My semester-long project for Educación Ambiental is to design and construct a purificador de agua - a water purifying system - to be used as a class project in local high schools. First, though, we had to make sure that our design actually worked before we implement it in a high school. Camila, a friend from class and in my group, invited me over to her house in Valle del Elqui (about 30 minutes away) last Saturday to work on the project.
More of the incredible Chilean kindness: Cami invited me to go to Pisco Elqui (a part of Valle del Elqui further away) with her and her friends before I leave Chile, her parents invited me to stay at the house anytime (and offered to invite Cami's friends over to have a bonfire) and to go horseback riding in a more remote location in the Valle.
Cami's mom, Brunilda, studied and practices Chinese medicine and acupuncture. She saw that I had dilated pupils (a constant issue. people usually think I'm high) and bad complexion and immediately diagnosed me with an overactive liver. Clearly. Then, she offered to give me acupuncture. I have a lot of trouble saying "no," so I didn't mention the fact that I'm scared of agujas (needles)... and thus the idea of acupuncture really freaks me out. I also assumed that it was an offer for another time, and hoped maybe she'd forget about it. So, I said that would be fine with me.
After a delicious lunch, Cami and I worked on building our water purifier, which to our relief worked pretty well. To my surprise, Cami's mom then brought me to her office for an acupuncture session. I stuck my tongue out for inspection and took my pulse on both wrists at various finger pressures. We went over my medical history, and then the actual process began. She cleaned the spots where she would put the needles, then put them in.
She probably discovered my fear of needles when I cringed each time she inserted a needle into my skin. The first four, which were in my feet, did hurt a bit. Only two of the other hurt as well, but it was mostly just an irrational reaction. By the end, there were two needles in my feet, one by each ankle, two in each knee, one in each wrist, and three on my head (!!!). Throughout this process, she was talking to me, and came to the conclusion that I think too much, which probably gives me stress and the resultant hormonal unbalance negatively affects my liver.
Brunilda put calming music on and turned the lights off and then I was on my own to relax/sleep for 30 minutes or so. By the time she came back in the room, I was incredibly relaxed (though I hadn't slept). Could have been the acupuncture, or it could have been lying down with meditative music...
Brunilda proceeded to slowly remove the needles one by one. I discovered that having a needle being taken out from just above the midpoint between your eyes feels even weirder than putting one in. She then took out a cream that she gently started to apply to my stomach (well, above my liver, really). The cream's base is ceniza (ashes), presumably thousands of years old, from a volcano in Chillán (located in Southern Chile). The volcán is known for its healing properties throughout the alternative medicinal world. It dried as she began applying the same lotion to my face. After a few minutes she removed both with cold water. She felt around where my liver is to see if it had cooled down, and was very satisfied with its lowered temperature.
I switched to lying face down and received a superb neck and back massage for 5 minutes or so. After that, it was over! Brunilda gave me tips on foods and drinks to eat (bananas, for example) and to avoid (distilled alcoholic beverages), as well as some advice about other aspects of my life that might put my liver into hyperdrive - thinking too much and getting too much sunlight are two that I remember.
I am generally pretty skeptical about alternative medicine, which I of course refrained from mentioning. However, I can't deny that I left feeling incredibly refreshed and relaxed. I do also have great faith in the placebo effect, which may have played a part. I think it would take a few sessions of acupuncture at least to have any true effect, so I'm withholding final judgement until some later point in my life.
Based on this one session, though, I would recommend it!
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