Massaging Muscles

At Sirin House, we have a masseuse. At Sirin House we have a massage table.

You may think that means, "Lucky me! Massages whenever I like!"

But really, it means, "Hey, I can learn this too!" Which really, is a good deal as it is such an effective way to ease tight muscles in children here with cerebral palsy, and can even make the autistic and downs syndrome kids calm down. It's excellent; no more bites for me! Well. . .not as many anyways.

I also have an interest in massage because in the future I want to do physiotherapy. Due to my interest, Linda (the beautiful and talented masseuse) offered to teach me her skills.

So I got offered an incredible opportunity to go to a CCD project far away, spend three days and two nights with Linda and Khun Chariya (the founder of CCD's wife!), and partake in massage training that Linda would be offering to mothers and staff there.

We arrived at 10 Monday morning and immediately began working. I listened to Linda demonstrate Swedish massage to the Thai mothers at the CCD center, and then assisted them as they attempted to massage their disabled child. We massaged, talked, and laughed for three hours, grabbed some lunch and headed out to do home visits.

The home visits were a new experience for me. We drove deep into farm country and popped in to small farm houses, filled with family members who had no money, and no access to appropriate health care. The "children" (I am using quotations because two of them were in their 20's) were often suffering from severe cerebral palsy, and due to their lack of physio treatment, deteriorated into even worse condition. Linda offered up massage as a technique to stimulate the muscles in the body, which proved to be fantastic. However, I couldn't walk away without feeling like these children just need so much more.

They need consistency in their medical treatments, and a reason to stay motivated. A need an hour visit can encourage, but not meet.

We finished home visits around 6 and then headed to our hotel (yeah, hotel) for the night. I ate Som Tam, with two chillis (spice queen right here) and then headed to bed at 8.

The next two days were similar, with the exception of a trip to a market festival at a local temple. The whole experience allowed me to learn all sorts of massage techniques and brainstorm ideas for the application of massage. I'm a masseuse in training everyone.

So if you do not know me well now, you should get on that!

Linda massaging a child at the CBR 1 center

A mother practicing on her child

Demonstrating Swedish massage strokes

At a home visit teaching massage to the mother and CCD staff

At another home visit. Everyone practicing!

Having fun learning massage

Festival at a local temple

Same temple later at night

Mmmmmmmm, Kanom (snack) anyone?

A typical Thai mannequin

They eat these, seriously. It's not just to shock tourists. I've SEEN it eaten.

An excellent trip, an excellent opportunity. Thailand is allowing me to have many of these!