Hello Everyone!
So, I just sat down to up-date the blog when I was swept up into the fastest birth I have every seen! When i sat down, the woman who was in labor was not very far along, but then one of the midwives came in and told me she was already ready to push. I rushed into the room and a baby girl was born within three minutes! Three minutes! WOW! I have seen some pretty fast deliveries but this is definitely the fastest by far! The clinic has been slow lately, but everyone is bracing themselves for the flood because there are 75 babies due in March. We are halfway through the month and the clinic has been pretty quiet, so its looking like a ton of babies are going to come at once!
Its been amazing to be back in the birth energy. Its so powerful. Every time I enter the birth room I learn something new, and every time I leave I feel elated and exuberant. Once you enter that room there is no telling what could happen or how long it will be until you come out again. In addition to births, the clinic has been thriving with activity. One morning I walked over to check in before breakfast and found myself involved in a minor surgery for the next few hours. A young girl was there with a cyst on her arm the size of a ping pong ball. Robin (the founder of Bumi Sehat) and Sara, a visiting midwife from the States, were bustling around excitedly preparing to remove the cyst. Only in a place like this do you find people who thoroughly enjoy cutting tumors out of peoples arms and then stitching them back up again. I watched wide-eyed as Sara made an incision on top of the cyst and then carefully removed the mass. It looked like a sack full of gray cottage cheese. Surprisingly I made it through the surgery with out getting queasy, (I'm not sure how I managed this feat) but I was very glad that I had not eaten breakfast before hand.
But not every wild experience at Bumi Sehat is bloody and gory. A few nights later, I was sitting in the acupuncture room taking blood pressures for prenatals when I notice that everyone is gathering in the parking lot in front of the clinic. I follow along and watch as a smiling, bald, Indian man leads everyone in these ridiculous activities. I notice that all of the exercises have to do with laughing. Soon everyone in the parking lot is laughing. Robin spots me and tells me this is laughter yoga. Its happening up the street right now and I have to go. No don't worry about the blood pressures, someone else will take care of those, but I must go to this. Bewildered, I walk to the yoga center up the road and join at least 100 hysterically laughing Balinese. The Balinese people there are ranging from energetic little kids to stooped over, withered grandmas. And everyone is practically rolling on the floor with laughter. I join the crowd and watch as the Indian man, who largely resembles Uncle Fester from the Adam's Family, leads everyone in more of the laughter exercises. I felt like I stepped into the twilight zone, it was so bazaar. The sound of the laughter was deafening. I could not help but start laughing myself.
Eventually, someone put music on and everyone started dancing. I mean everyone. No one in the room was standing on the sides looking awkward, every person was jumping and moving to the music. After a few songs, the Indian man had us all sit down for what he called "free laughter." Its where you merely sit and laugh. That's all there is too it. After about 5 minutes of this, he has us close our eyes and take deep breaths, but even he cannot stay serious and starts to giggle and laugh again. I later learned that this man is the one who invented laughing yoga and the Laughter Club. It started in India with only one Laughter club gathering everyday to laugh with each other and now there are over 6,000 different laughing clubs all over India. People claim it has cured them of all sorts of pain and ailments. In India when a doctor has a patient who it suffering from depression he calls up this man to find out where the nearest laughter club is. I have never been a part of something so strange and amazing in my life. If any of you ever gets the chance to take part in laughter yoga, seize the opportunity. Its not something to miss. And it makes you feel incredibly good afterwards.
I just never know what the day will bring when I wake up in the morning.
Love Misra
3.19.2008
Title: _____________....in Bali (we have no clue)
Hello Hello!
So, it's been a while. A lot has happened. Where to begin? In the beginning? Let's try it.
On Valentine's Day, we arrived in Bali after a gruelling 16-turned-21 hour long bus ride from Yogya. Sweaty, tired and stinky we were immediately swept-up into the chaotic clinic life of the Yayasan Bumi Sehat birth clinic. It was very nice to be back in familiar territory since we'd been to Ubud several times before coming to land this last time.
