Soul Searching

So the whole reason I came up to Tulamben was not for the diving, or the beach, but to treat these little sick children. So I drove a half an hour up the main road at Tulamben and a guy on a dirt bike met me and guided me into the backwoods of east Bali. We went for another twenty minutes into this hills, beyond any blacktop roads to this collection of newish looking houses. Very barebones but clearly well kept and of fairly recent construction

It turns out that this “project” is an effort by a bunch of people to create a sustainable environment for the extrememly poor population that lives on the side of this mountain. The total population is around 17,000 people, most are illiterate, virtually no healthcare, many malnourished. So these really smart people decided to teach the local population how to do sustainable, organic farming, built homes, brought in teachers and doctors, and are changing the lives of evryone here. It’s truly remarkable. What’s the most amazing is how so few people can help so many.

Anyway, all 4 of the kids that I saw have developmental disorders, from potentially (likely) fatal to mild. I did what I could, made some prescriptions, taught them how to do moxa, gave the parents basic massage techniques to promote the health of the babies, and we’ll see what happens…