This was started on Jan 5, finished on Jan 11 ---

Day 7 in Bhopal. Everything buzzes here all the time. The volunteers stay at the Sambhavana clinic, where gas and water-affected people can come to receive free treatment. Allopathy (western medicine), Ayurveda, and yoga therapies all work together to give the patients the best of all worlds. See bhopal.org for more on how the clinic functions.

The clinic is set in a modest neighbourhood at the end of a rutted road. When the gates open you are greeted by a red brick building, beautifully architecturally designed - a kind of semi-circle with the main entrance more or less in the centre (I can't tell for sure). At the off-centre is the main office from where Rachna and Sathyu work. The main event, the clinic, greets you as you enter the building. Comfortable benches, doctors' offices, a medicine preparation room, and other offices line the curved inside-outside corridor. Filtered water is available to all.

A ramp and a staircase will get you up to the 1st floor (2nd in North America) to the library, research room, and living area for the volunteers. It's all wonderfully laid out in a semi-circle, and both a pleasure to be in and completely functional. I have another blog on this from 2007 - if you go to the archives you can easily find it.

The work I did in Bhopal for the first week was research for a fact sheet. Because I didn't know anything about the chemicals in the water and soil, it probably took a lot longer than was anticipated, and in the end the fact sheet became more like a fact book. But darn, I haven't yet figured out how to filter this information so that it's concise and clear. Rachna said she'll edit.

My second project turned out similarly - researching the common medications and their side effects. Learning what I did, I can only recommend staying away from most medications unless absolutely necessary. Especially when there are pre-existing conditions, as is the case for the gas and water-affect survivors here. First they get poisoned by air, land and water contamination, then the medication exacerbates the problem. Not good.

The other half of the research was finding scientific studies that confirm that Yoga Therapy is beneficial. Unfortunately, the majority of the studies are small, and always end with the sentiment that it looks good, but more research needs to be done. So - I urge any doctors, scientists out there to go for it. It'll really help not only the survivors but everyone, literally. Other what are called complementary medicine therapies, for example, tai chi, also need the work. But for many of us, yoga is so available and with such a wide variety of types, that it would be great to get the ball rolling with some reliable studies that the WHO can issue a clear statement that it's truly beneficial, with all the stats and details to prove it.

I no longer have access to Word (they cut off my trial run on this netbook after less than a month rather than the 2 months I was told I had), so I don't actually know how many words this is. Apologies if I've gone over my allotted 800 - shall try to find an alternative for Word.

Take good care everyone,

Ellen