Saturday March 6th

An incredible week has passed, commencing with the Omari Project NADA training in downtown Malindi, with Megan conducting training for 15 project staff and volunteers, all of whom are dedicated to the good work of providing resources to reduce drug addiction in their warm hearted but struggling Kenyan community. The training facility is the Omari Office, a cement hot box, where Megan has kept her cool through some challenging dynamics. Establishing a clean field, for example, was quite a concept. Even the Kenyans are wowed by the incredible heat this week has brought, which tells you how the mazungu (white folk) have been feeling. But with clear and heartfelt intention leading the way, the trainees slowly worked their way toward understanding and literacy in the simple but powerful concepts and tools of NADA, led by their very dedicated teacher. The pride reflected in their introduction of Megan as their teacher was fierce.
Stacey and Jacqui have been assisting with the training, as well as practicing NADA wherever and whenever possible, which took us on Tuesday to the Kenyan Prison outside Malindi. Has there been a more moving application of this simple and powerful tool? Twenty six men watched by machine gunned guards took a 1 hour break in their otherwise forced work day, hard labor in sweltering heat, without shade, water, tools or shoes gathered in a small sweltering cement room, while 2 small white TCMCH students came bearing needles for NADA treatments, which Omari Project has miraculously managed to force into an otherwise un-penetrable penitentiary, with the idea that these men are in that place because of the addictions that drove them, and that through NADA (supported by a very basic 12 step adaptation and the raw passion of the Omari staff ) they may leave with a different understanding of addictions, and themselves. Most of the men had had this treatment prior to our visit, and without emotion were clearly there because it truly served them. They made it easy for us to work the room, get the needles in, and let them go to work. Knowing we could be removed at a moment’s notice, we worked quickly to accommodate all takers, despite the heat, the small space, the lack of light. After the treatment, our Omari guides asked the men specifically the value of this treatment, translating from Swahili, reporting calming of mind, deeper understanding of addictions rather than just knowing judgment and shame, reporting hope. To see something as universal and and simple as NADA help foster such hope in the face of otherwise sheer brutal hopelessness, we left with more emotion than can be described.
Another outing was arranged for Stacey and Jacqui to provide NADA treatments at the Omari in-patient facility, one crazy bus ride out of town in the country (while Megan continued with the week long NADA training in baking Malindi). Our patients there have regular NADA treatments to help them with their process. Most folks initially resisted our requests to interview them and understand their story, especially our desire to understand the benefit NADA has been (beyond the other great drug rehab support provided by the Omari staff). After the treatments, and talking story, they began to let down their guard, sharing their stories, noting that acupuncture is a very important tool for the hard process they have the courage to be in. The outing ended with taking pictures together, and exchanging phone numbers and emails, and leaving in a climate of faith and hope.
The week was full of challenge and miracles, and perseverance. The heat alone would stop most people from moving, much less working, training, arranging community treatment days under a hot tarp in a population that has never heard of acupuncture, limited by poverty and very little education. Jacqui fell down a three foot hole in the road (of which there were many), but was lucky to be travelling with a master international acupuncturist (Megan), so was quick to recover from those injuries. Stacey and Jacqui and Aidan set out to find a needy school to deliver donated school supplies to the poverty stricken zones of Malindi, and ended up travelling way out into the bush after meeting Pastor Michael, a humble man who has almost single handedly built a school for almost 1000 children from nearby villages where there is not nearly enough food or education. The need was greater than most Americans could ever imagine, and the coincidence and adventure that brought us there, seemingly divinely guided. The faces of these children, Pastor Michael, his family and his village personified the graciousness we have seen in so many of the Kenyan people. After facing armed guards in motorbike taxis and taking motorcycles into and out of the bush, we were grateful to return to Malindi and join the 15 NADA trainees perfecting their skills in ear needles for all those interested enough to see what the commotion was under the Omari Project tent.
By week’s end, the community NADA outreach event was a great success (free treatments to all who dared try it) had provided fertile ground for new NADA providers to hone their new skills. Their willingness and dedication in the dusty heat to provide these treatments brought benefit to 172 community members between the ages of 6 and 73 with positive responses reported by almost all! Megan never faltered in the mission at hand, despite all the third world technology and logistical challenges, and by weeks’ end had effectively established with the core Omari Project staff the launching of NADA-Kenya!