I have heard it said that God took a piece of paper, crumpled it up and made that the blueprint for the mountains in the state of Oaxaca. After driving for hours today through the Sierra Norte to visit two pueblos of new auricular acupuncture practitioners, I agree.
Bonifacio and Margarita organized a clinic for our visit. They made a meeting of a women's group. Attendance was called and when all answered "present", the clinic began. We were in a small building that is used for healthcare. They had no idea what this would be. Laurencio and Boni did a great job of explaining it to them and no one left. There were a number of women who were there with babies on their backs or very young children with them. We explained that they would need to get seeds, not needles. The babies could reach to the shiny things in their ears and swipe them away or worst case, take one and put it in their mouth. The young children could be a distraction, to the mother or to other's around. When I left and returned, Boni was giving needles to one woman with a baby on her lap even though we had told the group and I had already spoken with this woman individually about it. He said that she really wanted the session and told him it would be o-k. I had to tell him absolutely not - then the others would want it too. Same thing happened with another woman afterwards, I came back and he was putting needles in her ears. We went through it all again and it was decided that they would have another clinic tomorrow so these mothers could make arrangements and come back. She was upset but all of the other mothers seemed to accept it and were happy to receive pressure seeds.
Once this was settled and the treatment really got going the magic came in. I had some doubts at the beginning, wondering what I was doing introducing this very foreign concept to them. During the session the sense of calm peacefulness filled the rooms and I was so glad and honored to be there. After the treatments almost all of them signed up to come back to the next one.
25 received acupuncture treatments and 5 received ear seeds.
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It was similar at Rosario's pueblo. 16 people were there. The energy was a little different at this clinic, there was more talking and they didn't settle into it as much. Many still received benefit and there were some details that Rosario got to learn for her next time. Lauro practiced at both clinics which was heplful in so many ways. The issue of setting time boundaries came up here when a couple of people arrived an hour and half late. Rosario checked in with us and it was decided that they could receive pressure seeds but the acupuncture treatments are done in groups.
Due to time I didn't get a limpia, energy work with her since we wanted to do most of the drive before it got dark. The roads are very narrow on cliffs. It was an intense ride there and back. Tuesday's trip to another part of the Sierra Norte will be even longer.
The issue of keeping them supplied is a big one. These were their first big clinics today and word will spread about the benefits. They could go through these needles very quickly. I have some more needles coming down and I need to find a good regular system for getting them to Oaxaca for Laurencio to distribute.
Tomorrow is a school day for me and a day to get my stomach back after those roads. We will go to another pueblo in the Sierra Norte on Tuesday to support the two young women. This pueblo is further away. Today was so special to be in these pueblos. I thought a lot about the many Oaxaqueños who now live in Oregon and different places in the States. What it might be like for them to leave these very remote places, cross the border with all of it's challenges, and then live in the US culture. At the end of Rosario's clinic I met a woman who lived in the states for a couple of years. She asked to write letters online so she can practice her english. I didn't have a lot of time with her so I am looking forward to hearing more of her story, how it was to go and also how it is to be back in the small pueblo as a single mother.
What affected me the most today was how much laughter there was. These women, while talking a blend of Zapoteco and Spanish, were constantly laughing and giggling. Isn't that the best medicine?!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
This morning was the second Oaxaca Community Clinic. I almost forgot how beautiful it is when the treatments are in process and the serenity permeates the space. I was there for the first clinic then Laurencio did the next one on his own. One of the kids from last week came back and this time he wanted needles instead of the seeds he had before. He is 10 years old.
Tomorrow at 7am we will leave to go to the mountains of the Sierra Norte on a long day trip. Clinics are set up for me to observe and assist at in two pueblos. I am really looking forward to getting out of the city for the day and excited about this follow up visit. How are they doing? Have they had any challenging issues come up? How are people responding to the treatments? Are the people in the pueblo talking about it and has word been spreading "de boca en boca" By word of mouth?
After the clinic I will receive a limpia,ma cleansing from Rosario. I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights and am not feeling in balance. If I need follow-up her daughter lives in Oaxaca and I can work with her. This is also a great opportunity for me to to experience the traditional healing here and blend elements into my practice in Oregon. One of my goals for next week will be to load photos onto this blog. There are some beautiful shots of Rosario.
Tomorrow at 7am we will leave to go to the mountains of the Sierra Norte on a long day trip. Clinics are set up for me to observe and assist at in two pueblos. I am really looking forward to getting out of the city for the day and excited about this follow up visit. How are they doing? Have they had any challenging issues come up? How are people responding to the treatments? Are the people in the pueblo talking about it and has word been spreading "de boca en boca" By word of mouth?
