Joel Garnier Records: journal

 

 

April 1, 2010 Bumi Sehat Foundation International Field Report...Yes... it is true, in response to the earthquake in Haiti, Bumi Sehat has opened a gentle birth center in Jacmel. Our experience in Aceh after the tsunami has made the Bumi Sehat model of reproductive healthcare in disaster zones well known. Within days of the terrible disaster we were being called to Haiti by many of the first team members who worked with Bumi Sehat in Aceh. Thanks to Direct Relief International, Dominican Republic Chamber of Commerce and Dominican Red Cross, COHI, Conscious Food Alliance, Burners Without Borders, GrassRoots Foundation, Dr. Michael, Lee Downey & Friends, Sue Winski, Alexander Langer Foundation, Titziana Valpiana and family, Maurizio Rosenberg Colorni & family, Rotary – Shelter Box, New Chapter Vitamins Inc., and all of YOU, our family of supporters ~ we mustered the courage to take this giant leap, to do our small part in the relief of suffering.In the beginning our work in Haiti involved distributing essential medicines to the ‘remains’ of hospitals and clinics. These were mostly piles of rubble with tents, in which surgery, after patient care and births were taking place without dependable power, toilets, or running water. With the help of the Jacmel Chamber of Commerce we were able to distribute, clothing, tents, drinking water and food.1At this writing there are births happening in the Bumi Sehat Haiti geodesic dome clinic, which is licensed by the Dept. of Health. Jacmel was a city of 50,000 deeply traumatized people after the earthquake. Now there are many additional people arriving weekly in the Jacmel area, hungry, thirsty, and homeless, all too often expecting a baby. Bumi Sehat offers the birthing women some hope.I am back in Bali, and the Bumi Sehat “home” clinic is very busy. Sadly last night we used the new ambulance given to us by the Ubud Rotary and the family of Adeline in France. The Bumi midwives and I had to transport a Baby Boy to the Sangla hospital neonatal intensive care unit, with deep respiratory distress. We saw there many babies, suffering from dengue fever. Otherwise the work in Bali is going smoothly. At this moment Dr. Bobbi is busy with Dr. Wayan Sudiarsana, holding the very popular acupuncture clinic. Monday morning Dr. Soma will be on hand for the pediatric clinic. Every evening Dr. Wayan and Dr. Bayu do general health care. Our midwives are of course on duty 24 hours a day, every single day of the week, including holidays. Nyepi, the Balinese New Year, and traditionally a day of silence, we had nine babies at Bumi Sehat Bali!!Caring for the chronically ill at Bumi Sehat Bali.2The Bumi Sehat Aceh clinic is still running like a clock. I was so touched when our Aceh medical team sent a text message to me, as I departed for Haiti, “Ibu Robin, please bring our love and support to the people of Haiti, we understand their plight. Thank you for bringing Bumi Sehat to Haiti.”traditional birth attendants and midwives, Bumi Sehat Aceh.Meeting withIn the aftermath of the Tsunami Team Bumi Sehat was fragile, often we cried, just because of the suffering we were witness to. Five years later, we still hold hands with the survivors of that terrible disaster. We feel blessed that our donors have supported our decision not to abandon Aceh.Each day I am asked, “How is Haiti?” I hold back my tears, as I don’t know if I could stop the flow, should I begin to cry. Kelly & Josh Dunn‐Sarvis, Heather Maurer‐Raskin, Katherine Branhall and Reggie Tournier, knowing these solid team leaders are taking care of Bumi Sehat Haiti, keeps my heart strong. Yes, we are worried about the approaching hurricane season. Most Haitians are homeless, the majority of these families do not even have tents. And I must wonder; What good will a tent do when hurricane force winds and driving rain come to Haiti? My only solace is the fact that Bumi Sehat is doing its small part.NEWS FLASH... Guerrilla Midwife the award winning documentary film about Bumi Sehat, has been selected for the 2010 Cannes Independent Film Festival. This festival runs concurrently with the Cannes International Film Festival this May. Huge hugs for Producer Clint Leazer, and Director Déjà Bernhardt, for putting Bumi Sehat in the hearts of so many. www.skwattacanp.com3Thank YOU all ~ I LOVE YOU, Ibu Robin and Team Bumi Sehat InternationalKristen’s Family & Team Bumi Sehat donated books to upcountry children in Bali.Bumi Sehat Youth Center Capacity Building and Educational programs4"Peace between humans and nature will be attained when we learn to live simply." ~ Alexander LangerWE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!Please consider making a charitable contribution to Yayasan Bumi Sehat. We are grateful for your partnership in this journey of service to humanity.From the US: You may support our work by donating, to our partner organization, the Sakthi Foundation by sending a personal check or money order to: Sakthi Foundation 1507 Lone Oak Circle Fairfield, Iowa 52556 USA Attn: Bumi Sehat ProjectYou can also donate via credit card/paypal by going to our website (www.bumisehatbali.org)From outside of the US: Please donate to us directly by transferring your contribution to our US$ account at:PT. Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) Branch: Denpasar KLN Ubud Address: Jl. Gajah Mada, No. 30 Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia Account Name: Yayasan Bumi Sehat, Ds. PKR Nyuh KuningUSD: Account No. 117 766 133 Swift code: BNINI DJADPSYayasan Bumi Sehat Nyuh Kuning Village PO Box 116 Ubud, Bali 80571 Indonesia Phone: +62 361 970 002 Fax: +62 361 972 969 Email: info@bumisehatbali.org iburobin@bumisehatbali.orgYES ~ You may visit our clinic in Bali, we are just north of the Monkey Forest, Ubud, in the small village of Nyuh Kuning.

 

 

Our Haiti Is…

 

It is said Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas.

I saw Haiti….

Haiti is a broken Digicell hand-phone in every tight jean pocket.

Haiti is an emaciated black brindled goat, with one broken horn.

Haiti is a snake with two heads.

Haiti is a hungry nine-year-old boy balanced

                  on the fender of a tap-tap, begging for water.

Haiti is a shaved Samson.

Haiti is a line at the airport, relatives leaving for anywhere.

Haiti is a garage sale.

Haiti is a child beating, “You look just like your father!”

Haiti is a Port-au-Prince barbeque

                  with four million guests, and only twenty-two chicken legs to grill.

Haiti is a tent city with no tents.

Haiti is a loud radio station playing love songs on a dusty day.

Haiti is a passel of sway-back pigs eating medical waste.

Haiti is a rainbow bus with Jesus painted on the back to redeem us.

Haiti is an argument in French-Creole.

Haiti is a baby boy named lovenski and a little girl called; Divine Blessing.

Haiti is Osana and Hallelujah, and pray for me, but for God’s sake, give me water.

Haiti is, a big gorgeous woman in a red dress, who refuses to straighten her hair

Haiti is, expecting another baby.

Haiti is, expecting another earthquake.

Haiti is, expecting hurricane season.

Haiti is, the sweetest funeral song.

Haiti is, a turquoise wave breaking against a lime white cliff.

Haiti is, a wooden house built in 1878 from beached pirate ships,

                  that stands when all the pretty cement houses have fallen. 

Haiti is, a tin roof “bang” when a mango falls, the neighbors are happy it’s not gun shot.

Haiti is, a premature baby in a hospital bucket.

Haiti is, a brass band of old men in uniforms, walking home from the graveyard.

Haiti is, a mosquito infecting a widow with dengue fever.

Haiti is, several million kids with scabies.

Haiti is, a queer expat artist, dead under the rubble, while still young and beautiful.

Haiti is, a voodoo priest down every alley.

Haiti is, a Jesus song.

Haiti is, a Spanish nun sweating in the sun.

Haiti is, an orphaned nation.

Haiti is, a twenty-two year old Canadian soldier with a gun and a stick,

                  working crowd control.

Haiti is, the tears of a man with four small children,

                  burying his wife and newborn baby girl.

Haiti is, a tired donkey loaded down with fresh oranges for market.

Haiti is, a corn and coconut fritter, one of millions, made with loving black hands.

Haiti is, a mother, braiding her small daughter’s hair with rainbow ribbons.

Haiti is, pregnant with hope.

