So, it's been over a week now since my last post. I can't believe how quickly the time has flown! I've already almost been here a month with only two more to go.

I am typing this in a bit of a frustrated state of mind...

Things have been really going so well lately, at the clinics, with my Nepali family, with the other VSN volunteers. But then a bomb of day happened today. Well, not really that bad just a little frustrating. The Gothatar Health Post has been in serious need of a few pieces of equipment, so VSN decided to pay about $100 for a new BP cuff, an otoscope, and an autoclave to sterilize tools and bandages etc. I have been wanting to go buy this stuff for a long time, and we finally went yesterday to pick it up. We got everything and saved about 10 bucks in the process. And then today as we are hooking up the autoclave...it doesn't even work!! ERGGH! I spent most of the morning trying to get the thing working and it just wouldn't. So, yeah that was a pain. I guess we will have to take another half-day to go back to this place and exchange it.

Then also yesterday, in my treasure hunting I found a Nepali language version of this really cool book called Where there is no doctor. This book is designed for health workers, new docs, and the most important person for health....the mother! It really is an amazing book, and I was so excited I picked up five copies that I can give to some people here. I had to go to the Teaching Hospital's book store in the city to find it. The publisher of the book is Hesperian and this group has an open copyright policy on the book and anyone can use and adapt it for there location and language. Well apparently the Nepalis took a little too much liberty changing the book around. Tomorrow I teaching this really enthusiastic mother's group about Health. With plans to use a diarrhea chart from the book as a teaching tool. Today, I was going through the chart at my clinic with some of the workers and we discovered that some of the stuff has been switched around. This flow chart doesn't make any sense as it is now. Frustrating!! So, now I have to make photocopies and fix the chart so it will actually make sense.

Here are the leaders of the mother's group!

So, yeah the last couple of hours have not been the greatest. But then again yesterday was one of the best, so the bad comes with the good.

Also today,. I had the pleasure of showing the entire clinic staff the importance of washing wounds with CLEAN WATER AND SOAP!!! This guy came in with some cuts on his hand and a few stitches from a five-day-old work accident. His hand had been “cleaned” at my clinic two days ago and then wrapped in a bandage. As I opened it up, his hand was filthy with dried blood and dirt covering his hands. So, for the next 10 minutes or so I made him wash his hands. Crazy huh?? The health workers use Iodine as a replacement for actually getting dirt and stuff off of peoples hands. And really cleaning things out is simply better. The bandage he was using was also nasty. He has no money for another bandage, so we talked about actually cleaning the thing. Anyway, I think he will do great, and it was a good lesson for all about proper wound treatment and infection prevention.

Also in the last few days, I have come across a couple of people who get bad headaches. Their symptoms are pretty clearly migraine, but they have not been getting proper treatment. Getting migraines myself, I consider myself a budding headache expert. One of the people is my bahini, or little sister where I am staying. We sat down and talked about her headaches for about an hour. She fit the picture pretty well, and it was like a beautiful revelation for her that people actually knows what she is going through. We came up with a treatment plan for her including, keeping a headache diary, avoiding her headache triggers, and some meds that she can get here in Nepal. Those conversations are pretty rewarding. Hopefully, the treatment plan will at least decrease the frequency of her headaches.

All the hard work and memorization the last few years really was hard, but after helping a teen-age girl finally get some relief make it all worth it. It feels so great to finally be semi-compentent to be a resource to friends and those around me!

Have a fantastic day!!!

This kid got baptized by his father who received the MelchizedekPriesthood a few hours earlier...that's cool. The kid had to wear his karate pants, because the brand didn't have white pants his size!

This picture needs no descriptor...

Kathmandu Kwickies

I am taller than 99% of all Nepalis and the buses are built for Nepalis. This creates problems for my neck. The best place in the bus is either in the door, or under the window in the roof. The window gives me about 2 more inches and the door is always open. Sometimes I get a seat as well, but that is a rarity!

This is a newly baptized member and the Aunt that raised her. She is holding her favorite picture, that she has to hide in her Aunt's room or else her cousins will trash it. She lives basically a house full of mildew and mold in this really old part of the city. She works for one of the missionary couples here in the city, which is how she found the Church. I asked her what was the best part of joining the church. She said that before she had no direction, no plan, and no reason to live. After well obviously things changed. The culture here is not really that support of women, and most have a really hard lot. But look at that smile now!!

Cows just about kick it wherever they want in the city!!

This family was just washing their clothes. Just right there on the hill like nobody's business.

Little joys of life. I have been trying to find and buy a bucket with a little spout at the bottom for about a week now. The Gothatar clinic has meager hand washing facilities. And today I finally found one!!! I also bought some liquid hand soap. Life is wonderful!

We also remodeled the clinic yesterday, and now we actually have room to see patients in with a door. I take great pleasure kicking out the entire village every time we start examining a patient. And crazy enough in the last two days we have seen quite a few ladies with chest issues. Isn't that strange?? This is a picture form last weeks vaccination day. I have never seen so many babies, well except for maybe at Kougar Stadium.

Me in the nice clinic!

