Returning to noisy, dusty, pollution central - Xining - was not the ideal way to emerge from my retreat. On the other hand, no shower for 8 days, someone to speak English to and be understood, seeing Dr Nida, starting our course at the Tibetan Hospital; these were all good reasons to love Xining after all.
So I already told you about ending up in the back of a police car on the first day back, thank you to Dr Nida's cousin for driving us in his "company car". Really, the glorious chaos continued from there on in.
I am always so impressed by this hospital. It grows and gets busier, the doctors seem to be more and more dedicated each time I visit. It is always a huge job to organise this event and this year with such a big group of students, even more so.
I can't tell you exactly how many we are because we have a floating population of Russian students. No-one knew how many to expect and they seem to come and go over the weeks that follow, interesting. We do however have lots and lots of Italians. 31 in total I think and they are a tour group all on their own. For translating, moving around and being shown stuff and just management in general we are all constantly being put into groups. First we have 3 main groups - Italian, Russian and English speaking. The English speaking is the smallest group (and the funnest). We have 5 French, 1 Swiss, 2 Germans, 2 Americans, 2 Aussies (yay Team Australia) and 1, sometimes 2, Vietnamese-living-in-Germany.
But just because there are so many of us, sometimes we have sub-groups. And then there are meal times where the groups are re-defined into vegetarian and non-vegetarian. And then those who can't cope with the idea of eating family style from shared dishes and want to just have their own plate of food. If you spend too much time thinking about this, you would go mad. So I stick with the english speakers and just eat whatever is put in front of me!
We have our official welcome from the hospital directors, as I have heard this speech twice before it is very hard to look focused and engaged when Dr Nida is laughing and pulling faces at me. No decorum. Naturally they are proud of their facility and the work they are doing, it is fantastic.
Then our program commences. We have lectures by doctors from the various departments in the hospital: bloodletting, urine analysis, pulse reading, bath therapy. We visit the out-patients, see the external therapies, see the bath centre, the medicine areas - storage of materials and production, the hospital museum and research centre and go on rounds with a lovely doctor (going to marry him when I grow up) through the in-patient facility. We all have very impressive white coats, and because they were all the same size - extra large - mine brushes my ankles in a very fetching way.
It's very intense, and because our hotel is not near shops, restaurants or internet places, at the end of the day we re-group into who-wants-to-do-what with the guides and we rush out into the evening with another intense program - of shopping and eating.
Under the leadership of Dr Padma (going to marry him when I grow up),the external therapies department seems to have gone ahead by leaps and bounds. It is so busy, all the time. There is also a marked change in talking about the spiritual aspects of Tibetan Medicine. As one doctor tells us so wonderfully, "when I am working on a patient, my head is boiling with mantras". The doctor who takes us on rounds also talks about spiritual aspects of treatment, and always keeps a hand on each patient as we stand around their bed, so they don't feel like an object we are all staring at. He is very very lovely. Oh, I already said that ;)
One of the important aspects of what Dr Nida does, the re-invigoration and restoration of various treatments in Tibetan medicine, is shown when he gives a talk on the Yuk Cho stick therapy and 80 doctors come to listen to him!
There is a large Chinese temple across from the hotel and every night and early morning I hear the big deep gongs, it's good to think that amongst all this busyness someone is finding time to pray.
The week at the hospital, although crazed and hectic, is great as always; and I am grateful to those who have put so much time and effort into creating this opportunity for us.
I am also counting the minutes until we get into our bus and head up to Mahlo and the grasslands!
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