OSM instructor, Marybetts Sinclair has taught massage in Indonesia and South Korea. She is also helping edit a book by a South Korean pediatrician. Here are some accounts of her travels as well as an excerpt from the book.

Today I went with Molly Holt to five different hospitals to check on residents of Ilsan who are now being cared for. This experience was a good  For example, at one hospital, a few patients rode down in the elevator with us, so evidently you can wander around and no one cares. That hospital even had small kitchens that families could use to make food while they were visiting their relatives. How different than in the US! I started doing massage with residents yesterday, before that only with Molly, who is going through chemotherapy for the second time and needs bodywork and encouragement to walk every day.

Here is a brief excerpt from Dr. Cho’s book.
The year is 1958. The place, Seoul, capital of South Korea. A brilliant, idealistic and devout young doctor, Byung-guk Cho, has just finished medical school and is beginning her first job as a pediatrician. To say her job will be “challenging” would be an understatement indeed; the country’s economy is reeling from 40 harsh years of Japanese occupation, followed by a civil war that morphed into the Korean War of 1950-1953. Food scarcities and poverty haunt the people. Because there is little or no birth control available, the birth rate is high, and many babies born to undernourished mothers are premature or have other health problems.

Into this dismal situation steps Dr. Cho, who eventually works at not only hospitals but also at the Holt Services adoption clinic. Along with bearing three children of her own and working long, long days, Dr. Cho treats sick and dying Korean children, advises families, and facilitates the adoption of thousands to safer and more prosperous homes. During the course of her decades as a pediatrician, Dr. Cho not only finds people who inspire her and touch her with their love, dedication and understanding, she meets kind volunteers and family members with amazing stories, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. She tells their stories, along with hers, offering us amazing stories of love, humanity and bravery in her country’s darkest days.

For more information about Marybetts Sinclair and her work, go to her website: http://www.marybettssinclair.com/

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