inside in Bali you are still outside, the rooms opening out to the central courtyard, the sounds of dog barks and rooster crows and children laughing and people going about their daily business a constant flow of chatter and noise.

What is outside is inside and there is little separation. And so without really realizing it, my body and rhythms adapted to this leit-motif of social interactions, ceremonial offerings, constant goings to and from the temples, laughter and the buzz of motor scooters.

   

We all spoke about how tiring the constant managing of ceremony must be for the Balinese people, especially the women who are mainly responsible for the daily offerings made. But now I feel the lack of that constant honoring of the spirit world–the smell of insense, the chatter of young women as they made offering plates woven out of bamboo and leaves, the sound of the gamelan coming through the warm air.

I was lucky to arrive home on an unseasonably balmy day (63 degF!) but as I walked to dinner the temp was dropping back into the 50’s and I bundled up in my winter coat feeling chilled to the bone. I was reminded of Pastika telling me as he drove me to Denpasar last night how he was contracted as a young man to go to Denmark to design wood furniture there, and how after 3 days he was full of longing for Bali and after 3 months left, despite a 2-year contract already signed and paid for. How cold and lonely the streets seemed there. He simply could not live away from his home.

Liz mentioned last night too how she is amazed how quiet everything is when she goes home to Australia. And in addition to the human buzz is also missing the buzz of the animals, the crickets, frogs, geckos, dogs, roosters, cats… I never knew until I was in Bali that geckos sing. It took me a week of wondering what that strange sound was that sounded like a toy jack-in-the-box going “Uh-Oh, Uh-Oh, Uh-Oh…”

Tomorrow early early I head back to JFK to go to Florida to teach at the annual conference for the Association of Women’s Martial Arts Instructors. Sonya Richardson and I will be co-teaching as the co-Head Instructors of Hand To Hand. It will be good to see my martial arts friends and especially folks from Hand To Hand. I wonder how it will feel to be back in warm ocean air but distinctly American air (near Daytona Beach!)

For now, I sit in my Brooklyn apartment, listening to Gamelan music on a CD I bought my last day in Ubud, and I look forward to the continued revelations that will come–things I will learn about this trip that can only come clear here on the other side, and with time to reflect on all that has gone by.

Narita

Strange to leave Bali behind after such a rich and lengthy stay. Am at the Narita (Tokyo Airport) internet cafe waiting to board my 14 hour flight back to NYC. Had a lovely send off last night with Bobbi, Frank and Dan and my new friends from Bumi Sehat. I know I will be continuing to digest this journey, and I will continue to update this blog with all the entries and photos I didnt have time to do in Bali. So for now, a big Terima Kasi to the magical land of Bali, and look for more entries and photos coming soon.

East Bali Poverty Project

After our first day off (yay!) spent in Chandi Dasa, a beautiful fishing village, Dan and I headed back up to East Bali to work at the East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP). Run by David Booth, EBPP works to provide education and environmental resources to local families and villages. We were there to work with special needs kids. This is the area where Frank went 2 years ago and treated several children who were severely impaired. Their recovery, thanks to Frank’s treatments and the parents consistent follow up with moxa and massage, amazed everyone, even Frank. So this trip GAHP spent a week there, with Dan heading up effort. I got to go yesterday and work for the day. The people there are great, and very organized, and having a huge impact on the surrounding area. They have only two requirements of the families who send kids: that they get support from their families to bathe daily, and that the parents learn from the kids what is taught in the school. I bought a wonderful book they have made with kid’s illustrations called Learning By Doing which illustrates the journey from rough subsistence living to having literacy and environmental planning for the villages. Here is an illustration from that book a kid did about having to bathe daily and using soap for the first time.

Mt. Abang

Just back from an amazing few days in East Bali. Friday night after clinic Frank and I went to Tulamben to meet Dan who had been treating patients at the East Bali Poverty Clinic. We were met early Saturday morning by a crew from Bumi Sehat who had come to help us treat villagers up on Mt. Abang. This is the largest volcano on Bali (there are 4!) and the people who live up there are some of the most isolated on the island. It is a harsh environment because, despite the lushness we see everywhere now, there is a dry season which hits the east side of the island especially hard, and during that season water is very scarce, and therefore so is food. The folks living here survive by the hard labor of their bodies and cleverness of mind in dealing with their environment. The contact for our excursion was Vievika, who has been working with several remote villages to help them access better health care and environmental support. A local environmental NGO came along, and some of them were recruited to translate for us.

We drove up what seemed vertical roads until there was no more road, and then we got out and walked… up… for a while … passing road workers along the way who were busting boulders with a simple mallet and brute strength.

We hiked to a local school where villagers from the surrounding areas had come, some walking as far as 4 hours away to get treatment. Many had never seen a doctor before and I’m pretty sure none of them had ever seen an acupuncturist before. We turned the school into a 3 room clinic and set to work.

We treated almost 300 people that day thanks to everyone’s great efforts.

