More on the Days – Susan

This morning waking I heard a strange animal noise and had a look down in the street.  There was a cow strolling and mooing quite loudly though the street.  There are two cows that live in the gated community and have free range to wander about.  I encountered the

cows for the first time the other day when returning from the treatment center.  They are renovating a house across the street from the clinic where there is a large pile of sand.  The cows were relaxing on the cool sand!  There are also wild dogs and cats that live in the street; they are often relaxing on the sand pile.

The treatments I received are similar to what Alan described in the previous post.  However, I don’t believe I will get the head basti, as that is helpful to heal his head from surgery and radiation.   I do get a “face mask” every day as part of my treatments and my

skin is amazing.  Also since I have started the thyroid treatment, they give me the face mask and a different herbal mixture on my neck for my thyroid.  While that is all drying, they are running the cool water and buttermilk mixture back and forth across my forehead.  It is lovely!

I shower in the one bathroom at the end of the treatments. The one word that comes to mind everyday as I leave the treatments room is EXTRAORDINARY.  I can’t believe how wonderful the treatments are and how calm and composed I feel as I walk back to the clinic.

Here is a photo of the business center, from two angles.  The building is within the gated community and has several different kinds of shops and services.  This is where Alan had his head shaved and we have gotten our laundry done.  The treatment rooms are on the top floor.  There is an elevator with a guy who runs it, although I prefer to walk the two flights.  On one of my first days, Kim and I were in there with the elevator guy and the electricity went off (which happens often).  The guy was able to pry open the doors and we got out as the elevator door was at floor opening. I have heard the others have been caught in there for over an hour.

The treatments rooms are very simple and do not meet the standards that we have for cleanness in the US.  The men and women are in different areas and are attended by techs of the same sex. The techs are wonderfully kind and gentle in giving the treatments and interacting with us, although most of them do not speak English.

We are each loosely assigned a tech, who does many of treatments and looks out for us.  Each night our techs come to our room to give us an herbed foot massage and put socks on to protect the feet.   This is a photo of Prya, my tech in my room “putting me to bed”.  Prya is absolutely beautiful. She is only 23 years old and is married to a nice guy who is also a tech here. They are Roman Catholic (unusual in India) and moved here from another PK clinic in Kerala, an Indian city on the Indian Ocean.

I have gotten savvier with iTunes and figured how to rent movies and am adding more music at a regular clip.  I am happy iTunes works here; there are several sites like Pandora or Netflix that are not available in India.

We are in our second full week at the clinic and would say we have gotten into the natural rhythm here.