Soul Searching

Well, I’m back. A good friend of mine sat me down before I left and gave me a serious talking to. It came as a bit of a surprise for me, but as I traveled the essence of the talk slowly began to reverberate through me. It really hit me about midway into the trip. A slow feeling of desperation was beginning to overcome me. I was treating people wherever I went, and I was always left with the feeling of leaving unfinished business behind. I was feeling a frantic need to help. How could I leave when there were so many people who still needed help? I was planning my post-trip vacations and how I would use them to go back to such and such a place. After the fourth place was added to my list I realized that I was going to run into a problem, there’s not enough time for me to go everywhere. What could I do?

The conversation that had originally seemed absurd started to grow. My friend had told me that he expected me to do something bigger than myself. To use my influence in the community to create something. At the time I didn’t understand what the implications of those ideas would be but gradually things began to coalesce – to take form.

My experiences in South East Asia helped me reach the realization that Chinese medicine is a perfect match for people suffering in impoverished/medically-underserved areas. It is a “rural” medicine. It needs very few supplies, and it relies mostly on the bodies own healing ability (very low cost). Juxtapose that with Western medicine which is reliant on medications, machines, and operations to achieve its objectives. Let’s take diarrhea for example. What can western medicine due in the absence of antidiarrheal medications? Chinese medicine however, can do a lot, from certain ways to massage the abdomen, to common household substances like salt or eggshells to astringe the bowels.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking Western medicine, just making an honest observation. In a situation where supplies are limited, and access to modern equipment is non-existent, Chinese medicine shines. Just like when I was in Indonesia where the tsunami hit. This group of local traveling doctors would come through once in a while to treat the people. In the beginning they steered as far from me as possible, but every once in a while someone would come in that they couldn’t help and then they’d send them to me. I’d treat them and they’d get better. It only took a few times of that sort of thing to have them start asking me if I could help this person who wasn’t responding, or that person that was having difficulties. They were able to observe, firsthand, the power of Chinese medicine and were grudgingly (at least in the beginning) forced to respect and admire it. By the end of my stay they were all seeking treatment.

Anyway, I digress. The upshot of the whole thing is that I realized that I could do far more good by setting up a network, where other people can come and help as well, than I could ever do alone. That said, my trip suddenly took a turn for the worse. Whereas before I would just waltz into a place and offer my services, now I need to have actual contacts that I could refer people to. All that became much more difficult as I moved into more developed countries. The bottom line being, more developed equals more bureaucracy. It really hit in South Africa. I arrived and was seeking an opportunity to help, but was stonewalled every way I turned. The need there is enormous. From shelters for battered women, the orphanages were children who have AIDS are left by their families. They all need help. Getting to them, giving them the help they need turns out to be an industry in and of itself. Not as one would expect, a nonprofit industry, but the opposite, a for-profit industry. How crazy is that? You have people arriving with amazing skill sets that are asked to do menial office work, and pay for it. Absolutely ludicrous. My first impulse was to begin traveling north. There, in Kenya, Sudan, where they need is greater, the opportunities for direct aid are numerous. Then I realized, if I really am interested in trying to create something bigger, sooner or later I was going to need to deal with this bureaucratic nightmare. I could choose to only go where the path was easiest, or I could go where they need is greatest. How could I turn away from these people who have such need just because it was a hassle for me? So I decided to stay and try and work my way through the bureaucratic haze. Halfway through that (which was weeks long), I decided that I could do a far better job from home than I could on the road. I already had so many contacts that just to consolidate and organize them would be a handful of work. So home I came, and here I am. Trying to work my way through this pile of rubble, and hoping there some gold in this sand. Wish me luck.