After the clinic I will receive a limpia,ma cleansing from Rosario. I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights and am not feeling in balance. If I need follow-up her daughter lives in Oaxaca and I can work with her. This is also a great opportunity for me to to experience the traditional healing here and blend elements into my practice in Oregon. One of my goals for next week will be to load photos onto this blog. There are some beautiful shots of Rosario.
Practice Time
This is a time of practice, for the promotores and myself. For me, I am in language school 3-4 hours/ day and practicing in the street and at home. I don't feel like I am making much progress but I know something must be sinking in.
For the promotores, this is a time that they are in their pueblos and begining to practice their new skills. The plan is to visit the pueblos in the Sierra Norte on Sunday and Tuesday. Instead of renting a car we helped pay for the significant repairs to Lauro's car. It was a much more sustainable use of funds. He will especially need his car after June when the main CECIPROC office in Mexico City will close Lauro's office here in Oaxaca and he will need to commute over the mountains for 6 hours to the coast to do his work. He will spend a week at a time there as will his wife who also works for the organization. They have teen daughters here so they need to stay in the city as well.
For the promotores, this is a time that they are in their pueblos and begining to practice their new skills. The plan is to visit the pueblos in the Sierra Norte on Sunday and Tuesday. Instead of renting a car we helped pay for the significant repairs to Lauro's car. It was a much more sustainable use of funds. He will especially need his car after June when the main CECIPROC office in Mexico City will close Lauro's office here in Oaxaca and he will need to commute over the mountains for 6 hours to the coast to do his work. He will spend a week at a time there as will his wife who also works for the organization. They have teen daughters here so they need to stay in the city as well.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Oaxaca City clinic
The first clinic at CECIPROC was held today. 12 people received sessions including two children. It was the perfect number of people for Laurencio's first time holding the clinic after the workshop. It was a great learning experience. Rico and I arrived just as sessions were about to get going. I had thought that I would supervise and maybe even receive a treatment. With this many people for his first time I worked on people instead. While we were still treating the group, one of the people who already had her needles in began to feel flush and sick to her stomach. She tried to stay with it for a few minutes, but it wasn't going away so I took out the needles, laid her down and did some energy work to help her rebalance. She was fine and when Lauro spoke with her later he learned that she had a coffee on her way to the clinic and it was too much energy for her. He got to see how I handled the situation and it was a good learning experience. It was also good that I was there, for his first time it would have been a lot to handle with 11 others to be aware of. In my 18+ years of practice and tens of thousands of treatments I have only seen this type of reaction 3 times.
I am waiting to hear from someone about giving us transportation to the pueblos next week. This really showed the importance of follow up support. I will spend this week in spanish school every day. Today, aside from a small conversation in the mercado organico, this is my english outlet. Learning another language is a slow process for me and I have faith that it is improving. Daily frustrations and daily excitement at understanding something.
Our social life is getting busier. Mostly with foreigners, from the US and France. It has been great to see some friends who I met here 3 years ago. Rico has joined the Hub. The Hub is a place where social activists can meet and use office facilities. They have internet, printing, social get-togethers, networking, meeting rooms, etc. There are Hubs all over the world now and growing. This project allows him to be a part of it. There are fantastic projects going on here - ecological and social. It is very inspiring.
I am waiting to hear from someone about giving us transportation to the pueblos next week. This really showed the importance of follow up support. I will spend this week in spanish school every day. Today, aside from a small conversation in the mercado organico, this is my english outlet. Learning another language is a slow process for me and I have faith that it is improving. Daily frustrations and daily excitement at understanding something.
Our social life is getting busier. Mostly with foreigners, from the US and France. It has been great to see some friends who I met here 3 years ago. Rico has joined the Hub. The Hub is a place where social activists can meet and use office facilities. They have internet, printing, social get-togethers, networking, meeting rooms, etc. There are Hubs all over the world now and growing. This project allows him to be a part of it. There are fantastic projects going on here - ecological and social. It is very inspiring.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Workshop and graduation
It's been a busy couple of days...and exhasting as we recovered from the weekend and workshop. Or maybe for me it was the mezcal at our celebration dinner on Monday night...
Monday flew by with the final clinics. We didn't have the numbers of people show up for the clinics as we had hoped for but it was enough that everyone got to practice on a few people. We really encouraged them to begin to practice immediately as soon as the return home to keep it fresh. They were so enthusiastic during these practice sessions. They showed confidence and that was the goal of the workshop - that they would be confident with the 5-needle auricular acupuncture technique.
We held graduation after lunch before the younger women left. We had certificates for everyone. That is a big deal for them. They shared that this will give them credibility that they might ot otherwise have. It shows that they studied in the workshop, that it is aligned with CECIPROC, it is signed by the two teachers, one with an obviously foreign name, and it looks very official. The graduation was beautiful. Everyone will also have photos holding the certificates with the two teachers. Some had very strong emotional reactions. Life is difficult where they live and this is a way they can help their communities.