 

                                                                                          ~ Robin Lim Feb. 2010

Sunday in Haiti

 

Glory, glory… the people sing,

salvation songs poured out from their cracked

hearts. Songs more lovely, blue and red

from the heart of the palm of Haiti’s flag,

flown in French Creole harmonies. 

 

Those with broken legs pray for crutches.

Some rejoice with one arm missing,

“Hallelujah, hallelujah…”

sing the homeless, and “Thank you, for I am saved

by the blood of Jesus from the grave

of cement falling mercilessly from above.”

 

Cement without steel reinforcement

and too much sand:

engineered to save money, not souls.

 

Praise and gratitude, rings in the streets of

Jacmel and

the falling down churches of Port-au-Prince.

How can we keep from crying?

 

Where is the song of the orphaned child?

Screamed in silences from their eyes,

three reverent, solemn, sacred words,

“Why? Why? Why?”

                                                            ~ Robin Lim Feb. 2010

i have not used this journal for my own writing for a long time.

now i want to say what i have been doing for awhile... oil paintings since fall 2007, simple stereo live guitar improvisation recordings in 2008, a little bit of programmed electronic music, and a lot of processed electric guitar improvisations. 

i told a friend he can sample these things as long as i get to hear the result and even publish it here.  he wanted guitar samples for dance music.  i like to share that way so go ahead yourself if you will share the result back to me.

this site is about 3 years old now.  it is my favorite project i have ever done.  i want to start singing songs with my new multi-tracking system.  it's hard to commit to a lyric for me.  i'm not a real song writer.  but once something is recorded and published, it's a song.

 

most people don't seem to like this music but a few tell me it is great, this is for you people, and for me, who need certain sounds and spontaneous yet entrancing music.  i hope some of you have had good experiences from listening. 

 

i want to grow into more styles and especially begin to sing regularly.  i'm practicing.  i want my voice in it.  i think it can be good.  wish me luck.

 

all good on you friends.

 

joel

Ode to Dry Starlight

Today I saw a galaxy behind my dream.

Many million pinpoints of light bled through my eyelids, in the newborn day.

I can’t be sure if this beauty was due to my over fifty years of seeing, or perhaps all the stardust from the babies

I have received, has been rubbed roughly by my hands into my eyes.

Eyes so tired and scratched.

Eyes open to see a fifteen-year-old girl push an unwanted boy into our world of noise and light.

When I was twenty-seven, invincible
still insulated by health and energy, A dying father said to me,

“Enlightenment is nothing
more than accepting the unacceptable.”

I did not cry for the girl or her baby.

Enlightenment is a drying up and hardening
of the eyes.

Robin Lim June 2009

Ibu Robin Lim

The people of Aceh wake to a huge pink sky, and they look toward the sea. The sea, that forever looking backward in history, has been the people’s source of sustenance. The sea they harvested giving them work and the poetry of food, it has been their art, their life.

They look at the calm sea today and they remember the day of betrayal, of salty tears, December 26th 2004. At just about 8 a.m. an earthquake measuring 9.3 on the richter scale struck. It was a terrible earthquake, but the people of Aceh had long lived with the shaking of their Sumatran foundations.

Then the sea betrayed them, a Tsunami. Not one wave but many, growing bigger and blacker and filling with all the churned broken belongings of modern life. Roiling with police cars, sheets of metal and glass, hunks of cement, furniture, Animals still trapped in their cages, people, people who were quickly becoming corpses, by the hundreds of thousands.

By sunset, when the waters began to finally recede the rebel nation of Aceh, that had faced the hardships of generations of civil war, was diminished beyond recognition.

Villages lost 30%, 50%, 70%, 90% of their citizens. But it would be a long time before they would know the extent of their loss. On the eve of Dec. 26th, 2004 the survivors were thirsty. They were looking for their children, their spouses, their mothers and fathers. They were naked, but for the mud. They were itchy. The night was coming and they wondered; would there be more waves?

Beginning in the first few weeks of the aftermath of the Tsunami, Bumi Sehat has maintained a clinic for the survivors. We came to Samatiga with a team from IDEP and WALHI foundations. We stretched tarps over bamboo and began to see patients. We worked with our sister NGOs to establish water supply, dig pit toilets, usurp tents for people living in the open, some of Team Bumi, my own grown children, recovered bodies.

Today in the 4th year of what we hopefully call, “recovery” and pray is truly “healing”, Bumi Sehat maintains and operates a beautiful proper free clinic for the people of Aceh. The beautiful land a gift from “Paula”, the clinic facility built and furnished by the generosity of Rotary S.E. Asia and Ubud, and currently maintained with operational funds from Direct Relief International plus generous help from smaller donors, friends and family all over the world, is busy and lively and lit with the warm dependable power of the sun. (thank you solar energy)

For the first two years following the Tsunami I spent more time in Aceh than I did at home with my family. Team Bumi Sehat Bali galvanized itself to maintain it’s beautiful growing services in Bali, while logistically supporting their team members going to the dangerous geologically and politically unstable disaster zone, that had once been the proud, jeweled coastline of Aceh. It was a hard time of desperately treating Tsunami wounds that would not heal. We fought a war with malaria, dengue fever, unidentified skin conditions unique to the thousands of patients we saw, who had been swept away in the violent stinking Tsunami water. We delivered babies, because that is What Bumi Sehat does best.

Slowly over the months and years we moved from tents and tarp clinic to a rumbia roofed hut with four rooms, built by the IDEP/WALHI team from trees felled by the Tsunami. Eventually IDEP found funding to build us a wooden clinic in Gampong Cot, in view of the sea, very close to the epicenter of the disaster. Finally Dear “Paula” purchased enough land for Bumi Sehat, and the Rotary brought in the miracle, a proper earthquake resistant clinic. Over 12,000 grieving Tsunami survivors live within walking distance of Bumi Sehat’s clinic, many more borrow vehicles and come in groups from great distances, traveling hours, seeking kind, clean, free, conscientious medical care. Dr. Eman, Nurses Liman and Bankit, Midwives Mega, Liza and Sumi, supported by a beautiful team, live and work on site, contributing significantly to the healing of Aceh.

When the small propeller plane my husband Wil and I take to come “home” to Aceh lands on the Meulaboh airstrip, I choke back tears. Ijal and Eti, faithful team members who themselves survived the Tsunami, are waiting. “Ibu Robin, a mother in labor is waiting for you at the clinic.”

We travel over a road that was once a moonscape and wonder at how smooth it has become, thanks to International Aid. The trip back to the clinic was once 2 ½ to 3 hours, today we arrive in 45 minutes. Meliza is in labor with her first child. By dinnertime she has had a lovely waterbirth. The smiling midwives, working with traditional midwife Ibu Juariah settle Miliza and her tiny baby daughter into a clean bed to breastfeed. The extended family will spend the night. Our cooks bring plates filled to feed them all.

That evening, over simple spicy rice and fish dinner the staff speaks of how the conflict in Aceh has settled since the peace treaty in 2006. There is no sound of gunfire in the distance, yet there have been ‘incidents’ recently, reminders that war is always a threat the Acehnese live with. Thunder rolls in and it begins to rain as it can only rain in Sumatra, huge rain with drops the size of pennies. Even the clinic ducks are running for cover.

By 2 a.m. we midwives are called out to the village of Pinem. Ibu Asya is the traditional village midwife in attendance. She is worried as Ita Ristani, having her 5th baby at home is not doing so well. Something feels wrong.

The Bumi midwives recognize this mom and hope that her due dates were wrong, as she would be having this child 9 weeks early. Ita’s other four children are hiding in the next room of the wooden house, dimly lit with a kerosene lantern, newspaper is stuffed in the cracks between boards to keep out the wind. Ita’s husband is walking in the yard, littered with trash, smoking a nipa cigarette.

Ita moans, with a woosh a salty amniotic sea breaks loose and in that one push the tiny baby is washed out of her mother. It is too soon. I scoop her up and she cries weakly as I lay her on her mother’s now concave belly. This Baby’s tiny hands and feet have no creases, she is far too premature, Allah has not had time to draw the lines of her fate. We call the father and ask him to sing the prayer songs of Islam to his tiny daughter. He gives her the name, Fitri, her tiny heart is slowing. We gently explain this to the parents. I wonder, if this child had been born in a modern hospital with a neonatal unit, would she have a chance? My wondering can’t change the fact that we are here, in a wooden house, where the family will eat cold rice and dried fish in the morning. Transporting this baby to the hospital in Meulaboh would be of no use at all.

