I apologize for not posting a new blog for awhile. We arrived in Chitwan last Sunday and it is quite difficult to find a good time to get on the internet long enough to post a blog. The electricity is only on for a few hours during the day and a lot of the time the internet or computers are broken. I am currently writing this from the internet shack near the house I am staying in...the internet shack is literally a mud hut with two computers operated by a good friend of ours, Bikash...I am very thankful to have this connection to the world as I have never felt so far away from everything and everyone in my life.
I feel as if I have stepped backwards in history...everything here is very primitive. We wash our clothes by hand, wash our dishes in two large tubs outside of the shack where our food is prepared, take cold showers (after we fill the water tank on the roof everyday), and get our water from a pump in the yard. I am staying at an awesome place called the Library House with 5 other volunteers (Who have quickly become great friends). Our coordinator, Sanjiv, and his mother are our host family. Every morning and every night, Ama (our "mother"), comes over and cooks us enormous portions of daal bhat (they have to be enormous, because many days those are the only meals we eat). Daal Bhat is consists of a lentil soup poured over a heaping pile of rice and is usually served with vegetables and curry. We are very lucky to have Ama because she makes the best daal bhat I have tasted here so far and always finds a way to change it up just a little bit...adding different varieties of vegetables or, on a really great day, chicken or eggs. It gets really tiring eating the same for every meal; the other volunteers and I spend a goodly amount of time talking about food back home, what we are really missing, and planning our first meal when we get home.
Every day, Rachel and I bike to the health post, which is about 20 minutes from our place. I don't really know how to go about describing the health post. It looks like a shack from the outside, but that is pretty standard around here. The staff at the post are trained in protocols. Treatment is based completely on symptoms and protocols for sets of symptoms. The first few days were pretty difficult at the health post due to some major language barriers. That has been the most frustrating thing for me here. Our evaluation and treatment of patients is based on some basic physical assessment, hand gestures and pointing, a few English words that the patient or staff may know, a few Nepali words that we may know, and a lot of hoping that we are all understanding each other correctly. The problems that people have come in with have been pretty basic. We have seen a lot of people with common colds, some ear or eye infections, acid reflux, wounds, and worms. Another frustrating part of the language barrier is that we are not able to assess what patients know about there conditions and we are unable to educate them about their conditions or treatments. I am hoping to have some more conversations with staff at the healthpost about some of their treatments and education of the patients. I feel like I have so little time to help, and I want to contribute in a lasting way to this place.
I wish I had time to write more about my experience here, but it is getting a bit late, and I have to head back for daal bhat soon. Much love to everyone! I will try to write another post soon :)
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