Nearly every day. It took me two years to get the photo's I took
up on the walls of my exam rooms. But what I lost in
procrastination has been made up in effect. Parents and kids ask,
constantly, "Who took these pictures?"
"Me," I say proudly.
But they are more than just pretty pictures. I use them
all the time, to help kids through exams, and procedures, as metaphors for
problems they may be facing. In one room, facing the exam table, is a
cute little boy in the vaccine clinic, with his mom, looking at the camera with
a mixture of curiosity, and perhaps, a little trepidation.
I ask my young patients, "What do you think the
little boy is waiting for?"
They often guess "Shots", though there are
a variety of other answers, like waiting to eat, for a movie, and so on.
Then I ask who the young woman is with
him.
They often guess it is his mom.
If the child needs vaccines, I will say how the
vaccine clinic is all there is for kids in Bhutan and many countries of the
world without enough doctors for regular checkups, but how important they
are. They aren't so interested in how the vaccines prevent deadly disease
as how the shots hurt, so I will point out how the boy stayed calm with the
help of his mom. Their mom or parent or grandparent can do the
same.
In another room, there is a picture of an
archery target with arrows sticking out of it, with archers from the opposing
team, in their traditional gho's, waving around the target.
First, we will have a guessing game about what is
happening. I'm not sure why, but many kids think they are looking at
something like a table cloth instead of a target. Maybe because the
targets in Bhutan are so low to the ground and so small - about the size of
dinner plates.
If they can't guess, I'll tell them that those are
arrows. I'll say that the opposing archers are shooting from 450
feet away, the length of one and half football fields! I'll point out the
small size of the targets. If I have time, I'll talk about how archery is
the national sport of Bhutan.
How, in the nineteenth
century, Bhutanese archers rebuffed the only attempted invasion of their
country, by the British, who briefly attempted to extend their empire from
India. The arrows and the Himalayas quickly put an end to that
plan.
I'll say how the Bhutanese used to be this accurate,
somehow, using old fashioned wooden long bows, though they now use American
compound bows. I'll say how these men walk for days, in the mountains
from village to village, from tournament to tournament. There are no
roads.
Finally, I will have the kids guess what the men are
doing.
"Helping the other guys?" they say, or just
"standing around?"
"No, " I say. "They are hurling insults at
the opposing guys and trying to distract them."
I might point out that in the days of the old long bows,
the team guarding the target, would actually try to knock the arrow out of the
air with the loose sleeves of their gho's. They wouldn't try that now with
American crossbows; but still, standing right next to those little targets, you
can imagine what one of the leading causes of injury, and death is in Bhutan!
Kitty cornered across from that picture is another, of an
archer team whooping it up after a round. Song and dance are big parts of
the sport.
These pictures, and stories provide great metaphors:
1. The amazing things we can achieve with enough focus and
practice and discipline (Great for kids with ADD)!
2. A nice message about safety.
3. The importance of celebration, of dance, and
tradition.
In my big consultation room, I have wonderful photos of children
smiling, playing and dancing. They were mostly taken in the village
of Laya - where the Netflix documentary "Happiness" was filmed.
It's a town of several hundred people perched over a hanging valley at 14,000
feet. There was no electricity nor running water. The next
nearest town was several days walk away. Yet the kids in the one room
school house were smiling when we came in, and all stood up and said,
"Hello sir".
I played a vigorous game of soccer with a bunch of them on their
one mud and rock-strewn field. The school master played hardest of
all. Needless to say, I was wiped out in no time, though my tough
as nails South African fellow trekker did a bit better. I visited the one
general store that had several dozen cheap items for sale, including the local
alcoholic beverage, which would knock your socks off. I saw a young mom
with a group of children carrying firewood on her back. All
smiling.
They are actually a prosperous village because of the presence of
the Cordyceps Sinensis herb, or Yarsagumba, a powerful aphrodisiac and energy
enhancer. It grows on the nose of a caterpillar that buries itself
underground. It only lives up 3300 m in Nepal and Bhutan and Sikkim
and has to be found and dug up in the rainy season. It sells for
$1500-$2000 per kg. Its sale is highly regulated. It has
overtaken yak herding as the chief occupation in these parts.
I have a picture in the room of a herd of yaks, taken from the
middle. My guide Tshering and I were hiking down from the village above a
valley where the mystical and strange national animal - the takin (which looks
like an oversized cow with the head of a moose and the horns of a ram) over
winters. All of sudden, we saw a solitary old woman herding yaks coming
down our trail.
"Don't move!!" Tshering shouted, when they were suddenly around
me. Yaks are not pleasant animals. They are the size of
bulls with long sharp horns. They are known for their irascibility. I
took some deep breaths, had the forethought to take a few pictures - though not
a video, which would have been really cool. In a minute or two, they were
past us, the woman throwing rocks at them to shoo them on their way.
I have used this story as a metaphor for staying calm in the midst of a
tough situation -- great for anxious patients. I will also point
out that their worries may not be as dangerous as being stuck in the middle of
a herd of yaks on a steep mountain trail, but they can be just as scary.