Ita tries to breastfeed but the baby who has no reflexes, we make a hot water bottle to keep Baby warm. I know she will not stay with us long. I lay down beside Ita, with the baby between us. An hour and 47 minutes after her birth, Ita tells me, Ibu Robin, Fitri is cold.” I listen, there is no longer a heartbeat. We cry together as the sunrises, it is so pink and purple, we all feel bruised by this morning.

The day is filled with clinic duties. A man in his 80s has been picked up by our ambulance, he has been unable to eat for nearly three weeks without vomiting. He is dehydrated, Max our new medic volunteer from “Leap Now” puts in an IV line with Liman.

The ambulance also picks up a 17 year old girl, who looks like she is glowing with health, but she has had headaches and nausea and fainting spells. Her blood pressure jumps from 100/80 when she is conscious to 130/90 when she passes out, a mystery. We admit her.

3 a.m. March 5th the midwives are called out by village midwife Sadhia. We arrive quickly at the home of Fitri, who has had prenatal care with us, and has attended the pregnancy education and exercise classes held weekly at Bumi Sehat.

Fitri lives in the concrete swamp getto that was once the fair city of Kuala Bubon. The little cement houses, built with relief funds, teeter on stilts, with rows of others, surrounded by the wetlands created by the Tsunami.

Saturday March 7th Yanti the 17 year old patient has another seizure. When conventional attempts to stop the convulsions were unsuccessful, we were able to stabilize the girl with acupuncture, thanks to hand phone contact with Dr. Bobbi in Bali, who guided us through the lifesaving procedure. Dr. Eman is very excited to witness natural medicine work in an emergency.

In the late afternoon the eleven elder “Bidan Gampong”, village midwives, practicing in the area are gathered. Some came by foot, others rode with family by motorbike, some we picked up in the Bumi Automobile. Mimi, only days from her due date, has made them a noodle feast with vegetables from our garden, and the kitchen staff has made seaweed cakes. The women are excited. We open the meeting with prayers and gratitude. Stories unfold of how afraid these women have been. Some of them have been called too late, to find young mothers had died. These midwives have not been to school, they have no paper degrees, what they have is a lifetime of service and experience, and knowledge passed down from generations of baby-catching grandmothers. They are needed and trusted, honored in their communities for the spiritual authority to greet new life, they have the secret prayers. Typically the medical authorities disapprove of these traditional practitioners, and blame them when there is a birth tragedy. Until Bumi Sehat came to Samatiga, Aceh, they had no one to help them. Typically a Bidan Gampong is called early in labor, she stays quietly, squatting on her little wooden bench, chewing betel nut, gently massaging the laboring woman. When the baby comes she wipes the tiny face and helps the wee one to the breast. She will stay three days with the family, to cook and wash the laundry by hand and clean and look after the new mother and baby. If she does not stay, all the work may fall to the newly postpartum woman, this cannot be allowed. For this she is paid the equivalent of $1.50 to $3.00.

Two years ago a woman bled to death shortly after birthing her 4th baby. Her husband had not called for help until it was too late. The traditional midwife arrived quickly, and the mother had lost consciousness. Having no phone she sent a neighbor boy on bicycle to Bumi Sehat to get help.

Our ambulance arrived within minutes, but, the mother had perished. This death galvanized the Traditional Village Midwives to work closely with Bumi Sehat.

Today, due to the generosity of our donors, we have 11 members of “Ikatan Bidan Gampong Bumi Sehat, Aceh, Indonesia” (the Society of Bumi Sehat Village Midwives of Aceh, Indonesia). Each one of them has a hand phone, provided by Bumi Sehat, and has been taught how to use it. Monthly, Bumi Sehat provides their pulsa phone minutes, so they can always call for help. We meet regularly for capacity building workshops in hemorrhage prevention and control, breastfeeding start-up, we share the art and science of midwifery together. About half of the laboring women come with their chosen Bidan Gampong to the Bumi Clinic to birth. The rest call us to assist in their births in the huts and houses.

Our Village Midwives have requested a few things from Bumi Sehat’s donors… They need reading glasses, flashlights, new stainless steel instruments and bowls and Newton scales to weigh the babies. And, they want t-shirts with the Bumi Logo that say; “Ikatan Bidan Gampong Bumi Sehat, Aceh, Indonesia”. I assured them that our donors would be proud to help out. As for me, I am in awe, this is perhaps our most astonishing program, to hold hands with these women is an honor. To have their trust is revolutionary and lifesaving.

I have meet with midwifery students sponsored by Bumi donors, Yenni and Dahlia, in 1 ½ years they will be finished with their studies. At that time they will join the Bumi Sehat midwifery team. We are so proud of them and of our donors for making these miracles of education for Tsumani survivors possible.

Fauzan age 22 is from the devastated village of Kuala Bubon, he survived the Tsunami hanging on to the dream of becoming a school teacher. His father has suffered a stroke and can no longer support Fauzan’s education. Fauzan has been working as a raft fisherman while going to school. He has only 1 ½ years left to get his teaching degree. Hearing the story, our Leap Now volunteer, Max has decided, with his friends to sponsor Fauzan, so he will not drop out.

Bumi Sehat has been criticized for not having an “exit strategy” for the clinic in Aceh. To be honest, if we exit here, the people of Aceh will not be able to find adequate funding to keep this quality of health care going. Exiting would mean abandonment, the staff would disperse, as they would need to find paying work. The medicines would run out and the buildings would fall to ruin.

While meeting with our staff here in Aceh, they timidly asked if Bumi Sehat was planning to keep the clinic project alive, I told them, “Honestly, I don’t have an exit strategy.” translator Mimi and Dr. Eman burst into tears of joy. This team is amazing. Each visit to the sight is a delight, as the vegetable gardens are bigger and better. the fruit trees are growing, the buildings and vehicles are well maintained. The patients fill out evaluation forms, praising the services here.

Chemene of Flow Fund purchased more fruit trees and plants for the clinic, as did Wil and I. Nurse Liman spends his entire day off, working hard in the garden, with Adi planting and nurturing the flowers and trees. Imagine how happy it feels to wake at dawn to find my midwives planting vegetables with the drivers and the gardening team, I jumped up to join them! Each team member takes pride in every aspect of life here. The vision and mission; to serve as a healing team, providing hygienic, professional, loving, effective medical services, protect safe motherhood and significantly contribute to infant survival, while setting an example of environmental consciousness, in a land so ravaged by grief, is held in the hearts of every Bumi Sehat team member.

Midwife Sumi & Ambulance Driver, Marlin with me, planting vegetables clinic solar power station on the right.

As I write this I must stop… to help a village midwife turn a breech baby.......... Success, the mother was crying, as she had been told at the hospital that she must have a cesarean birth. She left smiling, with Perfect Prenatal vitamins and a head-down baby – Allhumdulilah!

Mimi, our dear translator spent three days and nights in labor. Another mom comes in and has her second baby very quickly. Her first had been born at Bumi Sehat in the early days following the Tsunami, when our clinic was but a shack.

Finally Mimi’s courage and determination pay off, she and Liman have a beautiful daughter born at Bumi Sehat. They named her Talitha Nadif Halilah Wijaya. I felt like my time in Aceh was complete… I had delivered the baby of my loyal staff, this baby is like a granddaughter to me.

Update… Bumi Sehat Bali.

The day and night of the Full Moon in March 2009 brought 8 new babies into the world at Bumi Sehat Bali! We are busy indeed.

In early January two Bumi Sehat families who had lost children, just the previous year, due to birth defects, had perfectly healthy babies, born on the same day. How they celebrated together with smiles and hugs!

I must tell you all the story of Ibu Yudi and Pak Mulyono, they married across religions, Christian and Muslim, so their families have rejected them. We met them struggling with one child and pregnant with twins.

