Every now and then, the strain of working six days a week in a different culture, in a different language starts to wear on my spirits. I find myself a little less jovial, a little tense, and sometimes even morose. Usually on those days, my patients arrive with an excellent sense of humor. Call it […]
… but words can never hurt me. The teenage years appear to share a universal language of challenge. I remember my high school math teacher, giddily proclaiming that math overcame all language barriers across the globe. It seems the emotional roller coaster of self discovery and shifting towards an adult self shares its fair bit […]
Today is Wednesday, the day I juggle two outreach clinics in one day. The clinics sit about twenty minutes apart by motorcycle. The morning clinic is in the village of Sipodol, nestled between green mountains and terraced fields. The afternoon clinic is in the bustling urban metropolis of Bhaktapur. It takes Sachyamohan and me forty-five […]
Ramesh kickstarts his motorbike and looks at me expectantly. “How should I get on?” I ask, thinking about Nikki, our clinic director, instructing us not to wrap our arms around our interpreter when riding the motorbike. “Don’t grip with your knees,” Nikki said with a grin. I look at her blankly, thinking that you ride […]
Coffee in hand, I stroll downstairs into the Vajra Barahi Health Clinic’s waiting room to prepare for my morning. Before the clinic bustles into life, I have the privilege of traveling out to a nearby Newari village and treating Asa Maya, a sweet, elderly woman, who recently had a stroke. I have been hearing about […]
At eight a.m. we venture out for breakfast. The streets are relatively sleepy compared to last night. Only a handful of cars weave through the streets and we can walk normally across the ring road. At various intervals along the sidewalks, people huddle around temporary fires built from scrap wood, and I wonder if they […]
I arrived into Kathmandu on a Korean Air plane. Most of my fellow passengers were Korean or Japanese trekkers. I deduced this from the hiking boots and high end gear they wore. Despite my inability to speak Korean, the excitement as the plane began its decent palpably filled the cabin. A frenetic energy shifted into […]
Today, I am trying to finish packing for Nepal. The Acupuncture Relief Project dropped off my two heavy duty, rubber-fortified duffle bags and about fifty pounds of medical supplies for me to carry into Nepal. The medical supplies are mostly Chinese herbal formulas in pill form, since I am replenishing the herbal pharmacy in Chapagoan. […]
A couple weeks ago I received an email from my team leader. She jovially introduced herself and offered to field any questions about packing, travel, and anything else that might help prepare us to provide medical care in Nepal. She reminded us of the suggested packing list provided on the Acupuncture Relief Project’s website. And […]
In just three weeks, I will be boarding a plane at the SeaTac International airport loaded down with clinical supplies and warm clothing. My destination– Nepal. Once in country, I will spend the next two months volunteering for the Acupuncture Relief Project at a high-volume, non-profit acupuncture clinic based in the Kathmandu valley. The […]
Stick Out Your Tongue 