You've been reading along with my adventures with the shopbot making labyrinths. I wanted to update you on some of the possible uses in patient care. I went to the Hope Lodge in Greenville, a house with full housekeeping capability for people undergoing chemotherapy, who are over 18 years old and live more than 40 miles away. David Roscoe, the Director gave me a tour of the place and it is impressive. Funded by the American Cancer Society and my friends Bill McConnell and Mary Raab, it provides kitchen space and living apartments that ease the burden of chemotherapy. The Lodge is always in need of volunteers or donations and if you are so inclined, give it a look! I wanted to see if there may be a space for my finger labyrinths in helping people lessen their stress during chemo and so i donated several to the lodge. I'll be anxious to read any comments they may have. In preparing the journal article we submitted with Kristen and Tammy, I've done some digging to find how walking a labyrinth may help. There is considerable literature about the similarities between meditation and hypnosis. In both states the person is able to enter a peaceful space either by themselves or with a hypnotist. Walking a labyrinth is said to be a meditative technique. Maybe a goal with the finger labyrinths is to allow people who do not have experience in the complex discipline of meditation to undergo something I'll call "therapeutic distraction" during the time they use the labyrinth. I'm planning to look a bit further into studies in acute rehabilitation and chemotherapy - more to follow on those topics as they develop.
We've done quite a bit of fun stuff with Groupons or their counterpart, Living Social. The format is the same, buy usually a half price something and get the other half free. We love to try new places and got to one in Raleigh - Mawa's Taste of Africa recently (Mawa's). Got there just after the lunch crowd and Abdou, chef, owner and waiter guided us through the menu and prepared an excellent lunch - spicy yes, very spicy, perhaps, but the color and texture of these new tastes were exceptional.
See for yourself in the following photos from Mawa's The first is Sipakh - grilled shrimp in a spciy and creamy sauce with rice and a beef-shrimp roll wrapped in lettuce leaf. Abdou in his finest outfit - he changed outfits for the photo!
Kathryn had a chef's sampler of maffeh guerteh (lamb) and chicken and vegetarian dishes as specials of the day. The ginger lemonade was spectacular!
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