志愿者 于蓓蓓

      9月28日下午，在南京中医药大学国际教育学院会议室中，我们志愿者团队的代表采访了美国俄勒冈东方医学院来宁实习的学生领队Mrs. Beth Howlett，并就大家共同关心的问题展开了轻松而愉快的交流。志愿者们对本次采访活动非常感兴趣，都提前准备了自己想要问的问题，因此采访中涉及的主题相当广泛：从对中国的初步印象说到在中国遇到的文化冲击，从中西观念问题聊到美国学生在实习中遇到的问题与挑战，从志愿者工作谈到临床带教，从美国社区中医教育说到中医目前在美国的发展现状...其中充满着思维火花的碰撞，现场也爆发出一阵阵地笑声，气氛非常融洽。

     采访中，衣素梅老师做为志愿者团队负责人和本次采访主持人，首先以Mrs. Beth Howlett所擅长的美国社区教育为话题开始了采访。Mrs. Beth Howlett介绍道，根据对去年录取学生数据的分析，美国俄勒冈东方医学院的生源主要有两类，一是病人渠道，另一个则是常规学生渠道。由于中医在美国的环境不如其在国内成熟，为了扩大学校的知名度与影响力，俄勒冈东方医学院会通过各类公共活动向人们展示中医的魅力（如气功表演等），帮助人们了解针灸，与公众分享拥有健康饮食习惯的方法等，从而吸引更多的生源。而在这样的宣传人群中就不得不提到美国的学生志愿者团队，她们往往都会用自己的经验现身说法，与其他院校的学生宣传针灸的神奇等。虽然她们的志愿活动在内容上和形式上跟我们有所不同，但志愿精神都是一样的，即用大家各自有限的时间无偿为中医的国际化发展与传播尽一份力。

    接着，志愿者杨星君，于蓓蓓，蒋辰雪分别对美国团领队Mrs. Beth Howlett进行了一对一的采访。而作为美国团志愿者领队的蒋辰雪除了就她自己所关心的入学招生要求等问题进行提问外，还询问了Mrs. Beth Howlett对于我们志愿者工作的想法与建议。尽管我们的志愿活动才刚刚开展两周，Mrs. Beth Howlett赞扬了我们的志愿者工作，特别是第一天的接待和10月26日中医健身气功介绍。

     由于要在上海等最后一名学生, Mrs. Beth Howlett没能和整个团队一起到达南京，但是我们志愿者们却在宾馆迎接了他们，帮助他们拿行李，介绍南京情况，熟悉周边环境, 学生们都有回到家的感觉，这使Mrs. Beth Howlett非常感动。 而9月26日举办的中医健身气功讲座也是他们没有体会过的。美国的气功讲座很多，但都只教功法，没有将中医理论与功法动作结合起来，结果使人感觉与其他锻炼形式差别不大，从而缺少内涵而不能长期坚持。由于上课时间有限，美国学生课后还提出要求，希望再加课。Mrs. Beth Howlett非常欢迎这样的志愿者活动，还对下面要进行的一些志愿者活动，如中药药茶药膳活动等，提出自己的一些建议和想法。

     整个采访延续了一个小时，时间虽然短暂，但过程充实而丰富。采访结束后，衣老师将自己参与编著的《实用中医养生》赠送给了Mrs. Beth Howlett做为这次采访的纪念。

Interview to Mrs. Beth Howlett

Written by Sarah

On Sept. 28th, we interviewed Mrs. Beth Howlett, who is in charge of the delegation from Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in the reception room of IEC, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, during which we had a delightful and pleasant conversation. Since all the volunteers present were very excited about the interview, we prepared many questions that we cared the most about in advance, thus making the topics of this interview quite extensive, from the initial impression of China years ago to the cultural conflicts she met then, from the differences in concept (take individualism and collectivism for example) to the challenges and problems the American students may already have and probably will have in their clinic internship, from volunteers' teamwork to the clinical translation, from community education in America to the strengths and shorts of TCM's development in America... The whole interview was full of the collision of thoughtful sparks and happy laugher from time to time.

At the beginning of the interview, as the volunteer team leader as well as hostess of this interview, Prof. Yi Sumei kicked off by asking questions regarding the potential students of the community education. "In accordance with data from the last year", Mrs. Beth Howlett said, "the main potential students fall into two categories, one is the patients recruitment and the other is student recruitment." Considering the fact that the situation of TCM in America is not as mature and well-developed as that in China, they have to conduct and participate in various public activities in order to recruit more students, such as organizing public demonstrations of Qigong, acupuncture treatment demonstration, Chinese health cultivation methods, so as to let people experience the benefits of Chinese medicine and enjoy a healthier life, etc. Within all those activities, those who can not be forgotten are the student volunteers' team, who were invited to go to other colleges and universities, "speaking from their own experiences to tell people how amazing acupuncture is". Although there are some differences concerning the content and form of doing volunteering work, the essence about being a volunteer is the same, which is to make full use of our limited time and knowledge to make contributions to the internationalization of TCM.

Next, volunteers including Jane, Sarah and Jennifer all had face-to-face interview with Mrs. Beth Howlett. As the leader of American volunteer group, Jennifer also asked Mrs. Beth Howlett’s comments and suggestions on the volunteering work we have offered. It has only been two weeks, Mrs. Beth Howlett praised our volunteering work wholeheartedly, particularly the first day’s reception and the Qigong Lecture given by Prof. Yi on Sept. 26th, and also gave some suggestions on the coming volunteering activities, such as Chinese Health Culture of Herb Tea.

Mrs. Beth Howlett was unable to come together with the whole group to Nanjing on the first day as she had to wait for the last student arrived in Shanghai. Our volunteers welcomed the delegation in Jinling Mansion by helping carrying luggage, showing them around the neighbourhood, introducing Nanjing, thereby making all of them feel at home. Mrs. Beth Howlett was very grateful. The Health Qigong Lecture was something special to them as it focused not only on demonstrating exercises but also the integration of TCM theories and the body movements. The participants enjoyed Chinese qigong and expressed the idea to have more such lectures.

The interview only lasted forty minutes, shorter but happier for everyone. At the end of the interview, Prof. Yi presented her co-edited book entitled Practical TCM Health Cultivation to Mrs. Beth Howlett as a souvenir of this interview.

Volunteer Sarah

Mrs. Beth Howlett and the volunteers   摄影：何伶

Prof. Yi presented the book to Mrs. Beth Howlett  摄影：蒋辰雪

Mrs. Beth Howlett is talking about her volunteer students摄影：蒋辰雪