There is a “strike” here in the city just about every other day. That means that some of the city just shuts down, because some party or group is unhappy. To me it means that my bus sometimes just goes random ways, and there is no way to know where it is going. So, I get to exit and walk back to where I need to go. Fun huh??

The power goes out in the neighbor at random times, because there is not enough electricity at night for the whole city. This makes things fun and almost like a game.

Have a great day!!!

Rick-ji (the ji means I am super cool)

What am I really doing???

Great question!!

Now that I am actually into my program and past orientation I can tell you, because now I know! I have been going to two different clinics here in Kathmandu. One is a government run clinic in our of the outlying neighborhoods called Gothatar. The other is a nicer community run clinic that is in a nicer part of the city called New Baneshwor.

I have been going to the Gothatar in the mornings for about 3-4 hours and to the Baneshwor clinic for 1.5 hours. The government clinic is in pretty bad shape. No place to wash hands, no bandages, no otoscope, one stethescope, one BP cuff, no light to look in people's mouths. But they do have antibiotics that they give out like a ton, and plenty of vaccinations. There are three community health workers, three community health worker students, and me! Two of the health workers have been around for quite awhile and are pretty knowledgeable about most of the common diseases, but their diagnostic skills are quite lacking. But then again it seems we seem the same types of people for the same problems, so most treatments are probably right enough.

There are some major problems with the clinic though. For example, I itch to wash my hands, and have to grab the picture of water and the soap and go out front to wash my hands. And only one person has washed her hands since I started there.

We decided with prompting from me, that we would each come up with a list of things we can do to improve the clinic. Then we are going to get together to talk about what we can do. For example, they really need some type of machine at the clinic to sterilize equipment etc. They use metal tongue depressors for example instead of wood, which makes sense because it can be reused. The problem is getting it clean again! I can spot quite a few things that I would change right away, but I think the ideas really need to come from themselves or else it really won't go any where! I am pretty excited about this project though. They all speak a little bit of English and with my meager Nepal we get on pretty well. My language teacher/translator has also been coming and he helps out quite a bit too.

I'll speak more about the gothatar clinic later....

The other clinic is a community run clinic and I have been shadowing an almost doctor-level worker. I am not sure what his title is, but people come to him instead of the local doctor because they like him better. This clinic is much better stocked, but also a little crazy. There are two rooms with a gate door separating the patients from him. The patients file in at a rate of one every 5 minutes or so. Two patients come into the room at a time and he sees one and then the other. Not a lot of privacy in Nepal, but this clinic is better than Gothatar....the entire neighborhood knows what disease you have, because everyone is the same room as you!!

The Baneshwor clinic is really not the best for me though as I just sit there and try to figure out what is going on and why. The almost-physician speaks English, but has next to no time to say anything to me. We will see how long I stay here. It has been good though to see how a better organized clinic works here in Nepal.

And I have now had the please of turning down a stinkin' drug rep gift in Nepal. Dang! I thought I could at least get away from that in Nepal. But nope, in walked two guys well dressed with briefcases. They had a little notebook with pictures of their drugs with lame English slogans on them. It was actaully quite comical. The ads for the drugs put the American ones to same. I'll see if I can get a copy or picture next time they are around. Anyway, after their spill they offered pens to us. McDonalds and 7-Eleven haven't made it to Kathmandu yet, but drug reps have...

My plan is work with these clinics for about six weeks, after which I will most likely going to a more remote village and conducting a health camp for a few days. After this I will be going trekking for a while to the Everest Base Camp. Then returning to Kathmandu to finish up here for a week or so, and then back to the States.

Next on the Blog with be a description of the group I volunteering with VSN.....

Here are some cool pics....I'll have some of the clinics next post!

So, this guy was collecting something out of this pristine river here.... yum yum!!




This sure beats whipped cream and Oreos.



This is the monkey temple...called that because there are monkeys all over it.



View from the top of the temple...

The top of the monkey Stupa.




I love this picture...





Another view of Kathmandu.

This is Sugandha and some of the family in the next shot. We had BBQ chicken for pre-dinner.


Ok the next two shots are proof that kids are cool and cute...especially Nepali kids...




Some cool temple thing...they are beautiful and there are about a million of them in Kathmandu!




Sacred Cows, sacred pigeons, and little kids....all just having a great time together. I call this a disease vector. But even better was that right after I took this shot I dropped my jacket on the ground. hmmm...not the best place to drop one's favorite jacket!!!

This is the god of death or something...at least that is what my cheap tour guide told me. Apparently it is impossible to lie in front of him. So, they used to get people "confess" in front of him.

Match Results

Namaste!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that my match results for residency are in..........

And I got my first choice......

I will be going to the University of Utah Family Medicine Residency!!!!

I just want to thank all of you who have helped during the process including first and foremost my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and my family.

The Church in Nepal

The address for the church in Nepal is:

Address: Maharajpunj, Ring Road, Losal, Nepal
Landmark: On the way to Airport

Now I wasn't exactly sure if I could find the building as there are just a few ways to get to the airport. This address is pretty normal for how things working Nepal. If you don't know how to get somewhere already then good luck. Fortunately, just about everyone on the streets will help point you in the correct direction. I guess we did have a few phone numbers to use for directions.