(pictures forthcoming!)

Typhoid Fever

It has been an intense time here in Bali. Two of our team members were sick so Dan and I were doing double duty. Then we found ourselves in the midst of a Typhoid outbreak with several folks from the larger community ill enough to require hospitalization. We were doing treatments with acupuncture and it is good to note that those who received regular treatment did MUCH better than those who did not. I was alone on shift at Bumi Sehat when one of the staff came in with fixed stabbing temporal pain (translation: one HELL of a headache) with nausea and retching. she was really suffering and i was really alarmed. I told Robin we needed to transport her to the hospital immediately for imaging tests. I’m glad i did because she turned out to have cerebral edema from typhoid. fortunately she was able to get prompt care and came back from the hospital the next day for more treatment. We’ve seen with typhoid the kinds of cases we studied in preparation for this trip but now live and demanding action–not just on the page. One of our team members who had been suffering with fever and malaise also took a turn for the worse that day, as did a friend of one of the midwives. It was satisfying to see the powerful interventions of acupuncture, dropping a fever from 102 back to 99 within hours. It was also scary to see so many so quickly falling ill. It is the rainy season here, and i may not have mentioned that we have been inundated with biblical style flooding and sheets of rain so thick that you are soaked in an instant. The flooding releases sewage waste into the streets and from there it is a short ride to an absentminded wipe of a wet face… and from there also a short ride to anything raw or uncooked such as salad (which many of us had begun to eat as the restaurants around us were very clean and conscious of their food handling–which is fine so long as there is no typhoid epidemic!!).

So far everyone who has been ill is recovering well, even better with acupuncture. I and Dan and Frank are still feeling good (knock on virtual-wood) and working harder than ever. It is gratifying to see that all of the classes we took in preparation for this trip have really come in handy, from formulas for typhoid to wilderness first aid (prop up a patient with suspected head bleeding or swelling) and pediatrics. Many thanks to the instructors and Frank for helping us to be better prepared!

Frank “moxa-ing” ST36 to strengthen the immune system.  A very effective way to protect against illness. I’ve been moxa-ing every night after clinic.

Hello 2008

I was saying to Chantia, one of the volunteer midwives, today that it is difficult to write about what is happening here because so much is happening here. Finding time to write is challenging as well as getting computer access–but the real issue is that there is just so much to tell, so many stories of babies being born and people coming to the clinic with no other heath care to turn to but us, and the beauty of the land and people and the generosity of so many who want to reach out and help others… it seem too much to capture in words. thankfully dan has been great at taking pictures and documenting. today he showed me some photos he put together of rini (our CP patient) and it made me cry to see the huge changes that had occured for her in such a short time. and i was right there when it was all happening–but we are so caught up in the many cases and the ever-changing moment that we don’t always get the chance to sit back and reflect on any of it. I guess that process will happen when i get back to the states.

Rini and her family and several other patients from the village we went to made it down to bumi sehat. we were able to treat them all again, and a couple have been twice. here are dan’s amazing pictures of rini:

dan teaching rini’s mom how to moxa

teaching exercises. look at rini’s hand now!

here are some other patient shots so you can see some of what we are treating.

fortunately i packed a big tub of san huang san which can be used as an anti-bacterial. this guy was in a motorcyle accident (pretty common here in bali) and broke his leg. he had an operation for which he had to sell his family home and rice field. the operated leg became infected and for the last 4 years he has had a severe untreated infection while still trying to work (which means standing in a rice field in water up to his knees all day) and with no home or motorbike. he was brought in by his friend who had heard of bumi sehat. we treated the external infection but unfortunately there is also a suspected bone infection which is very serious. luckily, there is another ngo which brings in surgeons from Australia and we hope he can get the operation he needs there. over an over again we hear from patients that they are diagnosed with some illness but cannot afford treatment. and if they go to a hospital without proof of being able to pay they will not be treated.

These boys both have developmental disabilities. Putu (above) was normal at birth but after some time in very poor circumstances failed to develop properly. his disabilities could be from malnutrition or from a childhood fever untreated. in any case he is a thoroughly charming boy. He has been coming to bumi sehat for about a year and is progressing very well. Wayan, the boy with the moxa in his hand fell at age 2 which resulted in head trauma. His family were unable to care for him and he was mostly left indoors in bed. His brother in law took him in after he was bed-ridden for 10 years and has spent the last year working at rehabilitating him. His legs are still very atrophied but he can sit up on his own now (and play video games). He still cant’ talk but can clearly understand and can give the thumb’s up for “bagoos” which means “good!” in Bahasa Indonesian.

It is not uncommon for developmentally disabled kids to be left with almost no stimulus, partly because the parents don’t know that there is any possibility of recovery and partly because of social attitudes that create shame around their disabilities. They respond very well to moxa and tui na–both of which can be taught to their family members–and herbs. Of all our patients i think they capture our hearts the most with their sweet natures and strong spirits.