Final day in Chitwan

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Namaste! Hope everyone is ok at home, sorry I've not been in touch for ages, combination of the internet being too slow or there being no power! The phone lines aren't all that much better either!

Anyhow, today is my last day in Chitwan, just popped into the main town to pick up some food for our leaving party tonight. I finished my placement yesterday and am going to Pokhara tomorrow to see the mountains!

I have loved village life, its been an amazing experience and I'll be sad to go tomorrow, but at the same time I'm looking forward to the change of scenary and cooler climate! The novelty of the Nepalese way of life has also worn off somewhat as well and I'm ready to be more active!

Don't get me wrong though, its been so nice to be able to relax and do very little after all those weeks spent working towards exams. I've been spending my spare time reading loads (got through nearly 7 books already if you can believe it) and swimming in the Rapti river by the jungle (no crocodiles though, promise!)

We've pretty much been invited to every village event going, we've been to a wedding which was amazing, a house blessing and at the weekend joined in with celebrations for Buddha's birthday. You much pretty much get treated like a VIP here!

I've been to the health clinic pretty much every day (even sundays, get me!) and helping as much as I can although its frustrating a lot of the time because they are so limited as to what they can do there. It is essentially a GP surgery but the only thing that is the same as home is the types of conditions they see, everything else is so completely different its hard to know where to even try to start and explain the differences! Its so alien to what we're used to

I also went to the Cancer hospital which is about 45 mins away and got shown around there. Its a fairly new hospital and is a much simpler, basic version of what we have at home. They have just 150 beds and this provides the only cancer service in the whole country. So no matter where you are you come here for treatment and then get to pay for the privilege to. Although cheap to us it is expensive to Nepali people.

Having been to the hospital though, I'm glad I chose to work in the health clinic because its given me such a completely different perspective on health care in this country.

Anyhow, I'm off to Pokhara for two weeks tomorrow. I'm going trekking around the Annapurna region of the Himalayas with 3 other volunteers, then will spend a few days sightseeing and doing some other activities around there.

Then it'll be back to Kathmandu and flying home before I realise it! Time has gone so quickly here!

Anyhow, hope everyone is ok at home, missing you all lots.
xJ

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