Shal OM

Submitted by Yarrow Sprinkling

16 February 1998

Wow it has been intense here. I attended a homebirth here in our neighborhood. The mom was very upset because they had another girl. She said "your baby" to me in Nepali as I tried to hand her the little sweetie. Nita said "Oh, they'll all do that." So I was depressed and frustrated by that. After the initial shock the mother seemed to be happy. Now whenever I walk by she is usually massaging the baby in the sun. The father looked happy to me right after the birth which made me feel a little better. They are all healthy and today the baby girl is 11 days old so I guess it will be the day they give her religious name.

Interesting how so many cultures have traditions like our brit. I am still hoping to volunteer at one of the hospitals a little before I leave but I am running out of time. I went to visit my friend Maya at the hospital where she works, it is called "Om Nursing Home." The day I visited her uncle, who is a Buddhist Lama, was having knee surgery, which I ended up watching. The chief surgeon had me take photos of the operation with his camera. I was very impressed with their sterile technique. They don't use any disposable instruments, gloves or anything. Our hospitals use more resources in one operation than they probably use in a month. They use sterile towels to dry their hands instead of paper towels like we use in the States. All the equipment is wrapped in sterile cloth instead of paper and plastic. The I.V. solutions are in glass bottles and I am pretty sure they recycle those. I was also amazed at the small pile of garbage when the surgery was over. I wonder if there have been studies done on the difference of sterility of single-use medical equipment and re-sterilized equipment. I used some single-use gloves of mine at the homebirth. Nita and Maya wanted to wash them. I was embarrassed as they fell apart.

I helped Nita write a paper on a case study of Naturopathy helping a Cancer patient. She is delivering the paper at the International Conference on Psycho-Social Oncology in Bombay this week. That was very interesting. We are working on the proposal for American Jewish World Service for a free Homeopathic clinic. We have come up with some good ideas that we have to research a little more. We have put an ad in the paper for one more run of massages classes. I am going to work on organizing the library in the center this week. Kind of a tedious job. I have been enjoying making Homeopathic remedies but we are hoping to order some higher quality ones from the States or Europe. I think I will finish my duties around March 7-10. Then I will travel around Nepal until March 25th. I will fly to Thailand and be there for a few weeks. So I will have an Asian Pesach.

I had my 29th birthday a few days ago. It was mellow and nice. My Nepali friends gave me Nepali gifts. I will have quite a collection of traditional clothing by the time I leave and most of it has been given to me which makes it special.

Here in Kathmandu Spring has definitely sprung. It is getting really warm during the day, almost hot. The nights aren't so cold. This climate is so different from the Mendocino Coast. It has only rained maybe four days in the two and a half months I have been here. I could really relate to it being the new year of the trees on Tu B'Shevat. The change was so sudden. The energy in the air is different. I planted some Yarrow seeds but they are still just tiny sprouts.

Nita said the sweetest thing a few days ago. I wear a small gold star of David that was my mother's when she was young. The six- pointed star is a holy symbol for the Hindus as well. She said "When Miles(my beau) comes maybe he could bring me a star like yours." Now I may be a snob but I have never seen a star as nice as mine before, it is small, simple and beautiful. So I told her that and that I might try to have one made for her here. I guess gold is really cheap here these days. The six-pointed star is a symbol of fortune and wealth for Hindus. It is the sign of the Goddess Laxmi who is the goddess of wealth. I wonder where David and Solomon got that symbol in the first place. Nita was telling me about "Om" which is the first sanscrit letter and the basis of most mantras. We were taking about how all religions have a similar chant. Chants and mantras are often based on just letters. Again I am reminded how religions are all from the same essence.

Shal OM,

Yarrow Sprinkling

Copyright Yarrow Sprinkling 1998

Last updated 03/30/98 (RGE)