The way to the center was quite far and winded
than I thought. However, when I arrived at the center, I can’t move my step in there. Like a house
from the fairytale, the center was very pretty and beautiful. It was built with
red blocks and was in harmony with trees and flowers. I took my step to go in,
and surprise again. Inside, it was warm and congenial, just like real house. As
I looked around, I could see many grandmothers and grandfathers sitting on
their chairs.
We bowed to them and started our job. My work
was to do hand moxibustion to them. I got a fired moxa cautery and went to one
grandmother with senior. He introduced me to her that I am a new member
in their club. I bowed and introduced myself again. She greeted me warmly and
we started hand moxibustion.
First, I put the moxa cautery on the grandmother’s hand. Then, I waved my hand above
it to prevent her from smoke. I did this work three times on both hands. I
talked with her while I was doing the moxibustion. She was just like my
grandmother except that she cannot talk fluently like my grandmother. But I
liked her very much and we did moxibustion in a warm mood. After I finished the
moxibustion, one of senior students did hand acupuncture to her.
Because I finished my work, I went to the
other grandmother. I bowed to her and asked her whether it is okay for me to
massage her shoulders. She agreed, so I started to massage her shoulders. While
I was doing the massage, she showed the interest on moxibustion. She asked me what
it is. I answered that it is called hand moxibustion, and it will be good for
her health if she put that cautery on her hand. I asked her whether she wanted
to try it. She said “yes”. So I tried to do it to her. But
after few seconds, she refused to do it.
Without the need to do the moxibustion, I just
sat next to her and talked with her. She kept say that I am pretty and called
me as ‘old
sister’.
She told me about her father, her childhood, and the house that she had lived
before. From her sayings and actions, I could easily find out that her disease
was more serious than other grandmothers in the center. I kept talking with her
and sang ‘Arirang’ together.
When I was going to leave, the volunteers at
the center came to me and said ‘thank you’. According to her, the grandmother
whom I talked later never did the moxibustion before. It was her first time to
do it when I did it to her. Though it was only for a few seconds. I was very
glad, excited and felt thankful to her because she opened her mind to me.
On the way back to school, I was saturated
with the smell of moxa cautery, which smells like cigarettes. However, I was on
cloud nine.
On April 6th, I am going to the
center again. At that time, I hope to help other grandmothers and grandfathers,
just like her.
