Christmas and final countdown

Long time since I've posted, spent part of last week in Pokhara for Christmas celebrations with other volunteers. It's so wonderful to return there and I really plan to return for another trek or just relaxing there in the future. Spent a lot of time scootering around the town and surrounding area and even ended up with a tan! It's so nice to go to a place where you don't feel cold constantly (ie. Kathmandu and Banepa!). Christmas day was a bit odd because this is the first time I've spent Christmas away from family and in a warm place. Had a roast chicken dinner which was OK, nothing like turkey at home. And the cake was no comparison to my dad's wonderful christmas log which I've been dreaming about the last few days. Also have never spent Christmas day dancing in a club, definitely a memorable Christmas holiday! Jan and I decided to fly back from Pokhara instead of enduring the 6-7 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu. The plane was delayed 2 hours but the flight lasted a total of 25 minutes! When I returned to Banepa I found out that all the shops were on strike. Supposedly, the night before, 6 burglars (there were many break-ins over the last few weeks) were apprehended by locals and then were taken to the police. Over the course of the night, the burglars paid the police off and were released quietly. So, there was uproar over this corruption and everyone went on strike. Not sure if the burglars were caught again.
I am also in my last few days in Nepal. I really never thought I could love this place when I first arrived. I was so overwhelmed by the noise, smells and pollution that I was initially put off by the country. However, after doing all the travelling over the last months, I have grown to love it. It's a beautiful country rich in natural beauty of the Himalayas and varied landscapes and wonderful hospitable people. I have met so many interesting people who are doing such good work to raise the people out of the hardships many Nepalis endure here. I cannot wait to return back here in a few years and see how much this country has changed. In the meantime, I'm just trying not to be too sad about leaving while keeping myself occupied by thinking of my next project in Cambodia!
Happy new year everyone!

Scoliosis camp

Today was a field trip day!! We asked to attend the scoliosis camp which is basically a scoliosis screening program in several parts of Nepal. We had to travel for about 1.5 hours outside of Banepa along a really narrow and bumpy road in a really decrepit bus. At one point I thought we would bump off the side of the cliff. But we had wonderful views of the valley and of the Himalayas. I will really miss seeing mountains daily when I leave Nepal. We finally arrived at the school and then we had to screen approximately 600 students of all ages for scoliosis. They are conducting an incidence study of scoliosis in schoolchildren. So far, the rate is quite low. But I think these screening camps are great because they are able to catch other things. Many of the students today leaped at the chance to talk to a doctor about their aches and pains and it was a good thing for some because the doctor suspected osteosarcoma in one and in another had to figure out if it was leprosy or not. I really enjoyed this camp although it was over too soon! I really wish my placement involved more community based evals and treatments.
Only 5 more days until Christmas!!

Banepa

Started in a new home, new housemates and new volunteer placement on Monday. Was a bit of a sad day because my good friend and roomie for the last 3.5 months left for home and also had to say goodbye to my host family. But the new changes have been lovely even though they're only for a short period of time. Housemates are so super warm and welcoming, the food is really good, and the rooms are really clean and big!! It's really luxury here (well, relatively).
The hospital I'm working at is the HRDC, a pediatric orthopedic hospital. The hospital is situated on a hill overlooking Banepa and is really a bustling lively place. They see so many patients here and perform a lot of surgeries. On my second day, it was surgery day, so basically I could just watch surgeries all days. Got to see an Achilles' tendon release (the sound of tendons being cut is quite distinctive!!), a part of a spinal surgery and a tib. ant. tendon transfer. If anyone is looking for a good place to do some volunteering, this is a great place because so many people are willing to teach you things if you ask.
Read an email from Cambodia office today, they're having dinner on the Mekong river tomorrow! I'm really sad to leave Nepal in 2.5 weeks but when I read things like that, I'm really excited to go to Cambodia!! So conflicted!

Parasites!!

hmm.. seems like my postings are not working right now.
anyways, keeping it short, i have giardia intestinalis. really uncomfortable and gassy. am now on tindamax, hope this is the right treatment (medical friends, please give me your advice!!).

for all my Jewish friends, happy hanukkah!!

Parasites!!

ARGH!! After almost 21/2 months of feeling totally fine, I've finally been stricken with parasites!! Specifically Giardia intestinalis which can live in the body 2-6 weeks and symptoms can manifest almost 2 months after infection! I really think I got it after Dasain when I drank really nasty water which I knew not to drink but was stupid enough to drink anyways. Then I got sick again before Tibet which was really horrible but it went away after I just took strong antibiotics (not too smart to self medicate but I had no choice). However, the symptoms came back today (and they are not nice... really nasty burps for one) and it seems that many of the volunteers have those symptoms right now and I went to the pharmacist and was told I had Giardia. I am now on Tinidazole 500 mg, for all my medical friends out there, I hope that's a good treatment. I really don't want this bug living in me any longer, it's really uncomfortable.
Enough about my intestinal problems.
And to end this post:
For all my Jewish friends out there, Happy Hanukkah!!

Tibet

Arrived in Kathmandu yesterday in a jampacked public bus (cost only 160 rupees!!) from the Tibetan border after a 10 day trip to Tibet. The way to travel in this land was by landcruiser because there are serious scary parts on the way to Lhasa. We stopped in 3 cities before arriving in Lhasa on the 5th day. Many of the towns had huge monasteries (Shigatse and Gyantse) which were partially destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and now are controlled by the Chinese government. In one monastery, there used to be 6000 monks, now there are only 1500 monks and these are picked by the government. It really is sad. At the Potala Palace in Lhasa, it is a silent monastery, no life really, just lots of old relics that people cannot worship anymore because of the government. The city of Lhasa has exploded into a Chinese metropolis. If you read Pico Iyer's account of his travels in the 80's, you can really get a good sense of the huge change that this city has undergone. Most of the shops are run by the Chinese, you can basically get by with Mandarin and eat only Chinese food (which is all good, but in Tibet, it's more sad).
We stayed in luxury hotels during the tour but had to returen to the ghetto life after the tour ended and stayed in a fairly good dorm hotel, Tashi Targyel near the Jokhang temple - the holiest temple in Tibet. This temple was by far my favourite because of the sheer amount of pilgrims coming to this place in the morning and evening. I felt like a horrible tourist when we bypassed the line of hundreds waiting to get in when this place had no real significance to me. It's really uplifting to see the hundreds of people prostrating themselves at this temple even after so many attempts to stifle their culture and way of life.
Lhasa also provided many Western comforts, hot showers, movie theatres (saw Die Hard 4.0 finally) and ate fast food. Had a bet whether there was a McDonald's and lost, but there is the equivalent called Dico's - good chicken burgers, shitty chicken nuggets, and gross hot Fanta.
On our way back from Lhasa, we had a grueling 14 hour drive in a cold LandCruiser, really happy to get out of a car at the end.
Highly recommend going to Tibet before it turns into an indistinguishable Chinese city.