Each Christmas my husband Wil and I bring a carload of food to the slums in Sanur. This helps the Christians there, refugees from hard lives on other islands, have food to celebrate their own holiday. This December, while delivering the food and gifts we saw Mulyono, looking very sad. “How are the babies?” I asked him. Why did we not see you at Bumi Sehat?” He cried when he answered, “I have no motorbike, and no phone, the night Yudi went into labor I was too shy to wake the neighbors to ask to borrow their hand phone to get a ride to Bumi Sehat (it is quite far). So we walked in labor, more than two kilometers to a midwife. The babies were quickly born, two boys.” I hugged him in congratulations. “The story is not happy,” he continued, “The midwife charged us over rp. 7,000,000 (7 million rupiah about $640. US. that is more than a year’s salary for Pak Mulyono. Had they called Bumi Sehat we would have picked them up in the van, and the birth services would have been free.). We had no money to pay, our church gave the midwife 2 ½ million rupiahs, but she said it was not enough (had they gone to an expensive hospital and had a cesarean birth, the price would have been less, this was extortion). She kept one of our babies, until I can pay off the balance.”

Wil and I immediately went with Pak Mulyono to the midwife’s practice. We were told there that she had sold the baby to another island. The nurse said, “You are poor and stupid, best we found a rich family to take that baby. Your kind will just make more anyway.” Pak Mulyono was in shock, “What can I do, go home and tell my wife I lost her baby, because I am poor?” he sobbed.

With the help of Raihan, an Acehnese friend who is familiar with human rights issues, we made contact with PBHI Legal Aid attorneys. Meanwhile the midwife appeared at Yudi and Mulyono’s shack with a corrupt policeman, threatening them. It was a three week long battle, complete with newspaper coverage in two languages. Two weeks after the New Year, the family was reunited with their baby. Because the boys are identical twins, the midwife was not able to steal another baby (oh yes – this does happen) and replace the child who by now had been separated from his parents for three months. This Baby, though thinner looks just like his twin brother.

This happy ending does not cancel the sad fact that all too often, families cannot take their babies home after birth, until they pay the bill in full. This is one good reason to have a project like Bumi Sehat. There are days and nights when it is just plain hard to do the work of Bumi Sehat; receiving the babies, helping the sick and injured, providing educations, navigating customs to bring in our vitamins, looking after recycling, education, and environmental projects, keeping a huge staff on two distant islands happy and well fed, and raising the funds to keep it all afloat... but this past Christmas Season, as we fought to reunite this family, it all came into focus for me. We are providing services so needed and appreciated. When I say “WE” I mean all of us, the midwives, nurses, doctors, housekeepers, cooks, gardeners, teachers, volunteers, administrators, drivers, and YES, donors. We hold hands to make miracles in health, education and environmental protection happen, day by day. If we make this world a little bit kinder, if we relieve just a wee bit of suffering, we have succeeded as a team.

I ask and I beg our donors & sponsors, you are our loving friends and family… to remain partners in this vision and mission. Please, stay with Team Bumi Sehat, we need you desperately to keep this work going, both in Bali and in Aceh.



In Gratitude…. Om Shanti, Allhumdulilah, Blessings…

Ibu Robin

How to make a donation…
**Donations via Paypal...go to our website: www.BumiSehatBali.org

Send checks EARMARKED FOR BUMI SEHAT to
Sakthi Foundation
1507 Lone Oak Circle, Fairfield, Iowa 52556 USA

Dear Sister midwives... (and docs)

Please excuse this group email to friends...

I am writing from Indonesia, the country who got GMO soy first... to share what I am seeing, and ask if you too are seeing the same, and begin a dialog....

In 2008 Bumi Sehat Bali received 573 babies. We saw and increase in retained placentas (we often see hemorrhage - attached is the paper on green revolution rice and it's impact on maternal mortality in Bali).

Also I am seeing an increase in velamentous cord insertion.

One would expect given the rate of malnourishment here - that the birthing women would use every bit of Qi to push out their babies (and we go so gently) - leaving little or not much Qi for releasing the placenta and involution. However, in 2008 and so far in 2009 we have seen many too many 'sticky' placentas, two even had to be transported (we do manual removal on site when absolutely necessary - but 2 really had to go in, one for a hysterectomy, in another - Dr. Wedagama nearly took her into surgery... but was able to remove the placenta (over 1 liter blood loss!). In the last 6 weeks of 2008 I had to go after 4 placentas!!! It was not pretty, and I do not take it lightly. (usually never more than 1 per year)

Also most shocking is the empirical experience ( I have no research to prove it) of seeing an increase of velamentous umbilical cord insertion and short cords: two weeks ago we had Padma, a vegetarian for 15 + years... third baby died the week before birth - from what was diagnosed as a cord accident. This 4th baby was born healthy... but the cord was flat and 4 to 5 cm wide (looked like a tape worm) and had five skinny vulnerable vessels arriving each separately to the placenta!!! The placenta was not the lovely placentas I know and love (I am doing a book on placentas - so I am having a love affair with them). There was no Wharton's jelly to speak of, and I am seeing a decrease in Wharton's jelly among all our babies.

Last week a young mom lost her baby in labor... suddenly FHT went from 150 to zero exactly 15 minutes between listening times... there was no dipping or drop in heart tones, but we were concerned as they had gone up to 160 and once above... but easily stabilized with position change of mother. We had no time to transport before infant demise. Five hours later a lovely baby girl was born dead. There was no hope. This mom is very poor, husband no job. The cord was less than 30 cm long and had been pulled too hard as it was wrapped tightly around her foot.

Yesterday evening we had a 2nd time mom come in, very poor and malnourished. On arrival FHT were above 160, she was 9 cm, but nothing we did to try to stabilize baby worked... and when we got up to 188 and climbing (that is with O2 support! and hands and knees) we transported... stat cesarean, baby was very weak low apgars... but she has come around and my staff midwife has gotten her out of hospital nursery and onto breast. This baby would not have survived our normal hands-off gentle birth. Saved by O2, a doppler and cesarean - is this the kind of drama the placentas want now????

Cords are shorter. We don't cut them for a minimum of 3 hours at Bumi Sehat and many families choose lotus birth... so we hang out with the cords a long time. Last week our midwife Ayu had to cut a cord after birth of head, as the body would not follow, it was that short a nuchal cord... she had never had to do this before in her life as a midwife!
These are just a few stories... but we are seeing many less dramatic examples of shorter cords, velamentous cord insertion, diminished Wharton's jelly, and strange looking placentas.

This morning Dita having her second baby was stuck at 9 cm (with crazy transient but strong intermittent urge to push) from 7 pm to next morning at 8:30 she finally got complete. After hands and knees with butt up, moxa Kidney 1 and pulsatilla to dis-engage baby from pelvis and then elephant walking stairs to bring him down right.... we had had strange bleeding in first stage, but baby remained strong and stabile, mom also was quite well through the long labor - but I was spooked to speed this up in any way... just wanted the cord to stretch gently. 20 minutes before the birth FHT were suddenly absent. Hands and knees, O2 and slowly slowly, he came back. Now Dita was really urging to get her baby out. He was most stabile when she squatted, but this was not our preferred gentle birth... Dita did it (we had not time to transport - I actually considered episiotomy - imagine, and had ready a quiwi to vacuum him out!!!) her son was born by her own power and all of our prayers to Allah.

Allhumdullilah!! our 3.6 kilo Baby boy's cord was short, just about 40 cm. velamentous insertion... AGAIN. Yet another.

Last week we had a five babies in a 12 hour night... two had velamentous cord insertions! It's just not average anymore. In five days time I saw one fatal cord accident, another cord problem leading to stat cesarean birth, and today another incident of deep fetal distress due to cord problems. BTW - none of these three were nuchal cords, just short and velamentous.

What are you midwives seeing? Please send this round to your friends... I am curious.

The study I read concerning M16 genetically modified corn showed that when fed to pregnant mice, ALL THE OFFSPRING, in one generation, had alterations of ALL the cells in ALL their organs!!! Can you see why I am worried about our precious placentas? I did not make this connection, until I began to see an increase in abnormalities and pathology due to placenta and cord troubles. The fact that so many Indonesian women depend upon genetically modified soy products (tempe and tofu) for their day to day protein - and the early introduction of GMO soy here... well it got me wondering??