Rico did individual video interviews with everyone. He asked how/why they came to the workshop, what did they think of the workshop, what is their life in the pueblo - what do they do, how are they going to use what they learned in their communities? This will be part of the videos that he will make for this project - short and long. The director of Ceciproc's parent organization in Mexico City had doubts about this program, the video will be great for showing him what happened. This video will be made in English and Spanish and will hopefully help Ceciproc as well with their fundraising. Laurancio's dream right now is to build a teaching center on the coast where many of the promotores live. He wants to have a building, dorms, kitchens, everything that they will need. As it is now, they have a palapa where they teach sometimes and then people go home to their families and are often very distracted. He needs about $75,000 to build everything, they already have the land. He dreams of it being a place where many workshops can be offered. It is what I believe in and why I did this workshop - Teaching has the biggest impact, the numbers of people who benefit are exponential and they are not reliant on outsiders to help.
The agreement that we made is that for one year I will continue to provide supplies for them to practice and then we will re-evaluate. I think that there will be different levels of practice, some will have ongoing busy clinics. Others may integrate it into what they already do. There might be some who are excited now but will put the needles on the shelf and occasionally think about it. Everyone has 1000 needles plus pressure seeds that they took home. They will keep a record of their treatments and when they use up their supplies they will give the record to Laurencio who will give them more needles. I will keep him supplied with the needles.
Follow-up support is crucial in this project! It was the one thing that the parent organization wanted to be sure happened. In a couple of weeks Rico and I will travel to the different pueblos. I will observe their practice and give them whatever support that they need. I'll also have needles with me to replenish their supplies. Only a couple of them have internet access to ask me questions about issues that come up once they're practicing. Again, Laurencio will be the middle-man for that when I return to the states, they can call him (those who have phones) and he will email me.
The next 10 days to two weeks for me is about immersing in Spanish. I will stay in the city, go to school and study. We will meet soon with Laurencio and plan how we can get around to the different pueblos. We might rent a car or find someone who has a car and can drive so we can go to a couple of pueblos at a time and be efficient about it. The pueblos in the Sierra Norte are in mountainous areas and long distances from each other. I would like to get to everyone if possible. Then will be the trip to the coast. It is much easier to get around there, we can get to the coast in a collectivo van and take buses anywhere we want to go.
I'll write later about the ideas about the longer term support for them.
Monday flew by with the final clinics. We didn't have the numbers of people show up for the clinics as we had hoped for but it was enough that everyone got to practice on a few people. We really encouraged them to begin to practice immediately as soon as the return home to keep it fresh. They were so enthusiastic during these practice sessions. They showed confidence and that was the goal of the workshop - that they would be confident with the 5-needle auricular acupuncture technique.
We held graduation after lunch before the younger women left. We had certificates for everyone. That is a big deal for them. They shared that this will give them credibility that they might ot otherwise have. It shows that they studied in the workshop, that it is aligned with CECIPROC, it is signed by the two teachers, one with an obviously foreign name, and it looks very official. The graduation was beautiful. Everyone will also have photos holding the certificates with the two teachers. Some had very strong emotional reactions. Life is difficult where they live and this is a way they can help their communities.
Rico did individual video interviews with everyone. He asked how/why they came to the workshop, what did they think of the workshop, what is their life in the pueblo - what do they do, how are they going to use what they learned in their communities? This will be part of the videos that he will make for this project - short and long. The director of Ceciproc's parent organization in Mexico City had doubts about this program, the video will be great for showing him what happened. This video will be made in English and Spanish and will hopefully help Ceciproc as well with their fundraising. Laurancio's dream right now is to build a teaching center on the coast where many of the promotores live. He wants to have a building, dorms, kitchens, everything that they will need. As it is now, they have a palapa where they teach sometimes and then people go home to their families and are often very distracted. He needs about $75,000 to build everything, they already have the land. He dreams of it being a place where many workshops can be offered. It is what I believe in and why I did this workshop - Teaching has the biggest impact, the numbers of people who benefit are exponential and they are not reliant on outsiders to help.
The agreement that we made is that for one year I will continue to provide supplies for them to practice and then we will re-evaluate. I think that there will be different levels of practice, some will have ongoing busy clinics. Others may integrate it into what they already do. There might be some who are excited now but will put the needles on the shelf and occasionally think about it. Everyone has 1000 needles plus pressure seeds that they took home. They will keep a record of their treatments and when they use up their supplies they will give the record to Laurencio who will give them more needles. I will keep him supplied with the needles.
Follow-up support is crucial in this project! It was the one thing that the parent organization wanted to be sure happened. In a couple of weeks Rico and I will travel to the different pueblos. I will observe their practice and give them whatever support that they need. I'll also have needles with me to replenish their supplies. Only a couple of them have internet access to ask me questions about issues that come up once they're practicing. Again, Laurencio will be the middle-man for that when I return to the states, they can call him (those who have phones) and he will email me.
