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The Details

These are the sordid details which we know for certain: On October 1st, 2006, Marty will board a flight bound for Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, via San Francisco, Taipei, and Bangkok (where hopefully he will encounter only one peaceful military coup). Upon arrival, he will spend five days in the Kathmandu Valley receiving a crash course in Nepali linguistics, no doubt relying heavily on his pocket Nepali phrase-book to look only marginally asinine and all Western and stuff. Marty will then be shuttled off to a village called Kaskikot, situated near Pokhara (Nepal's third largest city, located near the Annapurna mountain range). Marty will spend six weeks in a rural health clinic there, curing tuberculosis and leprosy with a snap of his fingers (much to the chagrin of the pharmaceutical industry). This part of the trip will also involve a home-stay with a local family, which will be a good opportunity for Marty to debunk myths of Western grandeur. The final six weeks of the trip will see Marty return to the jewel of the Kathmandu Valley (that being Kathmandu itself), to spend time volunteering in an urban health clinic (for monkeys and elephants). Along the way, Marty will be recording his experience in various formats to share with the good people of the world upon his arrival home.

These are the sordid details which we do NOT know for certain: it remains to be seen how Marty will pull off returning to Portland only two days before the Winter quarter begins. Add to that the fact that he will have nowhere to live, and you really have to question his logic. That being said, Marty does own a tent, a bicycle, and a bicycle trailer, and given the number of wonderful parks in the greater Portland area, it is feasible that Marty could pull off never paying rent again. What also remains to be seen is how often Marty will be able to update this wicked-awesome website, given his year-long track record of anemic blog posting and the remoteness of his future locale; however, all signs point towards a recent increase in creativity levels, and he's been told that inter-web joints are a dime a dozen in Kathmandu, so Marty's got that going for him at least...which is nice.

Finally, Marty's attempts to procure a therapeutic LASER (i.e. "cold" LASER) from various corporate interests prior to his departure have been met with utter silence. Marty's idea was to solicit donations of a LASER (or two) from said companies which could be used in the clinics he will be volunteering in. Following his departure, the LASER(s) would remain with the local staff, thereby conferring years of soft tissue miracle-healing benefit for the folks in the health outpost catchment area. Marty's bummed that nothing came through prior to his departure, but he keeps an optimistic attitude that his appetite for LASER will eventually be sated.

From here on in, Marty will stop referring to himself in the third person (but not until he figures out who the "second" person really is!).

Thank-You Donors!

In a little over one week's time, I will put my life on hold for three months to pursue first-hand studies in global health, human rights, and the state of third world development. The isolated hillstations, the bare-bones health outposts, and the congested urban alleyways of Nepal will be my classroom - my frame of reference for gaining a greater understanding of the root causes of global poverty.

My reasons for pursuing this education are manifold: 1) to begin piecing together the factors which marginalize, alienate, and repress certain individuals in this world while others remain free from the shackles of poverty; 2) to investigate the intimate relationship between issues of public health and human rights while furthering my own medical education through interaction with those suffering significant illness (of the kind rarely seen in North American health clinics); 3) to investigate the role and importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the social fabric of developing nations; 4) to chronicle my thoughts, emotions, and research findings in a mixed-media format which will incorporate film, photography, literature, and free-hand artwork into a documentary-style project (in the hopes of instilling a sense of urgency in the target audience); 5) to engage a unique and friendly people in order to nurture a passion for cultural exchange and diplomacy.

This website was created with the intention of sharing my experiences abroad with friends, family, and strangers alike. While I cannot guarantee updates with clockwork regularity, I will do my best to bring my experience to you as it unfolds.

I look forward to your companionship and support over the next three months. Please feel free to leave comments as you see fit.

This Site

In a little over one week's time, I will put my life on hold for three months to pursue first-hand studies in global health, human rights, and the state of third world development. The isolated hillstations, the bare-bones health outposts, and the congested urban alleyways of Nepal will be my classroom - my frame of reference for gaining a greater understanding of the root causes of global poverty.