Dr, Hariyasa... Are you seeing an increase in this kind of cord and placenta problem at R.S. Sangla and Harapan Bunda? Some midwives at R.S. Ari Canti say they are seeing more problems. Dr. John... are you seeing more problems like this in Maui? Iowa? England? Australia? East Coast? I HOPE this is not a trend or a pattern. We really don't want GMO foods, or anything, i.e. environmental pollutants etc. to make changes in placentas. It would be shattering.

Om Shanti, Ibu Robin LIm

Ibu Robin Lim

It’s been a powerful year so far at Yayasan Bumi Sehat. Perhaps here I can only hope to share the highlights and the heartbreaks with you.

By January at the Bumi Bali Family Health and Birth Center the number of babies we were receiving began to soar. Though we never turned a laboring mother away, we were short of beds. Some nights recovering moms and their babies were transferred to Brenda and Pak Meng’s house, or to my house, just near the clinic. Thanks to the generosity of Marcella and Evan, who had their baby girl with me… Bumi Sehat has a new room. Instead of having just seven beds we now have eleven.

Because of the fact that the land Bumi Sehat Bali sits on is leased, we must move in less than five years. Megan Pappenheim`s Bali Spirit team threw us a fantastic Fund-raiser in March with Meghan McDonald as their organizer. Michael Franti and Oppie Andaresta donated their talents for a fabulous musical event. It was a sensational success! We have put these funds aside as a foundation of a substantial savings which will be needed to acquire a permanent home in Bali for Bumi Sehat. Thank you Team Bali Spirit for bringing us nearer to this goal!

The Bumi Sehat Aceh clinic, built by the Rotary continues to keep it’s doors open in service to the Tsunami survivors. Two beautiful midwives from Italy, Maria Dalle Pezzse and Lisa Forasacco gave six months of their lives in service at Bumi Aceh, working beside our fifteen Indonesian live-in team members at Bumi Aceh. We are presently seeking a new international midwife or two to serve between six months to a year in this most desperate and beautiful place. Dr. Eman, Midwife Yanti, Nurses Leman and Bankit need help.

Team Bumi Aceh was blessed this year by the birth of Eti and Pak Sudung’s baby Daughter. Translator Mimi and Nurse Leman were married in August and have just announced they too are expecting a baby in March. This happiness makes life on-site at the clinic more joyful.

Yes, we have water births for the Tsunami Survivors, and twice a week we hold prenatal health education and exercise-dance-yoga for new and expectant moms. Our medical team has a close working relationship with the Traditional Birth Attendants in our area. Ibu Bulan and Ibu Sadhia have hand phones provided by our donors, they attend prenatal group classes with our midwives and expectant mothers, and call Team Bumi when a woman in labor needs assistance. This program has been a very successful in saving lives.

Yes, the Rotary NYC/Ubud ambulance is still running, doing amazing service in Aceh. Yes, the Bumi Aceh clinic is operating on solar power, with wind generator back-up. Yes, we maintain an organic garden to feed our staff and share with patients. Three of our team members will be attending the Yayasan IDEP “Green Hands” organic perma-culture farming capacity building workshop on scholarships donated by our sister NGO, Indonesian Development, Education, and Perma-culture. www.idepfoundation.org
The Tsunami is far from over, as waves of suffering still break on the lives of the survivors every day. Most are still jobless. Those that finally have little homes are blessed, but the entire population copes day to day with the flooding. The post disaster inflation of food prices make eating well and staying healthy an impossibility. Thanks to the generosity of Rotary Clubs International, Direct Relief International, BCC, Otis Elevators, IDEP Foundation, Paula Baudaux, and many many donors and volunteers from all over the world, the Bumi Sehat clinic in Aceh is still open, when so many Not-for-Profit Organizations were forced to leave.

Back in Bali the economy, like the world economy is suffering, which translates into an increase in poverty and malnutrition. Because Bumi Sehat accepts the poorest of the poor patients, we are seeing an increase in birth defects and babies who face death at the fulcrum of their births.

In July our team received a baby boy who did well throughout the labor, but died at birth. CPR brought him back, but he survived only nine hours. Without the availability of autopsy we have no explanation for why this extraordinary baby’s fate was to live a beautiful but short life. We did learn that both parents work full-time jobs, seven-day weeks, for the same business. For their toil their combined wage in about $40.00! The young husband shared his sadness that his pregnant wife and five-year-old daughter were eating only one small meal a day.

In August we had two babies in one night born without heartbeat or respirations. We were able to resuscitate and both babies are doing absolutely perfectly well, breastfeeding and growing. The third mom to give birth that same night bled out nearly a liter! Even with IVs in her arms, smiling and breastfeeding her baby, she never knew how close she came to death’s door. Our team quietly did their skilled work, not complaining that in that 24 hours they had received six babies and had had no rest at all.

Putu Restu was born with cleft palate and hare lip. His chances of survival were grim. With the support of Team Bumi and the amazing Australian women who bring us breast pumps (THANK YOU), Putu’s mom, was able to breastfeed and bring her baby to sufficient strength to have the corrective surgery. Today they came to visit me at home. Putu’s face was beautiful, he was tall for his age of just under one year. His bright smile is the best reward for Jon Fawcette and his team at YKI, who made this miracle possible. www.humanitarianprojectsindonesia.org
Following up on Elsa Mercedes, the ten-year-old Sumbanese girl that we took to YKI for help with a colostomy that had never been fixed, she is doing splendidly. The operation was another 100% success.

Jane Fischer of Team Bumi is seeking help for I. Kadek Pande Juliartha, a 14 year-old boy who lives near KAFE restaurant in Ubud and suffering from inoperable Nasopharyngeal cancer. Although the cancer has not moved to his organs, this young person has no chance without chemo and radiation. At this writing, his breathing is so obstructed we fear he could die in his sleep. Kadek`s father is mentally handicapped and his mother has rented out the house, even the kitchen, just to make ends meet. Their son had qualified for the national program of government-paid health care for the poor and scheduled for treatment at Sanglah in late September, however the program was canceled. His parents had given up when caring neighbors called Bumi to help. Jane makes home visits and has helped Kadek’s parents to change their son’s diet to chemical and MSG free home-cooked food: organic rice porridges, lots of organic greens and protein provided by neighbors and Bumi. Kadek is taking Bumi Sehat vitamins, receiving acupuncture treatments from Dr. Bobbi and Dr. John Ross. Jane keeps bringing in the good cheer to keep Kadek and his parents hopeful that our community can find treatment for their son. Although Kadek’s physical and emotional state has much improved, we are awaiting exact diagnosis while sourcing local Chemotherapy and Radiation treatments by launching an international appeal for assistance to cancer foundations who can partner with Bumi and give Kadek a second chance. For updates on Kadek email Ibu Jane: jane.fischer@hotmail.com

Ibu Anom, who came to us only after her cancer had completely eaten her breast, passed away in August. She had attended the bi-weekly free acupuncture clinic at Bumi. With treatments and herbal therapy from Dr. Bobbi she began to glow and feel so much better, even knowing that we could not save her. When I last spoke to Ibu Anom, she was just so happy that she had had this last year of strength and clarity to give her some time with her husband and eight year-old son. We thank Mark Savage of Semenyak Rotary for his continued support and for bringing Ibu Anom to us for treatment. Mark also found a wheelchair for Mas Jyoko who suffered a stroke and aneurism in January. Thanks to acupuncture treatments and Dr. Bobbi’s immediate response, Mas Jyoko is beginning to walk.

Patient Stats Bumi Sehat Bali January - September 2008:

Prenatal check ups = 3472

Births = 453

Postpartum check ups = 582

Sick or injured allopathic doctor’s patients =
772

Acupuncture/chiropractic/homeopathy patients =
1679

Pediatric patients = 551

Total Bumi patients helped so far in 2008 =
7,509

Patient Statistics for Bumi Sehat Aceh Clinic January – Sept 2008:

Prenatal check ups = 847

Births = 68

Postnatal and home visits/breastfeeding support
=
553

Emergency ambulance transports in labor to hospital
=
27

Emergency ambulance transports sick/injured patients
=
45 (of these 12 critical)

Sick or injured allopathic doctor’s patients
=
5211

Total Bumi patients helped so far in 2008 =
6,751

Total both clinics – thanks to our donors! =
14,260

Most common ailments among tsunami survivors:

Hypertension, skin rashes, infections, eye infections, dysentery, typhoid, worms, scabies, breathing/lung related illnesses, injuries from accidents, malaria cases are less this year Bumi diagnosed and treated 11 cases of Fulciparium Malaria.