When we arrived, the clinic was bursting with other volunteers and yet there was still plenty to do. There were lots of babies being born and people needing treatment for various ailments. In one 24-hour stretch, we welcomed a total of 7 new babies into the world--wow. We've been helping out as best we can by taking blood pressures at pre-natals, assisting in births, leading organizational projects and lending a hand at the accupuncture clinics lead by one crazy lady, Dr. Bobbi. This woman deserves her own T.V. show or maybe her own chapter in one of David Sedaris' books. She gives and gives, treats and treats, talks and talks and talks--boy, she is a trip to be around. After spending some odd 4 years in Bali, her Indonesian is...shall we say...lacking? But that does not stop her from telling every Indonesian patient to lay off the "goreng goreng" (fried fried [food]) and eat lots of "sayur hijao" (green veggies) or from scolding men for smoking when they come in for fertility treatments; "I make the sperm and you just go home and kill them again! You must quit smoking or no more treatment!" They all smile and nod (so smart). Anyways....moving on.
One day, Misra's bagging prenatal vitamins (a neverending project), Cailin's in a birth and who should casually plop himself down on the couch, but one Michael Franti. That's right. Turns out he's good friends with Robin Lim, the founder of Bumi Sehat, and he's putting on a small benefit concert with all proceeds going to the Bumi Sehat clinic---and we're invited. We had a private performance of around 80 people and dinner at a gorgeous venue on the beach of Seminyak, Bali and a larger concert to follow. Michael put on a great show--he is a very charismatic, loving, generous man(not to mention an incredible and inspiring musician). In fact, we're having trouble describing him--finding the right words to encompass his....well, just him. The night generated over 25,000 US dollars for Yayasan Bumi Sehat--funds that are badly needed to build a new facility big enough to hold this thriving and growing foundation. Terimakasih banyak, Michael! Thank you very much.
Oops, time's running out and it's really really hot in this internet cafe. Not to worry, we'll be sure to finish catching y'all up to speed SOON. Sip on this and you can gulp up a few more entries in the very near future.
Lots of love,
Misra and Cailin
So, it's been a while. A lot has happened. Where to begin? In the beginning? Let's try it.
On Valentine's Day, we arrived in Bali after a gruelling 16-turned-21 hour long bus ride from Yogya. Sweaty, tired and stinky we were immediately swept-up into the chaotic clinic life of the Yayasan Bumi Sehat birth clinic. It was very nice to be back in familiar territory since we'd been to Ubud several times before coming to land this last time.
When we arrived, the clinic was bursting with other volunteers and yet there was still plenty to do. There were lots of babies being born and people needing treatment for various ailments. In one 24-hour stretch, we welcomed a total of 7 new babies into the world--wow. We've been helping out as best we can by taking blood pressures at pre-natals, assisting in births, leading organizational projects and lending a hand at the accupuncture clinics lead by one crazy lady, Dr. Bobbi. This woman deserves her own T.V. show or maybe her own chapter in one of David Sedaris' books. She gives and gives, treats and treats, talks and talks and talks--boy, she is a trip to be around. After spending some odd 4 years in Bali, her Indonesian is...shall we say...lacking? But that does not stop her from telling every Indonesian patient to lay off the "goreng goreng" (fried fried [food]) and eat lots of "sayur hijao" (green veggies) or from scolding men for smoking when they come in for fertility treatments; "I make the sperm and you just go home and kill them again! You must quit smoking or no more treatment!" They all smile and nod (so smart). Anyways....moving on.
One day, Misra's bagging prenatal vitamins (a neverending project), Cailin's in a birth and who should casually plop himself down on the couch, but one Michael Franti. That's right. Turns out he's good friends with Robin Lim, the founder of Bumi Sehat, and he's putting on a small benefit concert with all proceeds going to the Bumi Sehat clinic---and we're invited. We had a private performance of around 80 people and dinner at a gorgeous venue on the beach of Seminyak, Bali and a larger concert to follow. Michael put on a great show--he is a very charismatic, loving, generous man(not to mention an incredible and inspiring musician). In fact, we're having trouble describing him--finding the right words to encompass his....well, just him. The night generated over 25,000 US dollars for Yayasan Bumi Sehat--funds that are badly needed to build a new facility big enough to hold this thriving and growing foundation. Terimakasih banyak, Michael! Thank you very much.
Oops, time's running out and it's really really hot in this internet cafe. Not to worry, we'll be sure to finish catching y'all up to speed SOON. Sip on this and you can gulp up a few more entries in the very near future.
Lots of love,
Misra and Cailin
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