Start placement in village
Trip Start
Sep 14, 2005
1
4
30
Trip End
Jan 24, 2006
Sarangkot, Nepal
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Well I started my placement on monday. I dont even know how to explain it there. For starters I live in a house made mainly of mud, buffalo shit and water. I am not kidding. It is a village in the mountains about two and half hour walk from Pokhara called Sarangkot. I live in this tiny house with three rooms, if you even call them rooms. The kitchen is a room with a small fire oven thing on the ground. The bathroom is outside, it's like an outhouse without a toilet. Its just a hole in the ground. The family is very nice but there is some language barriers. The grandparents live there too and they are hilarious. They just laugh at everything I say. I have my own room but the rest of the family shares a room. Right on the other side of my wall is where the water buffalo (yes Heidi I said Buffalo) goats, and chickens live. The water is a big bucket filled daily from the community tab. Any water I drink is hot because they have to boil it for me. The food is of course Dal Baht (rice, lentils and some curry veg mix) everyday twice a day and it never changes really never. I get tea about 4-6 times a day and I really dont have much say in that matter.
So far I have been chased by a buffalo, had many encounters with tranchulas(spelling?) I did not know they could jump, I have two big rats that I have become friends with they live above my door, oh and lets not forget the famous bed bugs that seem to occupy every bed in Nepal (about 15% of my body is bites right now), if I walk anywhere in the rain (which is everyday) I have to pick the leaches off my feet, oh and everyone has lice. But even with all the challenging stuff (thats what I am calling it now) the place is amazing. To see a culture so in tune with their surroundings is really incredible. Everything they eat comes from their gardens. The milk from the buffalo (I dont recommend buffalo milk) the rice comes form the rice fields. They really don't need much. It makes me realize just how much western cultures waste. They dont even have a garbage. Everything can be reused or feed to the animals. The view is incredible also. I can walk thirty mins up the hill at around 5am and see the sunrise on the entire annapurna range. Thats another thing time here is very different I go to bed around 9pm and get up at like 7am. My typical day is wake up at 7, only because the kids bang on my door yelling didi (older sister) until I answer. Then I drink tea, eat Dal Baht around 10am and then do yoga with the grandmother, which is very comical, she speaks no english. Around 10:30am I go to the clinic, which is a thirty min walk from the house. The clinic is absolute madness. There are no gloves and sanitation is nonexistent. There is only one person that works there and he has about 10 months medical training. But nepali training is lacking in everything. So far we have had cases in just about every disease you can think of especially TB, and Typhoid fever. In addition we get many cases with skin disease, worms, scabies, and gang green. Also abscess are very common, which is an infection under the skin that needs to be released. Everything is done w/out pain meds and with the abscess they just cut a small hole and release the pus (very gross) and then stick a piece of iodine soaked gauze directly into the wound so it does not close. Then they do that over everyday until it gets better eventually the hole turns into a quarter size or bigger. Kids come in and just scream until its over then they are fine. The pain tolorance in incredible here. So all in all I have had a really good eye opening week.
Kelly
Comments
Dahl baht in Sarankot
Art radsolv again Kelly. Seem to keep popping up everywhere in your Logue?
Sarankot rings a memory bell. Think I passed through it on a week long trek I took from Pokhara towards Jomsom. Was making great time with a big back pack when I developed 'Sabh's knee' and had to stop short. I made it back at a slower pace. The secret to avoiding it is to always keep your knee flexed going down hill, never lock it.
Yes, I remember dahl baht at 10AM and exactly the same about 6pm daily while in initial training in Tahakehl an hour outside of Khatmandu. Now two or three times a year I will open a can of Progresso lentil soup and pour it on some boiled rice with a chili pepper or two and almost enjoy it.
I gather you are an RN working in the clinic in Sarankot? Obviously very challenging. Does PC provide you with medicines? I had amoebic dysenterry twice in Nepal once in Gilgit, Pakistan. Flagell or tetracycline cleared it right up. But there must also be a lot of that there. Also glaucoma, and goiter.
Were you always a gutsy gal or did you just adapt quickly? Making friends with rats and and tolerating bed bugs and lice and leeches. Many a guy much less gal would have been heading stateside after arrival.
On being chased by a water buffalo if you haven't already been advised it may comfort you to be aware that their lethal looking horns pose no real risk as the are curved backwards. Not true of course of the toreros of Spain nor the African water Buffalo. I remember tiny little Nepali or Sherpani girls intimidating and dominating buffalos or yaks.