BUMI YOUTH CENTER:

So far in 2008 the Bumi Sehat Youth center has awarded certificates to:

86 Computer students

71 Students of English Language

Our amazing young teacher, Yanti has left us to attend University in Holland. Her legacy is to have found four students from Buntut Sari village, Trunyan, Kintamani, Bangli, one of the poorest parts of Bali, where the citizens are dependent upon farming and they have long suffered a drought. Yanti found that since 1989 when statistics began to be gathered, only one student from this village was able to complete high school. These four students have reentered school, on a complete scholarship from Bumi Sehat, including room and board near the schools, uniforms, books, supplies, every essential and some basic comforts. Their commitment is to become educators and provide their own village with teachers. There is already and existing school building.

Ketut Sudiarta: College level teacher training

Ketut Wiadini: High School

Ketut Danirat and Ketut Yuni, had dropped out and were working as maids, they are now back in Junior High school, planning to continue until they finish teacher training.

Yanti, working with Bumi Sehat had been brining blankets, clothing, food, medical supplies, etc. to this destitute village high in the mountains. We realized that the blankets would rot, the food and medical supplies would be gone, but to help this village long term, we could endeavor to educate their youth. We are so proud of Yanti, and know she will quickly finish university and come home to Bali to continue to help her people.

Dr. Frank Butler and his team of international healer roustabouts will return again to Bali is January. We are so happy as this team brings medical relief to the most remote parts of the island. Dr. John Ross has continued to give generously of his time and talent as a healer. Dr. Soma continues her service to our pediatric patients. Dr. Bobbi is permanent volunteer staff, and a huge blessing for the Balinese people.

Many volunteers have come and served. Mitzi Myerson was back in Ubud helping the new mothers through labor with her healing hands. Nicole Heidbreder of the Doulas Association not only gave her time and energy, she raised funds to purchase essential supplies, including lights for suturing. Chandra the German midwife/angel has returned again to devote herself to the women and babies. Additional team blessings include; Midwives, Riyo of Japan, Leslie of New Zealand, Judith from the US, Doula Rachel and med student Jessica. Iva Delany has served both in Aceh and at Bumi Bali and continues to inspire us as she finishes her medical training in NYC. Kayla Barnes is so missed, after returning to the US she used her own funds to pay for our website! Linda Desmond, Sara Estrin, Stacy Gunter, and Clare Loprinzi… we hope you return. Pak Doug is not only famous for being the daddy of one of Bumi’s cute cherubs, he has taken over the job of securing the website. Frederic Challandes has continued to make our website changes and updates. Jane Fischer and Liz Sinclair head up the fundraising team, plus every kind of support possible. Zhouie Lee joins team Bumi having finished University of Iowa, she is now Ibu Robin’s personal assistant. Pak Wil provides filmmaking and media support. Lakota Moira translates and lays out our books and publications. Art work is provided by Zion Lee and Gede Robbi. Ibu Jen Richardson for inspiration, fundraising support and mediation services. Pak Frank keeps the accounting team happy and sane, while providing the Bumi Bali staff with delicious cakes. Brenda Ritchmond is finishing her master’s degree in midwifery, while being the mother of five, serving on the Bumi Sehat Board of Directors, and serving as our liaison between the Muslim community in Bali and the Birth Center.

Indonesian staff in Aceh: Dr. Eman, Nurse Leeman married to Mimi our translator, Nurse Bankit, Pak Sudung logistics and his wife Eti, our bookkeeper, Midwife Yanti, Midwife Lisa, Cooks, MaTun and MaNhi, Traditional healer Ibu Ayshia, Gardening and recycling; Safran, Drivers; Ijal and Marlin. Reception; Mellyana.

Bumi Bali permanent staff: Admin-accounting; Sandi, Eka, Ayu, Raka,
Tini, Pastika, Youth Center; Kadek Ariawan, Translators; Endang and Ibu Gandri, Maintenance; Pak Gusti, Housekeeping; Ibu Putu, Jati, Made Ruma, Driver; Pagi, Night watchmen; Kunci and Tarjo, Gardeners; Suarsa and Sudika, Recycling; Kasid and Karta, Community clean-up; Darta, Saustika, Murdana, Pak Kaler, hair cutter. Medical team; Reiki;

I.B. Rai, Dr. Wayan Sudiarsana, Nurses; Putu, and Sri, Midwives; Jero Susante, Agung Mas, Ayu, Agung Sayang, Ketut Suastini, Ketut Rutini, Kadek Dwi, Made Suastini, Brenda Ritchmond, Swandewi, Catherine Frankish and me… Ibu Robin.

There are so many donors and sponsors, it is impossible to thank them all… yet we wish to mention here people and organizations who have recently been extra generous in supporting Bumi Sehat Bali and Aceh. Our deepest gratitude….

Special thanks to the Bupati Gianyar, Tjokorde Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, affectionately known as, Cok Ace for their historic visit to the Bumi Sehat clinic on September 23rd. His political support helps to insure that our services continue into the coming generations.

InterContinental`s Community Program for Bali has chosen to sponsor Bumi Sehat this year. We are so honored. Their focus will be helping us with the purchase of medicines and helping to support the Indonesian medical team’s salaries.

Australian Volunteers International – thank you for giving us Midwife Catherine Frankish as a long term volunteer. Australian Business Volunteers – thanks for the sponsorship of Elizabeth Sinclair as our grant writer and capacity builder for the Administration team.

Australian Consulate General Direct Aid Committee – thank you for sponsoring the printing of Bumi’s next two publications; “Ibu Alami”, and, “Anak Alami” these books, like “ASI Esklusif Dong”, which you sponsored last year… will enhance lives.

British Community Committee (BCC)/Jakarta, thank you for your ongoing belief in Bumi Sehat Aceh, and for supporting that belief.

Special thanks to Bali Buddha, Ibu Brenda and Pak Paolo for providing financial assistance to the Bumi Sehat Youth Center and for sharing Ibu Brenda with us for all the years.

Margo Berdeshevsky… thank you for poetic, photographic and financial support. Still the “Lipstick Bird.”

Grazia to our friends in Italy… The City of Cesano~Moderno for ongoing generous support from each and every citizen. The family of Barbara Siliquini. The Alexander Langer Foundation for caring for Bumi Sehat and upholding Peace on Earth, Ingrid, Christine, Sabina, Marzia, Edi, Mau, Tiziana, and everyone who remembers Alex Langer and his message, most notably…Maurizio Rosenberg Colorni, Meriem Peillet and family. Please visit their website: www.alexanderlanger.org.

Paola Bonfreschi, Paola Migliorini and the tireless members of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements for inviting me to speak at the Organic World Congress in Modena. www.ifoam.org/modena2008
Midwives Wallaby and Farfala for having me speak at “Birth a Revolution in Peace” in Damanhur. www.damanhur.org
Irene Genovese and the amazing organizers of “L’Arte Ostetrica” A European Congress on New Perspectives in Birth, for inviting me to speak… and meet so many wonderful devoted midwives and doctors from all over the world, all caring for peace by protecting the next generation of humans.

Thank you Chiara and Farmacia Pozzi for promoting Breastfeeding and inviting me to Italy, I will be with you soon.

Il Melograno, Tiziana Valpiana and all the families who promote gentle birth in Italy. www.melograno.org
Huge thanks to my Publisher in Italy, Urra~Apogeo, for making “Dopo la Nascita del Bambino” available in Italian language, and spreading the news of Bumi Sehat.

Likewise thanks to Celestial Arts/10 Speed Press in Berkeley for keeping “After the Baby’s Birth” and “Eating for Two” and therefore Bumi Sehat in the hearts of American moms.

