Yak Attack

A Woman's Touch

Doris Day stars in the 1953 movie “Calamity Jane”.  One of the many great songs she sings is “A Woman’s Touch”.  Oh, if only my apartment could be transformed so beautifully and so quickly!   But the reason I am writing about this is that a woman’s touch finally broke through another traditionally male barrier... duct tape!  YES!!!  When I first went overseas, the first item on the ‘packing list’ that was sent to me was “duct tape”.  The list had to have been put together by a man.  Ugly gray duct tape.  Yes, duct tape is very useful and handy stuff.  But not so pretty.  I always keep a roll handy no matter where I live.  Because it is water proof, flexible and super strong, it has been used on Apollo space flights.  In addition, The “Myth Busters” devoted two  episodes to duct tape by lifting a car with it, repairing and making a boat out of it, creating a duct tape cannon, building a bridge from it, preventing a parked car from moving off and attempting but failing to stop a moving car. They also tested the single strip break strength at 67 lbs!  

In mountaineering, one of the joys in making a first ascent of an unnamed peak is that you get to name it -- according to the Board of Geographic Names (there are limits, however, in the naming of it).  In Kyrgyzstan, there is a remote peak called, “50 Years of American Duct Tape”.  I wonder how much they had to use, and in what circumstances...  I know that I always keep some duct tape wrapped around my ice ax when climbing... (seriously).  Anyway, I am glad to say that a woman’s touch has finally broken through the barrier of a man’s product.  And now, we can get duct tape in many colors -- no more gray-silver duct tape for me.  So never underestimate a woman’s touch!

 

 

SS: Curious

For centuries, Tibet has been one of the places that the West has been most curious about -- a closed country high in the Himalayas, monastic-based rulers, the high barren and rugged Tibetan plateau, snow passes year round -- virtually inaccessible.  Foreigners were not allowed in.  Geography and feudalism kept people out.  There was no road leading to the Forbidden City of Lhasa.  The only people in and out were nomadic herders, traveling with their yaks, felt tents and sheepskin coats.  Tibet lay in secrecy until the military occupation of Tibet by the Chinese army in the early 1950‘s... I am not a political person.  Despite the controversy, many positive changes have been made.  I live and work among these people.  I think that they are as curious about us, as we are of them...

 

 

Sunday Scribblings: Harvest

The Barley Harvest

October is nearly over, so the barley harvest should be completed by now.  July was very hot so the barley probably ripened a little early.  I don’t know -- I have been state-side since early August (to return next week), so don’t really know how the harvest went.  I hope it was a good harvest -- heaven knows they need a good year, what with the earthquake and all. 

Barley is the staple food in Tibet.  Barley is highly adaptable to rough climates and has a short vegetation period, so it can be cultivated at 3,500 meters (nearly 12,000 feet) elevation, whereas many other crops are difficult to grow at this altitude.  Toasted barley flour, tsampa, is the main staple of the Tibetan people.  It is mixed with yak butter (usually rancid) and salty tea (this is an acquired taste), until it is about the consistency of cookie dough.  It is then dipped in salt, or sugar -- and sometimes a little cinnamon or other spices if they have them.  Tibetans eat this at least once a day, and often twice a day.  It is very nutritious, although they still need fruit and vegetables to supplement for a balanced diet, which most of them do not have.  Barley is also used for making barley beer (chang), and a much stronger, harsher alcohol ("Bai Jiu" in Chinese) which is very much like a raw ‘white lightening’.  Barley’s cultural importance is reflected in that it is also used as a unit of measure:  8 barley grains are equal to a finger-width, or ‘small measure’.    

Tibetans usually hold a harvest festival a few days before the harvest to celebrate it.  The Harvest Festival lasts about three days and is where the Tibetans walk around the field, wishing for a good harvest.  Sacrifices are offered to gods in the hope of receiving a good harvest.  People dress up in their best holiday clothes, carrying colorful flags, some carry barley stalks, and some may carry white “khada” or prayer scarves.  There is singing, banging on drums and dancing.  In some areas, they may even have horse races, yak races, and singing and dancing contests.  Of course, there is a lot of barley beer drinking!

When it is time to harvest the barley, everyone helps, as the harvest takes place with intensity.  The barley is collected in small bundles, and placed on yaks or horses.  The same technique has been used for many, many years.  Small tractors are used in some areas these days, which makes the harvest a little faster.  Drying, threshing and winnowing usually take place on the flat roofs of houses in some areas of Tibet, and on the ground in others.  