The next 10 days to two weeks for me is about immersing in Spanish. I will stay in the city, go to school and study. We will meet soon with Laurencio and plan how we can get around to the different pueblos. We might rent a car or find someone who has a car and can drive so we can go to a couple of pueblos at a time and be efficient about it. The pueblos in the Sierra Norte are in mountainous areas and long distances from each other. I would like to get to everyone if possible. Then will be the trip to the coast. It is much easier to get around there, we can get to the coast in a collectivo van and take buses anywhere we want to go.
I'll write later about the ideas about the longer term support for them.
Clinic final day
The clinic was supposed to go from about 12 - 1 but naturally more people showed up after 1:30. The students are eager to practice and gaining more confidence each time. At this point Im able to just hang out and be available, they arent needing me or Julia.
This morning we practiced on each other again to refine locations and technique. I am very, very sensitive and I allowed two students to needle me. They both did a great job. Two other students, the young women ages 16 & 17 asked about leaving early to catch a 5:00 bus to a sister's pueblo 1 1/2 hours from here, then stay the night, then take another bus for hours the next day. They also asked about staying in the hostel another night. I was concerned about one of them needing a lot more practice. She was timid in her needling technnique and I didn't have confidence in her locations. So we told them that they could stay at the office of Ceciproc where there is a bed and a couch and they could leave the next day. It wasn't the answer that they seemed to want but they agreed to it. This morning, they stepped up. The more timid one needled me and I felt good with her. I could feel that she had the right locations and Julia checked everything. In the clinic they did great so we said that they could leave early.
We ordered sandwiches, a bottle of water and piece of fruit for everyone traveling plus I gave everyone some money for the road. Some will travel for more than 8 hours to get home.
(It's now Wednesday...I thought that I could get back to this sooner but it will wait until later today. I've already been asked about updates so this is the beginning of it. Thank you for reading and being here with me!)
This morning we practiced on each other again to refine locations and technique. I am very, very sensitive and I allowed two students to needle me. They both did a great job. Two other students, the young women ages 16 & 17 asked about leaving early to catch a 5:00 bus to a sister's pueblo 1 1/2 hours from here, then stay the night, then take another bus for hours the next day. They also asked about staying in the hostel another night. I was concerned about one of them needing a lot more practice. She was timid in her needling technnique and I didn't have confidence in her locations. So we told them that they could stay at the office of Ceciproc where there is a bed and a couch and they could leave the next day. It wasn't the answer that they seemed to want but they agreed to it. This morning, they stepped up. The more timid one needled me and I felt good with her. I could feel that she had the right locations and Julia checked everything. In the clinic they did great so we said that they could leave early.
We ordered sandwiches, a bottle of water and piece of fruit for everyone traveling plus I gave everyone some money for the road. Some will travel for more than 8 hours to get home.
(It's now Wednesday...I thought that I could get back to this sooner but it will wait until later today. I've already been asked about updates so this is the beginning of it. Thank you for reading and being here with me!)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Workshop - day 3. Clinic
Two days of learning and today they jumped into community clinics.
We started the day early to have time to go over details before the clinic. Julia and I arrived a few minutes late and the group was scrubbing the Ceciproc offic/workshop space/clinic. I felt so much respect of the process that they would do that. Laurencio began the day a prayer of intention and gratitude.
We had about 30 people come to the practice clinic including some children. Everyone got to practice on a few people and everyone learned a lot. There were two sessions, they were mostly nervous during the first one. Most of the participants gained confidence and felt much better during the second practice session. It was beautiful to see them work. I was supervising two rooms with three "patients" in each room, the practitioners were working in pairs. Many of the patients said that they would like to come back again to the Monday practice. Vamos a ver - we'll see. I think that tomorrow will be at another, higher level.
Twonpeople had to leave today, one directly after lunch, the other at the end of the day. We gave them their certificates. The first person broke into tears receiving it. I cried too.
We started the day early to have time to go over details before the clinic. Julia and I arrived a few minutes late and the group was scrubbing the Ceciproc offic/workshop space/clinic. I felt so much respect of the process that they would do that. Laurencio began the day a prayer of intention and gratitude.
We had about 30 people come to the practice clinic including some children. Everyone got to practice on a few people and everyone learned a lot. There were two sessions, they were mostly nervous during the first one. Most of the participants gained confidence and felt much better during the second practice session. It was beautiful to see them work. I was supervising two rooms with three "patients" in each room, the practitioners were working in pairs. Many of the patients said that they would like to come back again to the Monday practice. Vamos a ver - we'll see. I think that tomorrow will be at another, higher level.
Twonpeople had to leave today, one directly after lunch, the other at the end of the day. We gave them their certificates. The first person broke into tears receiving it. I cried too.
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