Road Trip to the Himalayas

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For the past few days, the health team has been up by Pokhara (200 km NW) to take part in a health clinic in a remote village at the top of a mountain. If there is no more room IN the bus or van, people opt to ride on top of the vehicle with the luggage on the ridiculously bumpy roads. We were treated to our first Nepali music- extremely high pitched women singing similarly to yodeling. Not my style. It was on full blast the entire trip there and back (6-7 hours each way), in which I attempted to drown out with my Ipod pumped up to full blast.

Once we exited the Kathmandu valley, we noticed something absolutely amazing. No honking. No smog. No dust. In other words, peaceful green moutainous land. It was so nice to be able to breathe clearly for a bit. The rice fields were literally built into the side of the moutain in order to not waste any bit of land. So upon noticing this vast disparity, we came up with an ingenious way to cure any nostalgia we may develop for the Kathmandu valley once we leave the country. The solution is this: park your car in the garage, turn the engine on, and honk wildly for a minimum of 10 minutes. Nostalgia cured.

There are so many cows just wandering up and down the roads, laying in the roads, and chomping on the massive heaps of roadside trash. And these cows all belong to people, they're not just these wild animals that go wandering about. Which brings us to wonder why anyone would let their cow just wander about without supervision freely through traffic. Because after all, I'd imagine those guys are pretty valuable. I mean, they're HUGE.

We saw our first snow capped Himalayas of the trip! Glorious white hunks barely visible from afar situated between the foothills and the puffy white clouds. Absolutely huge and amazing. Couldn't wait to get closer.

We stopped various times during our journey for roadside potty breaks (AKA go in the bush in plain view of passing vehicles- hey you gotta do what you gotta do), and once for a lunch of tasty spicy noods. Yum yum.

6-7 hours later we were dropped off along the roadside at the base of a small mountain. As we began to cross rivers via large rocks (strong sense of balance required) and navigate the narrow trail along the river, a torrential downpour began 5 minutes into our journey. We took refuge in a small tea shop for about a half hour and were treated with tasty lemon tea. We crossed the rushing river via an extremely wobbly suspension footbridge hundreds of feet above the water (don't hold on, you can do it!). We proceeded to ascend the mountain amongst slippery wet rocks, and muddy earth. As we neared the top, we saw Fishtail mountain and the other surrounding Annapurnas in all their glory, glowing in the sunset. We were greeted at the the top of the mountain with a welcome party who cheerily parted down the center and allowed us to walk through. They tikaed us one by one (applied a red spot in the middle of our forehead) and donned us with hand-made flower necklaces. As the entire village gathered to welcome and thank us for our journey, they followed us to our home for the next couple days with Dr. Puri's family.

Dr. Puri is a Nepali doctor from this remote village atop a mountain in the Pokhara area. He got hooked up with VSN as part of our heath program for his expertise in Nepali medicine and acts as a central figure in our monthly health checks at children's homes and now villages.

Dinner the first evening consisted of (surprise) daal bhaat in which we were presented with silverware! Very shocking. I gave the effort a good 5 minutes before I decided that it was too unnatural eating that stuff with anything other than my right hand and proceeded to dig in the way we were meant to. Steve was the only other one who joined me in the true Nepali experience. So proud. We also had the true pleasure of being served full glasses of fizzy, chunky curd. Just think of milk one month past its expiry date with chunks the size of silver dollars and you get a pretty good idea of what we had to choke down. Steve went for the tried and true shooter approach and chugged half the glass in an attempt to let let the stuff slide straight down the throat with minimal exposure to the taste buds. Mission failed miserably. Next thing I know he's holding this rank milk in his mouth unable to choke it down. He did choke though, and it ended up shooting across the room and all over his beard. Good icebreaker though. We can always count on him for ridiculousness.

We then turned in for the evening, in the upstairs of this traditional Nepali clay home. Our beds were on the balcony, so we essentially slept outside. Slumber party! I absolutely love sleeping outside. Being outside at all for that matter. These people have their priorities in order. However, there were flattened, skinny legged spider bigger than my hand, but those guys were everywhere really. They were honestly the largest spiders I've seen in my life. Should have taken a photo of the big guys. Other than my dreaming about them, I really couldn't be bothered by their presence. Can't really say the same about everyone else though. Hey I'm afraid of tornadoes with a vengance. We all have something that gives us the heeby jeebies.