People are learning new and better techniques in how to harvest and store the barley flour.  In the past, and still in many places today, it was stored in gunny sacks, in damp storage rooms.  Who knows how many rodents got into it!  In some areas, people got really sick from this, especially with myco-toxins forming on the barley.  Once I treated a woman who had lost both legs to ergotamine poisoning.  Both her parents and two siblings died from it.  Her remaining brother was really sick, but made a full recovery.  The ergotamine poisoning cause both her feet to feel like they were on fire (ergotamine poisoning’s nickname is “Saint Anthony’s Fire”).  This is because of the constriction of the blood vessels which can cause dry gangrene.  Then, this was complicated by the fact that she put her feet into cold water during a harsh cold winter, developed severe frostbite, so she got a double gangrene, and both legs had to be amputated.  Not an easy disability for a young woman on the rough Tibetan plateau.  

Another project I worked on was dealing with a disease called “Kashin-Beck’s Disease”, or more commonly, “Big Bone Disease”.  This has many environmental factors behind it, including high altitude cold climates, lack of selinium in the soil, high iron oxides in the water, and myco-toxins on the barley.  People with this disease end up mainly with large joints and short limbs, and a variety of other symptoms.  I still wonder how much of it was environmentally induced, and what part did the person’s own health play... Because of these diseases and others, newer, cleaner ways of storing barley are coming into practice.  In some places they are starting to build humidity and temperature controlled rooms out of concrete.  This should help significantly in reducing the terrible disabilities that I have seen in the past.  So much still has to be done in these areas of Tibet.  Whether the diseases affect one family, as in this case of the ergotamine poisoning, or 2.5 million people like Big Bone Disease, I would still like to be able to help these people.  Unfortunately, some people in authority don’t think that these are significant problems, so just ‘relocate’ the Tibetans.   

Regardless, I am hoping that the barley harvest was good this year.  I am hoping that all areas of Tibet had a bountiful harvest, and that all people will have enough tsampa for the year.  

 

Upside Down

What do you do when your world is turned upside down? How do you cope? How long does it take to get turned right side up again? There is disorder... chaos... confusion... things are not as they were... or were supposed to be. Some things are supposed to be upside down -- like a pineapple upside down cake. Apparently when I was a kid, this was one of my favorite desserts. Now, I am sure ice cream is my favorite dessert. When the US stamp is upside down on a letter, it is supposed to signify that the country is in trouble. Why are we not seeing stamps upside down now? Maybe it is because so many letters are in mass-mail envelopes so there are no stamps. I don't know. I just know that right now my life is full of chaos, disorder and confusion. Things are not what they should be... not as God intended. I know that He is not the author of confusion. So why is there so much right now? One of my favorite things as a kid was to hang on the monkey bars upside down. I loved that. And I loved twirling upside down and in circles on the monkey bars... at least until I was ready to throw up. :) I know that some people like the gravity traction units, where they hang upside down to let gravity open their backs up. Well, there are a lot more techniques that are a lot faster and more effective than that! (I hope you are reading this, Bret!) Bats and possums are good upside down. Houses are not. I have a map somewhere that is "Australia's view of the world" -- so it is an upside down map. Cute! At least someone has a sense of humor. I don't have one anymore. My world is upside down, and I am not in Australia. Some things should be upside down, like pineapple upside down cake and bats and possums. Maybe I just fell through the rabbit hole, so my life is upside down and not much makes sense anymore...

Courage

Why is 'discourage' not the opposite of 'courage'?  I have been thinking about discouragement lately... and feeling quite discouraged by a few things, wondering, "what in the world is going on?"  So then, to try and think of more positive things, I started to think about courage -- and they aren't opposites.  Courage is the ability to do something that is scary or frightening...  and I think of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.  It is funny how my mind wanders... In Swahili (I think -- at least some African language), the word for courage is the same as that for 'kidney'.  So if someone says, "Wow!  You have a lot of kidney!", it means, 'you are very courageous!'.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine, emotions and the physical body are closely connected.  So if someone has a problem in their kidneys, it may be associated with being fearful (cowardly?) or insecure.  

This word track has nothing to do with the discouragement I have been feeling.  But it was fun to wander away from it for a bit.  And, by the way, regarding this photo of the tiger and me -- the look on my face shows that I don't have a lot of kidney!