I think I've just recovered from my recent trip to Kathmandu, Nepal!
My dad organised a medical mission for the second time to Namo Buddha in Nepal this year.
It's a general medical mission, done at a remote medical clinic up at a site called Namo Buddha. It's at 1700m above sea level, so nowhere near the difficulty of Base Camp.
We left for Kathmandu on Saturday morning, on the 27th October. After a stopover at KL, we arrived at Tribhuvan Airport at Kathmandu. There were 10 of us in the group, and we were to be joined by a further 3 volunteers ( 1 doctor, a nurse and a clinic manager ) at Kathmandu ( they flew in a day earlier from Melbourne )
We were met at the airport and then taken by bus to Hyatt Regency 20 minutes away. Kathmandu is hot, dusty and basically a mess... the hotel was like an oasis of peace and cleanliness in comparison. But things are relative. It's not like a 5 star Hyatt that you'd expect.
We went for lunch at a restaurant just outside the Hyatt that had fantastic Nepali food. Momo, Naan, various curries and their famous Marsala tea. We were warned.. the last meat we'd eat for the next few days!
Some of the group left for early shopping, while SY and I went back to the hotel for a spa session!
The next day we took a (larger) bus up the mountain to Namo Buddha. In Nepal, there is no boot space in their buses. Luggage is manually hauled up to the roof and strapped. These transport guys are pretty strong!
The ride to Namo Buddha was pretty spectacular. The first part took us past crowded towns, which gradually stretched out to quieter towns, then finally up windy roads up the mountain. We were also warned about the final stretch of non-road. Understatement. It was a soil trail! How buses and cars drive up there astounds me. We were bouncing around in the bus. Thank goodness for Ondansetron. The views, however, did do justice to the ride. It was spectacular. As beautiful as the Canadian Alps or any other alps in the world.
We were settled into the accomodation, which was basic. Beds, toilet and occasional electricity for hot water and lights. No heating. Food was provided by a central kitchen, which was completely vegetarian.
The first day, we started clinic in the afternoon for the monks living at Namo Buddha. It was a good test of our mission clinic.
The next 2 days were spent seeing villagers that walked to see us. They are cardiovascularly fitter than most of us seeing them! Our main difficulty was language. We were fortunate to have interpreter monks helping us. The casemix was varied too.. we had the typical osteoathritis, vague joint pains, a few gynaecological issues, 3 cysts for excision, a few warts, paediatric impetigo, eczema and malnutrition. Some of the kids were quite small... 4 year olds weighing only 12kg.
I think we saw close to 500 people in the 2.5 days we ran clinic. The last day was probably the best. Everyone was familiar with the workflow, and we managed to do 3 excisions of huge sebaceous cysts too. The volunteers who came with us were amazing. They worked really hard, probably harder than the doctors. These are well- to- do people from home, and it was heartwarming to see them knuckle down to work. They helped us with triage, taking blood pressures, blood sugars, height and weight. And corralled the patients to see the doctors.
Food was literally vegetarian. Rice/ noodles with 2 vegetable dishes. Nicely flavoured, but when you're working hard mentally and physically it doesn't feel like enough. We had our own supplies of cup noodles and snacks, so that helped us through the night. Nights were cold. We had our sleeping bags with us and disposable heat packs that helped. There was no entertainment, so we went to sleep really early! That didn't mean we slept well.. quite horrible to be up several times only to find 2 hours had passed since we went to bed!!
I think most of us were quite glad to return to Kathmandu on the 4th day. By then the Hyatt felt like a paradise. An oasis of luxury. It's funny how things are subjective. It was so fantastic to have choice in our meals. Meat!
We spent the last day on tour to a place called Bhaktipur. It's an UNESCO protected heritage site. I think the best part must have been this wood carving thing that had 24 scenes of the karma sutra engraved on it. It was quite vivid.
After that we went to Thamel, a huge street shopping area. That was amazing. We had dinner at Fire and Ice, most notable because it had free wifi, a large number of Caucasians, and decent Italian food. It was a good way to end the trip. Most people bought tea, cashmere scarves/shawls, hiking goods and leather goods.
The next day we had a leisurely breakfast at the Hyatt, then wandered over to the outdoor street market near us. Did more shopping, and then finally off to the airport.
The trip was really surreal.. time flew by so quickly ( although when it was the night it felt like an eternity ). The return trip via KL was too long. We had a 5 hour layover at KLIA so by the time we arrived home it was closer to 1 am.
I was so tired the next few days. I think I've just recovered and started feeling normal only today. I don't think I've ever felt so tired after a mission trip before. Age? Difficulty of trip?
Would I go again ? I think so! Experience definitely helps.
No comments:
Post a Comment