The next morning we arose to the sound of my alarm clock at 530am. It's pretty much been the standard since I've been here (sans the mornings after big nights out). We generally hit the hay pretty early around here so it sounds much worse than it really is. As long as I get somewhere around 8 hours in, I'm a happy camper. So the reason for neglecting to sleep in was our attept to see the sunrise on the Annapurnas. There's nothing quite like sprinting full speed up a mountain at 530 in the morning to wake you up. Rejuvenating, but my lungs were not the biggest fan. Seem to be having more difficulties with my asthma here due to the consistent exposure to nasty air. But I've yet to have an attack and/or require a nebulizer treatment (though I can't say I haven't been close).

Since it was partially dark during our sprint, none of us noticed the mudslide we ran across. One misjudgement and any one of us could have ended up falling thousands of feet down into the river. The sun itself rose behind a smaller mountain, so it was difficult to see when the sun actually rose and when the excitement was over.

We eventually headed back to the house and were greeted with a spicy ramen noodle breakfast (genious!). I was so incredibly excited for food other than the usual, regardless of the pending goat slaughter. We were provided with fresh tikas and nibbled away as one of the members of the family chopped the head off of a wooly mountain goat in one go. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, and to be completely honest it really didn't bother me much. I'm suprised that I thought this due to my diet, but the goat lived a happy life, and I have absolutely no issue with eating animals if they're treated nicely during their lifetime. It's only when they're caged up and subjected to abuse whereupon I have an ethical issue.

Following the excitement of blood squirting everywhere, we headed down to the health clinic in a one-room schoolhouse where half the village was waiting our arrival. After setting up the medicine table, we took our respective positions with Esther, Elloise, Steve and Dr. Puri meeting with patients, diagnosing and prescribing appropriate medications. I acted as the pharmacist and counseled patients, while Paul manned the door and kept women and children out in order to maintain some sense of order. The pharmacist position was extremely difficult at first as I had no idea what any of the medications were used for, appropriate dosages and alternatives for meds we didn't have, deciphering scribbled writing, and I don't speak the most perfect Nepali on the planet... at least not yet. I returned to the doctors for clarifications and had my language book out for reference. As the day carried on, I began picking up on all of this, and it became much smoother and rewarding than I ever imagined.

The people were so grateful to our work and I was able to see the direct impact of our work in the peoples' gratitude. Though we certainly couldn't help everyone in the extremely limited consulation times we were allotted for each person, but many of those people will feel better as a direct result of our work. That's why I came here. This in itself made my trip completely worth it.

At some point during the day, the women and children rushed the door and broke it. People streamed into the clinic until Paul regained order and kept the rest at bay. And during the last hour all Hell broke loose we we started running out of our most commonly prescribed meds. I had to consult with the doctors for virtually every script due to my lack of expertise in this area, and due to our quickened pace diagnoses were no longer being written so I could not use what I had learned to suggest alternatives. And the script writing itself just completely went down the crapper due to everyone's lethargy in the evening.

For dinner that evening, a couple of us were treated to scrambled eggs in exchange for our diets omitting meat. Meanwhile, Steve chomped on bones, windpipes, intestines, and various other organs. Apparently, they just chop up the whole animal and cook it up. Mmm, it is times like these I am grateful for my diet. We were additionally treated to dried fish that had been 3-4 inches long, dried whole. So yes, we ate the heads, and tails and everything. Very different from what I'm used to and not something I'd choose to eat, but when in Rome... (phrase of the trip).

All in all, the family was extremely accomodating and understanding of Esther and my diets. I have to admit that I was a bit worried about how I'd deal with this, since it's considered quite the insult to not eat something you are served. But I think it helped avoid any kind of misunderstanding since we let our diets be known ahead of time and weren't actually served the misc goat organs.

Following dinner, a campfire was prepared on the clay patio in the front of the home and the entire village attended the Nepali singing and dancing festivities. The women sang songs expressing their thanks and gratitude for our journey to the village to provide a health clinic for those who never have the opportunity of receiving professional health advice. These people never get to the doctor due to the remoteness of their location, so what we accomplished had previously been and extremely unmet need.

