Tomorrow I leave for the two-week Annapurna sanctuary & foothills trek. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city for a while and wandering through the more natural world; seeing a different part of Nepal, which in actuality is the majority of the country.
The last few days have been busy. On Wednesday the three of us (myself, Tais, and Caitlin, who's studying Tibetan medicine) visited the Fatimah clinic, which is here around Boudha, only a 15-20 minute walk. It's run by a Chinese woman and her daughter (both doctors); besides Chinese, they speak Tibetan, Nepali, English, and probably a few other languages fluently. We spent about half an hour waiting for a consultation, which I spent gazing at the incredibly detailed anatomical charts of acupuncture meridians and pressure points, and watching the elder doctor treat about ten people (she prescribed medicines like she could do it in her sleep). Then she did pulse analysis, and told me about current problems and a specific chronic imbalance that I need to correct. It was interesting to be the patient and feel how she used her four fingertips in different ways. After that she directed me to a bed (for acupuncture--face, arm, hand, legs, feet) and put two electrical current pads on my back. None of it was painful, but it wasn't entirely comfortable. The whole treatment lasted about 40 minutes, after which she gave me oil for muscle massage and three kinds of pills to take, which look like M&Ms.
Being the daughter of a medical malpractice lawyer, the strangest part of all this for me was being subject to treatment that I had no idea about. The doctor didn't explain what was going to happen, she simply proceeded. And I don't know what the pills are, because the labels are in Chinese! They're herbal, so I'm not worried about effects, but it's certainly a new experience to be so uninformed. It's counterintuitive to accept that, particularly because I'm studying medicine! Scholarly curiosity had to take a backseat.
When we left the clinic, my body felt so much better. The acupuncture had very specific effects; I was lighter, the tension in my back eased, the pain in my head from hitting it during yoga evaporated, the congestion in my throat and nose disappeared (pollution is likely to blame, though she cited flu for all of us). Several hours later, towards the end of my lesson with Kopila, I started feeling terrible, and so did Tais. We moaned our way through the evening. The funny thing was that while I was really miserable, my body still felt much better--the lightness and lack of tension endured, even during the waves of cramps and gas in my abdomen. By the time the misery subsided (already nighttime), my body was feeling much improved. I'm intrigued.
Before going home and after the treatment, we stopped at Shechen so Tais could pick up a book. What good fortune that we happened to go at the exact time we did! While we waited for someone to come unlock the shop, a monk came out to meet a Taiwanese couple standing nearby...he had incredibly bright blue eyes, and made a great impact. It was Mattieu Ricard! He was quite busy, of course, but he had a laugh with us and stopped to talk for just a moment. Later, Tais said she'd been trying to meet him since she got here, but it was always impossible. I had no idea; he runs Shechen, and I believe one other gompa here in Nepal, and has lived here for something like 30 years. I wish my mom was here; I'm sure she would so have loved to meet him.
I lost my cell phone in a taxi, so yesterday I got another at New Road with Yanik. I also renewed my visa (very important), another task that is taking more cash than I anticipated. Everything is money! We saw a totally crazy petrol line on the way to the immigration office, so on the way back we stopped and walked from the end of the line to the petrol pump and filmed it. The people on line--mostly guys, all with bikes (there's a separate line for cars, and for public vehicles, and for trucks)--had varying reactions...one gave the camera the finger, one said "our embarrassment is their pleasure," many waved and shouted things about the condition of things in Kathmandu.
In yoga we've been doing more pranayama, translated inaccurately but acceptably into English as breathing practices. Rupesh spent a while explaining the real meaning of prana to me the other morning, which was helpful, because knowing what the potential of the exercise really is makes the effect entirely different. The practice itself changes when my understanding changes. I had a ton of energy yesterday as a result (helpful when running around), but it was almost in excess...at the end of the day I was still full of energy, but I was exhausted as well. It was weird.
Today I have to go to the clinic to arrange classes with Dr. Koirala and schedule a three-day treatment course. Busy day, like every day...
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