I awoke a few minutes ago in the usual way--much too early, before everyone else, the sun rising....and to the sound of some critter landing on the metal, corrugated roof that serves as a ceiling in our upstairs abode at Dona Olga's. It lands with a thud that quickly becomes the sound of smallish sharp nails scrambling to gain purchase on the slick, graded sheet above, unsuccessfully, I think, for the sound rarely lasts more than a minute before the frantic pawing ceases abruptly. My best guess is that the animal is a squirrel, though in my early morning mind it more often becomes a baby pterydactyl, wounded, having fallen from its circles above el Tacana, the nearby volcano.
Today I tried to go back to sleep, but was unable to as I remain haunted by yesterday's events.
That day also started out in the usual way: baby pterydactyl on the roof; Spanish homework in the morning; breakfast (some amazing meat dumplings Myra made from leftovers we had brought back from Union Juarez); the truck ride with Miguel to el Albergue; acupuncture on a few people there until I ran out of needles... But there's where the ritual ends. At about noon (actually, at about 12:30, which passes for noon here if someone tells you they will arrive at noon but doesn't until half an hour later) the local acupuncturist arrived at the shelter. Her arrival was the culmination of several days of saga which I will not go into now, but essentially involved some serious detective work in a another language, a trip to a mountain pueblo to find an aging acupuncturist who had died, and then a few phone calls to his children, both of whom had learned the art of acupuncture from him, and both of whom now live about 10 minutes from where I am staying in Tapachula.
Her name is Mariana Torsi, and here she is with her baby of 4 months and her companion whose name I missed:
Mariana is one of the children of Doctor Torsi, who came from France to Tapachula after learning all there is to know about acupuncture there.
Historical aside: actually, "all there is to know" turns out to be a lot. The French were very influential in the history of acupuncture in the West. Many of the great works were first translated from the Chinese by French enthusiasts early in the last century. Among the early French pioneers was a man named Georges Soulie de Morant (1878-1955) who, during a long career in China as a French ambassador, apparently compiled the entire 5,000 year old theory of acupuncture for dissemination back in France. Much of the activity among French intellectuals in the field centered around this borrowed material (see http://www.physio-centre.net/cms/index.php?page=33 for more details). According to Mariana, the late Doctor Torsi actually studied under "Solie de Morat," who I positive must have Soulie de Morant, whose name appears in various permutations when you Google the guy. My own acupuncture teacher, Dr. Joseph Helms, also learned acupuncture in France, though much later, and from Maurice Mussat, who I'll bet a gazillion pesos knew Georges Soulie de Morant.
The bottom line is, this woman knows acupuncture, learned it from her father who in turn learned from one of the French originals, and was now standing beside me in a Mexican shelter for injured migrants holding a baby of 4 months. Julianna was there assisting with translation which turned out to be a good thing, since Mariana was dropping pearls of wisdom like they were over-ripe mangos, with me under the tree with a too-small basket. She had offered to bring me some needles this past weekend when my search for a needle vendor led me all over Chiapas and back again and ended with her and her brother (I promise to tell the whole story somewhere else!), as well as to watch me practice and to share what she could. My fantasy, however, was that she would also decide--once she saw the migrants and the great need for her services--to start volunteering there herself. This vision is of course rooted in my own great need to provide something lasting here at Albergue, something that extends far beyond my own skills and availability and that is rooted where it should be rooted, in a sustainable way, in this community. The utility of acupuncture here--the great physical and emotional suffering, along with the very accessible energetic templates of the persons here--have me convinced that this is what is needed.
Julianna later remarked on how strange it was to be unable to translate some words which I seemed to recognize immediately: "vejiga-sesenta," or Bladder-60; "el governador-veinte," or Governor Vessel-20; "estomago-trentiseis," or Stomach-36....a few of the big, energy-moving points in the body. It was way-cool.
But how time flies when you are researching the history of acupuncture and translating from the French! I am soon expected across the street, to treat the woman who lives there for smoking cessation with auricular acupuncture. This saga will have To Be Continued. For now, I will leave you with half of the day's punch line, which is that Mariana did not offer her services, as she is recovering currently from a difficult cesarean section and likely needs the Chong Mo addressed with some serious needling. She did, however, spontaneously volunteer the services of her brother, Carlos Torsi, who I plan to call today. I am hoping to compile all of the treatments I have done on the migrants thus far for his use when following up on my patients. In that hesitant way that one gets excited about an arranged time of meeting but knows (hopes? knows? hopes?) it will occur later, I am deliriously excited.
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