Ibu Barbara and Ibu Nola, thank you for coming year after year with supplies and support.

Lee and Chris Beckom and their friends all over Santa Barbara.

Emerald Starr… for knowing what we need and making it happen.

Aloha Solomon for bringing supporters full of heart from all over the world to Bumi Sehat.

Sakthi Foundation is still helping us day to day on the US side, providing a 501C umbrella for our donations. They keep us going in so many ways, Pradheep, and Bruce… Thank you

Soroptimist International of Helena, has been one of our most faithful sponsors over a long time. Most appreciated are the medical supplies, nutritional supplements, baby hats, blankets and clothing, many of which club members hand make for us, and… financial assistance.

Rotary Club of Kew on Yarra has sponsored and paid for the updating of all of Bumi Sehat Bali’s IT, computers and media support. They have also donated a brand new baby scales and liquid vitamins for infants and children. This club has committed to Bumi Sehat as an ongoing international project, including financial support.

Direct Relief International is still the kind sponsor of the operational funds for the Aceh clinic. When so many international NGOs have left Aceh, Direct Relief remains loyal to the healing work we are doing there in the Tsunami Relief Clinic.

A Million Mothers Create A Miracle and their “Mom” Katherine Bramhall – you rock. See their website: www.amillionmothers.com This network of hearts has become a force of Mother Nature herself.

Liz Gilbert… thank you for placing Bumi Sehat on the “Eat Pray Love” website… so many people have found us there and come to Bali with offerings of help for our moms and babies.

The Ellen Watson of Esalen Institute massage group for bringing comfort to our pregnant moms and scholarships for Bumi Staff to train as massage therapists. Ibu Susan Stein also donated treatment tables, which we use at Bumi everyday. www.jarimenari.com
Ibu Janet Malloy and “Jani Silver” for their support of our student midwife, Suastini and for continuing to sponsor Bumi Sehat’s Mother and Baby survival programs. You can se their work at “Gemala”. www.gemalabalisilver.com
Pak Caine and the Dancing Donors for their devoted long-term support of Bumi Sehat.

Ibu Jayne Dixon thank you for the medical supplies and your willingness to ‘mule’ them into the country for us.

Thank you “Chautary Foundation” of Japan especially Mrs. Yamaguchi for support of scholarships for our midwifery students in Aceh, Dahlia and Yenni. These young tsunami survivors so appreciate the opportunity to finish their educations and eventually join the Bumi Sehat medical team in Aceh. Also for the wonderful baby clothing.

Robin Garrison of Maui, Hawaii, founder of Women who Care, “dedicated to helping women in need.” Plus the Maui midwives… Tina, Kadie, Jan, we love you and feel your devotion every day. Costa Rican midwife, Vanessa, who volunteered in May, is now expecting her third baby!

New Chapter Vitamins continues to supply Bumi Sehat patients in Bali and in Aceh with all the organic Perfect Prenatal vitamins that they need. For our developing babies it is their best chance at a healthy start in life.

Denis Raimondi and Helene Lindbloom Raimondi recently married and instead of wedding gifts have asked friends and family to give to our projects, they have donated the expression of their happiness to Bumi Sehat via Sakthi Foundation. Denis is also visiting Rotary Clubs in the U.S. on our behalf.

Our newest addition to the Bumi International family is the “Yogi’s Unite” group from Las Vegas, Nevada. Thank you Sharon and Drey for extending your hearts and Namaste.

Om Shanti to the Brahma Kumaris team building and meditation program that they have shared with Team Bumi Sehat Bali.

Pak Clint Leazer, thank you for your support in so many many ways.

Huge thanks to Rotary Ubud, especially; David Kupper (father of the Aceh clinic), Tandy, Daisy, Raiki, David Lovental, Adrienne, Eko, Alisa, and new member Nita. They are working hand in hand with Rotary Clubs all over the planet to fund an ambulance for the Bumi Bali clinic.

Bumi Sehat is completely dependent upon care, kindness and generosity to keep our services going. So many people come by and offer help, too many to name here. We are so full of gratitude… those of you receiving this letter – have been essential to our projects. You have preserved precious lives, relieved suffering and quietly you have radiated a message of peace.

Om Shanti, Thank You and Love… Ibu Robin



How to make a donation…


**Donations via Paypal... go to our website: www.BumiSehatBali.org

Send checks EARMARKED FOR BUMI SEHAT to
Sakthi Foundation
1507 Lone Oak Circle, Fairfield, Iowa 52556

the latest cat power cd is really good.

8/8/8

spare change is good.

ahhh, the adequate life.

"I also spoke at the Organic World Congress. A GMO scientist went in my face “You midwives can’t say that changing the rice has killed mothers.” I replied, “Yes, I must say it, because the dead don’t speak.”..." - ibu robin lim

first i was a strange fruit
on a strange branch
then i rotted
then i fell
as we near the longest day
i am a strange tree
all in one moment

Occam's Shaver:

it's so simple, it doesn't work at all.

sirens are called sirens for a good reason.

all roads are paved with intentions.

nature abhors a vacuum cleaner.

Dear Joel,
Just back from another peace tour in Italy. Amazing things happening...
A poem written after dreaming alone on a train.

For Alexander Langer from a Midwife

If only, you were on this very train to Verona,
I could lean forward and put half my music
into your left ear.
Maybe, from where your soul stays,
you can you hear the small voice of violin bringing guitar
to his knees in gratitude, in harmony.
Politely, I would avoid your eyes, ringed in purple
exhaustion, and focus my gaze
on the windows streaked with metallic sky-tears.
The farmers of your country have ploughed
the Italian earth for Autumn.
This black soil will receive the snow soon,
had you lived, your hair would be all white by now.

In my dream, you held me with what felt
like acceptance, something no father and no lover ever offered.
Sun burnt angel, you kissed the sorrows from my head.

My book, in Italian language, is the child
of your dream of peace
mated with my love for women.

I want to wear a t-shirt
with your wide face printed on it. A tattoo,
a shroud of political Turin.

The land you loved opens to receive
the birth blood of women, which I dilute
with wash-water and sweat.
You would have thought me young,
yet, I have grandchildren.
I ask my generations
To carry your satchel
and walk in your sandals.

Mentored by the dead
traveling a train of desire in a man's name,
listening to the cadence of a voice I never heard.
If this is guidance by a saint or sinner's soul
I can never prove what I feel, except in a dance
I am too shy to move with.

If I am to speak your words of peace,
must I eat your sorrow?
And Alexander, must you chew
life's food with my mouth?

Did your promise of compassion burn
you to madness?
Or, did you plan all these days, after taking your own life,
to become the sum of so many pilgrims
born gently into my ugly hands?
Your memory infects hearts,
and grows roots to my feet.

What would you like for dinner Alex,
A dried cherry, a cocoa bean, or a lamb of God?
I would sacrifice much to have known you a little.

Kneeling witness at the birth bed of Indonesia's poverty -
High Priestess of blood and sparrows wings broken
by the windstorms of conflict,
one war pretends to end and another begins.
I imagine they who loved you so,
buried you in a box of roses,
but I was not there to see.

I missed you.
I miss you.

After the funeral
your friends paired off
to drink the pale wine of body fluids,
to scream in the silence of sated cells,
"I am yet alive! Alive!"
You cried for every boy sacrificed in hatred
and every girl raped by soldiers.
Was it not a violence you did to your own body?
A violence on each of us, forever shocked
into loving without compromise.
One of your lovers became a law-maker,
another a priest.
All of them, midwife the stillbirth
of a difficult peace.

Another Autumn passes and ploughs
Summer's dances and fine dreams
into stained yellow newspaper clippings.

We are all endangered
yet, somehow we drink red wine
and eat warm chestnuts knowing tomorrow's menu
is only atomic wind.

Forgive me for writing it too honestly -
as I have allowed your words to escape my blue lips.
May I ask you, did you ever become who you wanted to be?