In addition to the singing, there was wild and crazy dancing. Think of drug-laden 70s hippie dancing with arms and legs wildly flailing about. This one fellow, who obviously had a bit too much Roxy (like our Moonshine) led the dancing and got people up on their feet. He was the most entertaining Nepali I've encountered thus far.

On the second morning, we woke up a bit later due to the previous evening's festivities. We enjoyed bananas from the trees out front and headed back to the clinic for two hours until 10am. That morning, we handed out bandages, Halls and rehydration salts to anyone who walked in or stuck their hand through the window. The kids there seemed to think Halls were candy, were eating them left and right and calling them sweets. Sweets?

After wrapping things up, we participated in additional Tika ceremony at 1030am and were handed small bills. During the two days that we were there, all of the children were all decked out in their fresh, new, brightly colored Dashain clothes. For most kids, this is the only time of the year they receive new clothing, in this regard, the festival is somewhat analagous to our Christmas holiday.

Breakfast then consisted of these large fried donut type things (looks just like a very large onion ring), sliced apples, fresh bananas, and a slightly spicy dried pea and chili combo- tasty! Following our meal, we packed up, headed out, and said our goodbyes to the entire village as we walked past.

On the way out, we stopped by the crazy dancer's home for a quick chat. He promptly decided to serve us all full glasses of whiskey and water at 1230 in the afternoon prior to our hiking down the mountain. In addition, we had to eat additional rotis, the dried peas, and misc goat parts for the carnivores. Again, it is extremely rude to turn down food/bevs when visiting another home, so we didn't have much of a choice in the matter- full bellies and all. So fantastic, now I am buzzed and must hike down a narrow, steep mountain trail without falling down the side and killing myself. I did trip a couple times, but I'm attributing that more to my general clumsiness than anything else. It WAS just one drink (but yes, consumed in 10 min or less), and I must admit it made me proceed quicker down the mountain. I felt like a professional trail runner. We hiked all the way down to the river below, took a swim in all my clothing. The men are so lucky in this regard and are free to wear as little as they choose. Evidence: Dr. Puri's skimpy Speedo. Nice. Beneath the toasty sun, we jumped off rocks, got carried around by the current and laid out on a huge flat boulder as if it were created for precisely that purpose. However, it was ridiculously challenging changing out of my wet clothes beneath two long footbridges with heavy pedestrian traffic.

We then proceeded to hike down to the bottom whereabout we encountered the worst 'toilet' of all time. It was essentially a 5 foot high 3 walled block concrete with a hole in the bottom of one of the walls. And it was laden with excrement, urine, and a condom wrapper. I walked up to it and promptly turned around, opting for the good ol' natural approach in broad daylight, in plain view of any vehicles that may drive by. I was lucky that time and was not spotted.

After waiting for a while alongside about 100 Nepalis, a taxi approached and was instantly rushed. Dr. Puri worked his magic and we proceeded to stuff 8 people into the smallest Suzuki car every manufactured. The side of my face was flush with the roof of the car and I prayed we wouldn't get in an accident. Luckily, the journey was only 15 minutes up the hill where we all fell out of the vehicle as if it were a clown car.

We hiked about 20 minutes up a hill to Dr. Puri's uncles home where we were provided with yet more rotis, stale pink and white silly string, dried peas and goat pieces. Oh yes, and more apples and bananas. We then were provided with another Tika since they'd all been washed off during our swim in the river. With extremely full bellies, we hiked back down to catch a taxi back to Pokhara. We only had 6 people in there this time around with 4 in the backseat. This was the most uncomfortable 1 hour car-ride in my life, as my legs were piled on top of one another and I served as Steve's backrest.

The taxi driver was kind enough to stop for a quick potty break after dark, whereabouts I stumbled, tried to save it, and fell directly on my hands in face right in the headlights. The girls lined up in a row of three in the headlights to do our business. People go wherever they can here. When you gotta go, you gotta go. The bumpiness of that ride certainly didn't help matters, and quickly made the bladder very painful.

That may have been the scariest taxi ride of my life. I screamed a few times in anticipation of a collision with oncoming traffic. I swear our vehicle came within mm of others traveling at 50 mph down a very curvy mountain road. I was on the left side of the car, so I think I was in the safest place (if there was one), but this didn't stop me from believing I wasn't going to make it to Pokhara in one piece.

After three hours online, my hand isn't feeling optimally ergonomic. I need a break and some pani (water). =)

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