July 19, 2009
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Nepal Project’09 – R&R in Pokhara
July 19, 2009
11:21AM Pokhara timeSofia is feeling better after a long night’s rest. She was able to get up and eat some food again, but she’s taking a nap now to save her strength. The TD definitely took a toll on her system and will need to take it easy for today.
Mike went back out to Arba to pick up the students after they spent the better half of yesterday and last night with host families. The families all have children who are attending the computer education training classes offered by HOPE and were willing to house the students in order to let them experience what it is like to live in a genuine Nepali home.
The rest of the day is planned to be a day of rest and relaxation for the team as tomorrow we will be heading back to Kathmandu. The plan is that Mike & the students will be doing some rafting on one of the major rivers in the country, while Dan stays in Pokhara for an extra day before heading out to meet with another contact. Sofia & I will take it easy and wait for the rafting group to finish their little adventure before we head back to the capital city.
With the time left, Sofia & I will probably do one more visit to a hospital within Kathmandu to conduct additional interviews and evaluations of the health care system in Nepal. This will hopefully give us some different aspects of the level of care that is offered in the capital verses what we saw in Lamjung. Though, we were initially given the impression that the hospitals in Kathmandu were not very good, considering that hospitals here are divided into different tiers, we might see a higher level of quality verses what we saw in Lamjung.
For smaller villages, like Arba, one can imagine obtaining health care is difficult. They would have to make due with what they can receive. Yesterday, when Sofia was beginning to come down with TD, we were taken to a local home where it turned out the father was a retired doctor. He practiced medicine in Nepal for 27 years, but retired 16 years ago. He provided Sofia some medicine in an attempt to help her. While we rested and waited for our team to finish up the soccer tourament that we were hosting for the village, several visitors came to the family’s home. People came in to get injections, be re-badaged, and get medications. It appears that though the father is officially retired, he is still offering his medical skills to his home village however he can.
Hopefully, later today, Sofia will feel strong enough to tour around Pokhara a bit before we leave. After that, less than a week before we head back home. Still crazy to just feel how fast each day is flying here.
