Photo by Garret Fabian: www.acupuncturereliefproject.com
The latest news from the arrival of the acupuncturists in Nepal is online! The Acupuncture Relief Project has set up in Kathmandu and have officially started this incredible project. Go to their website to see other blog postings and subscribe to their blog. You can even donate to these wonderful OCOM grads who are making a difference in Nepal.
(From www.acupuncturereliefproject.com):
"We are adjusting well at the Gompa. The building is quite nice and even has marble flooring throughout. They builders just added a rather large reception desk that really puts a nice touch to the main room on the first floor of the clinic. We live in the second floor of the building and on the rooftop there are two spacious decks to see the surrounding view from. Next to our building is the monastery proper which is often filled with the groans of instruments. There is one smaller building adjacent to the monastery which is where classes are held and where we also eat all of our meals with the monks, or ‘mini monks’ as we affectionately refer to them as. During meals we can always look up to find many sets of eyes gazing at us.
Tomorrow we will be heading out into the community to meet with some other people to answer questions they may have and to raise awareness of our clinic. We will also spend half of the day working with the three nuns who will be our interpreters. We gave the nuns treatments so that they might have an idea as to what acupuncture is like much to the chagrin of one originally very hesitant nun. Tuesday our clinic will officially open and we’re hopeful we will see some brave patients grace our doorstep.
The commute between Kathmandu and Chapagaon is quite a wild affair. It might be 10-12 miles in total but it can take 60-90mins. travel time. There are very narrow roads that have seemingly no driving laws whatsoever. We will be coming up to Kathmandu on weekends to enjoy hot showers and restaurants and we are very excited to have food choices upon returning to the city! We’re gearing up to head back to Chapagaon now, stay tuned for more."