~~ Robin Lim,
Autumn 2007

January 2008 Field Report





Bumi Sehat Bali and Aceh Health Projects Field Report 2006 - 2007
Prepared by Ibu Robin Lim

As 2007 grew to a close we at Bumi Sehat had much to be grateful for. This year Yayasan (non-profit foundation) Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth) was chosen #1 not-for-profit organization in Bali, of over 700. The selection process was rigorous and all aspects of our projects, from patient care, to computer courses for youth, to recycling were analyzed, our administration was checked and rechecked to see if our licenses are complete and current, our financial books were reviewed and we were found to be corruption free. I must admit to being very very proud of our staff both in Aceh and in Bali. Also, I feel full of gratitude for the donors, who make every aspect of our work possible.


The close of the year was not without sadness, Christmas week we lost four babies in our Bali Safe Motherhood/Infant Survival practice. Three of the four mothers had never attended prenatal care, for lack of transportation or just plain not knowing that Bumi Sehat existed, until the day they were in labor. Thus they did not have the benefit of our risk reduction model of care, and free prenatal vitamins. One baby was premature, she survived only 24 hours. Two other babies had health issues which made it necessary for them to go into hospital for neonatal care, they did not make it. Our last infant death of the year was a lovely anacephalic child. We knew something was not right in the last weeks of Ketut's pregnancy, and accompanied the family to an ultrasound check with our back-up OBGYN. The mother and father had accepted that their child had a profound birth defect, and would not survive long outside of the womb. It was a beautiful and heart opening birth. Baby Kadek lived 4 days, she died in her parent's arms, feeling their love. At her birth we sang the Gyatri mantra, at her death her family also sang this same healing song to the soul. Anacephaly is a neural tube defect, most often caused by malnutrition. All our lost babies were casualties of poor prenatal diet, hunger, due to poverty.
In Aceh our maternal and child health staff faces the fact that so many of the expectant mothers suffer from high blood pressure, increasing the risk of pregnancy many fold.


An overview of patient statistics for Bumi Sehat 2006 and 2007 are as follows:
Aceh total patients seen; 21,523 this includes 978 emergencies or accidents requiring transport with our beautiful ambulance… thank you NYC Rotary for the emergency transport vehicle!


Our Bali health center saw 6,307 patients in 2006 and 8,350 patients in 2007. Number of babies delivered at the Bumi Bali Birth Center jumped from 364 in 2006 to 521 in 2007. Seems like yesterday 40 births in a month was busy, now we are receiving well over 60 babies per month. One rainy night we moved beds from our staff ashram to the office, to accommodate the birthing moms and babies. Imagine our administration staff's delight when they arrived in the morning to find 11 mothers nursing their healthy newborn babies. We have only 7 beds at Bumi Bali, but we have not turned mothers away. There is always 'room at the Bumi inn.'
The Bumi Youth Center in Bali instructed 120 young people in English language and computer skills in 2006 in 2007 193 students benefited from our free courses.
The South Asia and Ubud Rotary clubs have completed construction on the new Bumi Sehat clinic in Samatiga, Aceh, and donated it to us fully furnished in October. Operating funds have been provided by Direct Relief International, BBC, Zimmerman Foundation, plus friends of Bumi Sehat all over the world. The Sakthi Foundation has made it possible for us to have a 501C umbrella organization in the U.S., thanks to Pradheep, his family and to Bruce, aka "Bumi Angel."


Our wonderful breastfeeding book "ASI Esklusif Dong" was published, 10,000 copies by Direct Aid Programs of the Australian Consulate. This book on in Bahasa Indonesia will save lives.


I cannot thank our volunteers from all over the world enough. David and Asri of Ubud Rotary… heaven knows you worked so hard. Melanie, back in England now is so missed. Frank, Irene, Nita, Eka, Sandi, Raka making up the financial team. Liz and Jane, fundraising support, Katherine for asking New Chapter to give us Perfect Prenatal vitamins for all of our pregnant women… and so much more. The international midwives and doulas one and all, who have come to us with helping hands and open hearts, thank you. Bless you Dr. Bobbi for running the Acupuncture program, Dr. Frank and your team for coming to Aceh and coming back to do service in Bali, Dr. Soma for anckoring the pediatric outreach. Endang, Ida, Nancy, Mimi, Ibu Gandri, for translation support. Dr. Wayan in Bali, and Dr. Eman in Aceh for keeping your hearts and minds open to Healing ways of medicine. Special thanks to our brave midwifery and nursing team, Budi, Agung, Ketut, Kadek Dwi, Ayu, Mega, Feda and Christina, Leman, JoLinda, Bangkit, holding hands with the traditional midwives, Ibu Bulan, Ibu Satria, and Mah Tih. Media support came from Lakota, Zion, Gede Robi, and songs from Michael Franti, and Oppie Andaresta. Every minute of help and support, is a healing. Our aim is to relieve suffering. With the Babies, our prayer is that each soul trusting the Bumi Sehat midwives to receive them into the world, will arrive with an intact ability to love. By preventing birth trauma, by loving and supporting the moms through a gentle and safer birth, in a land where hemorrhage after childbirth is one of the leading causes of death… we hope to keep the babies' hearts open and connected to their minds, resulting in optimum health. We believe that gentle birth can heal the Mother Earth, one baby at a time.


There is much talk of Global warming, and indeed, it is of great concern. In these times on Earth it is easy to be pessimistic about the future…. Our first Bumi Baby of the New Year 2008 came into the world breech, which leads us to believe; "Things are turning around." May it be so. Thank you for forging a partnership in this peace we so wish to create.


Om Shanti, Assalamualaikum, Om Shanti, Blessings of Peace, Happy New Year…
And Love, always Love, Ibu Robin Lim

My latest poem --

A Small White Feather

For Marilyn Hacker and Hanifa

The last dream of dawn was of my lover stroking my clitoris,
with a small white feather.
Is that how we left it when I ran off sometime between
three and four a.m. to deliver a baby?

The baby, ink black eyes and black curls she will hide
under an Islamic veil.
Hide from who?
When they leave the clinic today
I will tell her father that I have already
circumcised her.
He will praise my efficiency.
Her mother will know I have lied.
A woman's secret need never be discussed.

My neighbor wears the krudung,
I love her.
She names her new daughter Hanif Isthara Sabila.
A name must be a poem.

In the batik shop I saw you, poet, missing a breast.
I wanted to touch you there, and move my hands
from full side to scar, living under the blue motif.
I held back. You didn't mind my imagined caress.
In a more honest lifetime, I will touch you for real.

In the land I half belong to
children are taught to fear Muslims.
It's a damn deep scar.

Mohamed told the desert men never to
bury their newborn daughters….
This was common, a man's responsibility.
Bear many sons. Keep only one daughter.

A strong man never talks of the small perfect hand
that squeezed his finger as the sand enveloped a bright new soul.
He knows it takes courage to do his duty, the girl facing the sky,
her black hair, black eyes shining one last moment in the hot day.
All these long days later I realize that Mohamed was a deviate.
Imagine him boldly saying that in war,
men may not kill,
women, children, elders or trees.

The last dream of dawn -- my lover.
A small white feather. A Child.

~~~ Robin Lim Sept. 2007

Je veux être ce que je veux être.

Knowing love, I let all things come and go and face everything
with great courage.
Life is right in any case. My heart is open as the sky.
-- Kama
Sutra

Open as the sky and as full of tears, sunshine, butterflies, cigarette smoke
and flying kisses.

I dream of pomegranates as red inside as a woman's womb the moment after
birth, before the placenta has comeŠ at the time she is most likely to die.

I can't sort the pagan offerings from the rosary beads my Filipino
grandmother strung over my heart. Sometimes it is all too tight.

"Knowing Love" is claiming to know the flavor of wind, or using words to
describe the magnetic air before a huge rainstorm. I'd rather "know change"
- - for it is all we can depend upon. Damn it, change can hurt so much too.
And, to be honest, I am not friendly with change.

Lightening bugs cling to the trees in a Filipino village I have not seen for
nine years. I hope they are still there. It would be something anyway. I
was born with a mile of raging river between my heart and my mind. I cross
that gap over a dangerous hanging bridge of steel cable and rotting planks.
The tiny lights of the bugs' hind-ends guide me. It takes courage and a
kind of madness. A strong cocktail, hormones of passion drives every baby
step.

I pray you are not drinking red wine alone tonight.


~ Robin Lim
November, 2007