First Two Days in Kathmandu

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Kathmandu is very far away. It's hard to appreciate just how far it is until you feel it in terms of flying time. I got here on Tuesday night (Nepal time) after 5 hours on the plane to Vancouver, 12.5 hours to Guangzhou and 4.5 hours to Kathmandu. A very long 23 hours of flying (then add in the stopover time to make it over a 30 hour journey). The flights were uneventful for the most part. Within the first hour of the flight to Vancouver, the guy in front of me abruptly reclined his seat, sending my large Tim Hortons Earl Grey tea dumping almost completely into my lap. At least it wasn't hot. I sat next to a nice couple about our age who are going to Vancouver (specifically Gibsons and Kelowna actually) to see whether they can make the move from St Catherine's, Ontario to the west. Reminds me of our own ambitions.

On the flight to China, sitting for 12.5 hours in the middle of the row between two strangers was not the most fun. the food was good for the most part, except this was the first time I'd ever seen fish served on a plane... not my favourite taste (or smell). The entertainment was good, if you enjoy watching the movie Oz on repeat while the screen flickered. The ride to Kathmandu was much better because I got an emergency exit seat, (didn't realize they give those to people who don't understand Chinese commands — how would I know it's an emergency and not time for some wonton soup?) but I loved the extra space. I sat next to an American-Nepalese man taking his mother back home to Kathmandu. They were so nice to chat with and even gave me their phone number to call them up while I am here to visit them. At that time I thought I wouldn't see them again after the flight, but little did I know what was to come....

When I finally arrived in Kathmandu (surprisingly my bag arrived too!), I was looking for the person who was supposed to pick me up from the hospital I'm volunteering at. I had a bad feeling that they weren't going to be there, and they weren't (there was some mix up in the schedule, and they thought I was coming the next day). This was bad news after more than 24 hours of traveling and sleep deprivation. I didn't even have their address in my files. But very luckily I saw the man who was sitting next to me on the plane. I asked for their help and they helped me call the doctor (the head doctor, we will call Dr. X) that is in charge of the volunteers and then they dropped me off at the hospital. They were so nice. It's not that I wouldn't have found my way otherwise, but it was so overwhelming coming out of the airport in a place like Kathmandu when you don't have a plan and look lost. I don't think I looked too look lost, but it's hard not to when you're looking for a sign with your name on it that doesn't exist. Millions of taxi drivers were offering to help me out. Actually it was nice compared to some other places I've been (that were more blatantly trying to screw me over), but too many nice people are never a good thing.

Anyways I finally did get to the hospital. Because they weren't expecting me until the next day, they didn't have accommodation prepared for that night (i was supposed to stay in the hospital's guesthouse) but they quickly made up a patients room for me. It was weird having the "deluxe cabin" in the children's hospital. This is where patients that have some money would stay. I slept on a child's hospital bed that night.

The next morning I awoke at 5 am, to the sound of children crying on the ward behind me. Yay.

My first day at the hospital (June 12) was fairly uneventful. I shadowed the head doctor at the hospital, watching how they deal with patients on this side of the world. I won't go into detail since this is a travel blog, but it seems things are much more relaxed in this environment. I ate lunch with a classmate of mine, Katie, that has already been here for a few weeks. We're working on a project trying to measure hospital-acquired infection at this hospital together. I'm also supposed to be working on a project trying to spiff up the nutrition centre at the hospital (for malnourished babies). After this day, Katie went and spent the next few days at a leprosy hospital elsewhere in the Kathmandu Valley, so I was on my own for a bit, which paws totally fine.

Today (June 13), was also quite uneventful. I woke up early to watch some surgeries starting at 7 am (I saw a circumcision and a sinus operation). For my second night I had moved over to the room that Katie has been staying in. It's not actually a guestroom, but is really our organization's office here. I have to get up early because it takes a long time to shower when the water is bitter cold. I can't put more than one body part in the water at a time. I'm not sharing a bathroom but it's outside my door, and almost reminds me of one of those self cleaning porta-potties. When you take a shower it floods the entire bathroom because its all open. It's also rather dirty so it takes me longer trying to navigate the dirty spots.

I spent the morning shadowing a bit, working with the out-patients, then doing rounds on the in-patients and I tried to learn a bit about ultrasounds.

In the afternoon I was bored having spent my first two days in the ghetto that is the hospital, so i decided to wander outside to the tourist district of Thamel. I really like to walk, so I decided to walk there because I was told it only takes 30 minutes. I walk faster than the average person so I thought that would take me less time (it was just one straight street), but I was mistaken. What I didn't take into account was that there were no sidewalks or traffic lights anywhere. The major street that the hospital is on goes straight into Thamel, and apparently there had been sidewalks but they are trying to redo them so they had all been broken up creating a huge mess that will likely take forever to fix. I had to walk next to the crazy traffic as people swerve onto the oncoming traffic lanes and around the thousands of motorbikes all over the place.

I thought Cairo was bad but that was nothing compared to this. It's like playing chicken crossing the street! So I'm walking along the side of the road, and there's not really even a shoulder, just almost like a lane of construction. I got scared after awhile and started walking creepily behind 3 young nursing students. I figured they could lead me to safety. Eventually I made it to Thamel, but it was very scary and definitely did not take 30 mins! I took a taxi back and it cost a whopping 150 Nepalese rupees. This is about $1.50 Canadian. I guess I can afford that!

Thamel itself was crazy but not nearly as bad as that main road. All I basically did was wander around and get a sense for the area. Lots of very narrow streets with both foot traffic and motor traffic, and still no sidewalks. I will have to go explore more in depth another day.

I will probably move down here when Mike gets here in a week-and-a-half.

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