My reasons for pursuing this education are manifold: 1) to begin piecing together the factors which marginalize, alienate, and repress certain individuals in this world while others remain free from the shackles of poverty; 2) to investigate the intimate relationship between issues of public health and human rights while furthering my own medical education through interaction with those suffering significant illness (of the kind rarely seen in North American health clinics); 3) to investigate the role and importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the social fabric of developing nations; 4) to chronicle my thoughts, emotions, and research findings in a mixed-media format which will incorporate film, photography, literature, and free-hand artwork into a documentary-style project (in the hopes of instilling a sense of urgency in the target audience); 5) to engage a unique and friendly people in order to nurture a passion for cultural exchange and diplomacy.

This website was created with the intention of sharing my experiences abroad with friends, family, and strangers alike. While I cannot guarantee updates with clockwork regularity, I will do my best to bring my experience to you as it unfolds.

I look forward to your companionship and support over the next three months. Please feel free to leave comments as you see fit.

Looking Down The Road

Perhaps the single most significant barrier to achieving mass individual wellness in our society is the prohibitive cost patient’s face in the pursuit of healthcare. Despite this being an age of free information exchange, we have backed a large number of our population into a corner through the unreasonable cost of doing business. And let’s not deny the fact that, sadly, “doing business” is the popular and desired goal of what we, as primary healthcare providers (specifically chiropractors), are trying to achieve in our practices. In my mind, wellness and remuneration do not mesh. The patient should not be forced to sacrifice the well-being of their family to experience a return to optimal health. Despite the economic realities of maintaining a modern practice (of which I am well aware), I have always felt that the moment we accept monetary compensation for our services, we nullify much of the altruistic potency of our treatment, and in so doing, lose a small part of ourselves. Of course, if one chooses to live and establish a practice here in North America, trying to survive with this altruistic mindset would be next to impossible. There will have to be compromises and trade-offs if that situation comes to pass.

While I feel that the institutional approach to healthcare is a somewhat efficient means of catering to current mass public illness (and given the nature of our economy and our ability to live well beyond our means), I can’t help but think that this model is a fleeting one destined to be replaced by a much smaller scale, and more intimate, version of the modern manifestation of the healthcare “institution”. I believe that the public is already searching for something different – something which addresses their needs as unique and important individuals living in a complex web of allegiance to quasi-community and/or state. With the inevitable decline of the global economy, based on the dwindling of easily extractable fossil fuels, the healthcare institution as we know it (an institution which relies heavily on technology and the pharmaceutical industry) may disappear entirely in the years to come. I feel that, we, as manual medicine practitioners (who are not entirely dependent on the whims of the global economic system), will be in an advantageous position to deliver effective care in a much smaller economic framework. I also feel that we should celebrate our role as community-based caregivers, focusing on higher quality treatment for the people that we do treat. Our practices may shrink in overall size, but the ties we build in the community will grow to become vastly more important as we learn to depend on each other for support once again.

Smells Like India

It smelled like India today, as a strong easterly wind brought the scent of burning forest into northeast Portland. Sitting on a bench on campus, baking under the glaring afternoon sun, the sight of charred, crunchy grass and the omnipresent smell of something burning immediately transported me back to the flat, singed landscape of the Maharastran countryside. The presence of a large pile of bovine feces would have sealed the deal.

In other news: I like people. I like people a lot. Most of the time, I even enjoy their company. Admittedly though, I am an introvert's introvert. Being around people is very draining for me (and frequently agonizing). It has become only marginally easier over the past couple of years to cope with social interaction. I don't want to portray myself as some sort of social misfit, because I highly value social interaction and quality time spent with good people, but I recover my energy only by being by myself. Every day I must recover from losing a small part of my individuality to forced social interaction. Instead of feeling that social interaction adds complexity to my character, I actually feel as though, in the majority of cases, it strips complexity from my character. I can't tell you the number of unnecessary conversations I am forced to be witness to on a daily basis - conversations and words put forth (often on cell phones) which should never be brought into this world, let alone subjecting somebody else to their caustic intent. At times like these, I am reminded of a quote which is apropos: "great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people". How true.

It took me a long time to feel secure in being an introspective individual. The prevailing cultural norms lead us to believe that we are somehow inferior if we don't choose to run off our mouths in public or be the social butterfly in our circle of friends. For an introvert, trying to fit this mold is an impossibility and can be a psychologically crippling and deflating experience. If I am given the choice between hanging out with a group of people or spending the evening by myself, nine out of ten times my first instinct is to spend that evening by myself. That seems to be how this creature is wired.