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Published: July 11th 2006
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Nepalis definitely practice “the way of the stick” when it comes to maintaining discipline and order. Nepalis are kept in line by the stick from an early age. Policemen wander through the streets shooing people along and cracking skulls of unruly protesters during demonstrations (thankfully, I did not see this). However, I have seen school teachers maintain an iron fist in the classroom with their sticks and two-year olds waving sticks and chasing after dogs or their younger siblings.
While we were having lunch at a café by Boudha Nath Stupa, we met Anne Marie, a nurse practitioner from Syracuse, NY. Anne Marie was teaching hygiene classes to some Nepali nurses and volunteering at a nearby orphanage. When she found out that my Aussie friends are a pediatrician and an ICU pediatric nurse, she invited us to stop by the orphanage and help out. She had some kids who needed medical treatment and wanted advice from a medical doctor. In addition, she felt that a male doctor could convince the director to address some of the hygiene concerns she had about the orphanage, namely, the lack of clean water.
I think there are several thousand kids at the orphanage,
ranging from small kids up to high school. Many are street kids, but not all are orphans. Some of them have impoverished parents who work long hours in the garment or carpet industry. The kids go to school and get lunch at the orphanage, usually lentils and rice with a few vegetables. Anne Marie brought some fruit there one day, and she informed us that many of them had never tasted fruit before. Some of the orphan kids sleep at the school at night; the rest of them attend school during the day and sleep in the streets at night.
The classrooms were small and overcrowded. I was told that some of the teachers are very dedicated, though I did see a few who kept order with the threat of the stick. The kids were just kids. Even though most of them are very poor, they still ran and played energetically and seemed very happy. During breaks, the place was a madhouse, with children running around the courtyard. I even saw this one kid doing some pretty cool flips.
It was hard to guess the age of the children, as many of them were small for their age
due to inadequate nutrition. As a general rule of thumb, I knocked off two years when guessing a child’s age.
Many kids had eye infections, which are easily treated but can lead to blindness if nothing is done. There were quite a few kids and teachers with ringworm and other fungal skin infections. I thought one kid had a rash, but it turned out to be chicken pox instead. We gave them the first pill or applied ointment to rashes or eye infections. Then we gave them the remaining medicine, while a staffer wrote the instructions in Nepali for the parents. However, were unable to do much for the kids with tooth problems. They really need a dentist to clean their teeth and pull out some of the rotted teeth.
Many kids complained about stomach pains, but unfortunately, we could not do much about this. The water at the orphanage is untreated, and the water they get at home is usually unsanitary too. We could give them medicine for their gastric pains or treat the parasites, but these problems would just return when they go back to the same source of dirty water. With such limited medical supplies,
Rajendra
We took Rajendra back to the orphanage after his leg was plastered at the hospital. the only thing we could really do is emphasize the importance of clean water to the director and the staff. Boiling the water or treating it with iodine seems like it would be a simple solution, but the director said this would be difficult with such limited resources. Let’s hope he realizes how important clean water and regular medical care are for these kids.
One of the kids was carrying another kid on his back. Rajendra, the kid who was being carried, had broken his foot the day before. He had a dirty bandage on his foot, but had not been treated in any other way. The kid’s foot was swollen and he was obviously in pain, so we took him for x-rays to the hospital up the street.
I’m sure we made an interesting sight: 4 foreigners carrying a Nepali kid through the streets of a Kathmandu slum. Rajendra was in pain, but he seemed very calm and didn’t seem scared to be with 4 foreigners who don’t speak much Nepali.
Anne Marie had previously visited the hospital and showed me the facilities, which were pretty basic. She even showed me the delivery room (unoccupied at
that time). The hospital personnel insist that anyone who enters the delivery room take their shoes off. Most of the Nepalis go barefoot (not exactly sanitary in a room where babies are born), though Anne Marie borrowed some flip-flops for us to wear so we wouldn’t have to step barefoot on that floor.
We encountered a nasty woman who we quickly dubbed “Nurse Ratched” at the hospital. She was a nurse, but her main concern seemed to be that we pay for all the medical supplies that we purchased, not the welfare of the patient. She kept bringing us invoices and demanding more money from us for bandages, pain medication, x-rays, etc.
We gave Rajendra some codeine while we waited for the x-ray machine to be primed and the orthopedic surgeon to arrive. Nurse Ratched dropped his foot during the x-ray. I was amazed that this kid didn’t cry with the size of that fracture. These Nepali kids are soooo tough.
The orthopedic surgeon plastered Rajendra’s leg. He did a fine job, despite the 600 extra rupees that he unsuccessfully tried to extort from us after he finished. His cell phone went off when he was putting
on the cast. He ignored the phone, but Nurse Ratched tried to grab the phone out of his pocket, dropping Rajendra’s leg in the process. This woman is unreal.
Afterwards, we took Rajendra back to the orphanage, buying him some treats along the way. He chose a Fanta and a package of dried noodles. Nepalis like to eat dried noodles as a snack, but they eat them still dried, with the flavor packet sprinkled on top. Rajendra’s father was very anxious about his son and was happy to see him.
I have mixed feelings about the orphanage. On the one hand, the director is giving kids who may never go to school the opportunity to get an education and have a safe place to spend the day. On the other hand, these kids still lacked in many essential areas, including basic health care and clean water. I don’t even want to go into detail about the girl we suspect was being sexually abused, possibly by one of the staff. What can you do for someone like that, especially in a society where such topics are so taboo?
There is so much need at a place like this
and you could spend months trying to help. How many other orphanages and schools are there in a place like this? What is the best approach to use: quantity or quality? Do you open your doors to as many kids as possible and help a lot a little? Or do you limit the number of kids and help only a few, but devote more resources to each child? What can you do and where do you even begin to make an impact?
You could really make yourself crazy thinking about these questions, but I am glad that we managed to help a few kids. I am happy about what we were able to do for Rajendra. His parents may not have the money to take their son to a hospital, and at least we were able to get his leg set properly. If we could prevent just one boy from becoming one of the beggars with the twisted limbs which are so common in Kathmandu, then I feel like we accomplished something.
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