July 19, 2009
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Nepal Project’09 – A Flood of Humanity
July 18, 2009
6:40AM Pokhara timeHumidity! So much humidity! Sofia, Dan, and I arrived into Pokhara yesterday afternoon after a long and mostly uneventful bus trip from Besishahar to Pokhara. The one event that definitely frigthened me for a moment was after 45 minutes into setting out for Pokhara, the bus abruptly stops in front of a bridge. People all around us begin to raise their voices; women started shrieking; people pounding the windows. Next thing I know, Sofia says she thinks there’s a fire on the bus as there was now smoke coming out from the front of the bus. Next thing I know, there is literally a human stampede to get out of the bus. Sofia was able to jump into the stream, but I couldn’t as it would have met stepping on the little kids that were passing me. I then looked at Dan who looked completely calm, still listening to music on his iPod! The moment of fear went away for me and confusion set in…should we stay on the bus or get out?
Turned out the engine simply overheated on the bus and that rush to get out of the bus was A VERY BAD IDEA. Thankfully, no one was hurt and crushed in the stampede, but it was very sombering to see how all those stories I’ve heard of people dying b/c of a rush to get away from an unconfirmed danger turn out to be real. Whereas for Dan, who’s had experience with these types of situations, knew not to panic, and in turn enabled me to not panic either.
Either case, it felt good to be back in Pokhara again. It’s a good time to begin reflecting on the information we’ve gathered over the past week. One of the things that is on my mind was with the last bit of information we all learned right before we left for the bus stop to head out of Besishahar. We learned from one of the hospital nurses that in Nepal, the problem with HIV is rapidly increasing, to a point that the hospital workers are becoming more and more concerned about unknowingly infecting themselves or other patients.
The reason for this rapid increase, esp. around the Lamjung district can be explained by the fact that the majority of the men who live in that area work outside of the nation. They either fly out to Bahrain, or Saudi Arabia, or India to find work and wire transfer money back home to take care of their families. Usually these men get one month of vacation time every couple of months to return home, which leads to many having possible affairs while they are away. The majority of the men who are becoming infected with HIV are coming back from Mumbai, India, and are unknowingly infecting their wives when they return.
The problem then boils down to two things that need to be done. 1) People need to be tested and screened for HIV. 2) People need to be educated on how the disease is spread and how it damages their immune systems. The sad reality, espeically around Lamjung district, is that many people don’t want to get tested because the test is expensive for them. The benefits of knowing whether or not they are infected do not outweigh the financial hit they would take on for just being tested. The main arguement is if they are not infected with HIV, then they’ve wasted that money on no problem at all; even if the test costs no more than $5 USA per person!
Our team will need to discuss about this more, but there are some thoughts that maybe we can look into setting up some sort of fundraising drive to raise money for Lamjung hospital so that they can provide free HIV tests for the entire community. This way, the doctors will then know who has the disease or not, thus allowing them to provide the best care they can for each patient.
As one can see, our time in Lamjung district was very productive. It’s been personally enjoyable to watch as Sofia processes and percolates on all that she’s observed and learned from the hospital staff at Lamjung. Seeing her jolt down her thoughts and questions has been encouraging and a small confirmation that we are meant to be here for this time and place.