My Nepali dad felt sorry for me and also I guess a little scared that I would get totally lost, so we went on Friday in his car to find the place. Here in Nepal the rest day is on Saturday, and the other six days are regular work days. Therefore, the Sabbath is held on Saturday here. It has been a little strange to spend all day Saturday calling the second hour Sunday School when it is Saturday, but oh well...

Having the Sabbath on Saturday with no other weekend day is really hard on members here as they work every other day of the week. Imagine not having that Saturday to get ready for Sunday....

Anyway, I took off on Saturday morning at 8:00 AM to get to the church at 10:00 AM. I had to take a microbus, and luckily I could take one bus the entire way. I did a much better job than I thought I would and it only took 40 minutes. When I showed up they were just started institute and seminary, so my timing ended up being perfect.

Sacrament services are held in English and Nepali depending on who is speaking, but mostly English. It was quite hilarious that the Nepali Branch President spoke in English without a translator and then the Mission President who happened to be in town spoke in English, but then he had a interpretor for him. I guess there is quite a difference between American English and Nepali English...

The light and spirit of the members here is of course amazing. How amazing is the church. The Spirit does amazing things to change our lives and bring happiness. How wonderful it was to show up half way around the world and have an amazing family and support group.

The branch here is quite interesting in that the majority of members are Young Single Adults ages about 18 to 30. And there is quite a good number of guys too, which is usually a rarity. After church the YSAs got together and we had dinner at one of the service missionary's home. It was great fun to just be able to hang out and have them teach me Nepali.

The YSAs practicing to sing in church in two weeks...

The greatest part about yesterday was the setting apart of Sister Usha to be a missionary. The Mission President set her apart and gave a short Fireside type talk to the YSAs who were there. Sister Usha is the first Nepali to be called to serve outside of India. She will be going to the England Birmingham Mission. She is actually a Physician here in Kathmandu, and for the next 18 months she will be an amazing missionary. She has quite the miracle story about being
able to get her visa, as you can imagine visas for Nepalis are quite rare.

Here is Sister Usha with her brother the President and his wife, and the two couples serving in Nepal.

Even in Kathmandu the Lord provides a family of friends. Even in Kathmandu the Lord changes peoples heart and lives for the better. Even in Kathmandu the Light of Christ is found in the hearts of young men and women. Even in Kathmandu the Church is true.

More Pictures

Here are just a few pictures from the last couple of days.


This is the little shop where I buy my water everyday...

This is the VSN office building. Here I hook up my laptop to the internet (when there is power that is). We also have meetings here, and my language lessons take place in the classroom!



Here are just a couple of the cutest little neighborhood kids in the world.



This is obviously the local soccer field. People are on it just about all of the time!



Taking pictures of sweet outfits...can I find a better way to spend my time waiting for my microbus...doubtful.




Namaste!

Namaste

Namaste...

So that last picture of the girl and the cow is quite a common site here in my little suburb of Kathmandu. Where I am staying is called Pepsicola...how convenient...because there is a Pepsi bottling factory down the street. We went shopping yesterday afternoon on the public buses and to get home we just had to yell pepsicola-pepsicola to see if the bus was heading our way!!!

But that is jumpin' ahead. My flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu was quite uneventful. I was privileged to watch Happy Feet and it provided sufficient entertainment for the 3 hour flight. We touched down and that is when the fun began. I had forgotten to take pictures with me for my visa, so I had to use airport Polaroid. But of course the camera guy only takes Rupes, so I had to change some money. I packed most of my US dollars in my checked bag, so I just figured I would exchange all I had. Big mistake! When I got to the front of the visa line I was informed that they only take foreign currency to pay for the visa. He told me I would have to change what I had back into US dollars. But no way did I want to pay the commission two more times on the same $40. In the end he let me go get my cash from my bag while he held my passport. And it all worked out in the end! But I may suggest to bring more cash with you and not to change all of it into Nepali Rupes.

After getting my bags I met up with Sugandha. He is one the co-directors of Volunteer Society Network of Nepal or VSN. We went off to his place where I am staying for the next few months. I have my own room on the third floor of his house. It is pretty big and furnished with a pretty decent desk a bed to place my head! Sugandha has a wonderful family of two daughters and his wife. I eat with the family and hang out when I have down time.

This is Sugandha's house where I am staying...

We eat two meals a day of DahlBhat. Basically rice and lentil soup on top with always something to put on it. Either veggies or meat of some type. The two meals are at about 9:30 AM and like 8:00 PM. When I heard the schedule I got worried that I would starve throughout the day. No worries though as they eat snacks a few times a day as well. Either momos, which are dumplings filled with veggies but usually water buffalo meat, or some other type of food. So really we eat at least 3 times a day. I have not been hungry while I have been here. And of course I have been buying little candies and food from the never-ending number of local vendors whenever we are walking somewhere.

I have been buying a liter of water every morning from one store every morning. The girl who runs it is named Sarmila, and gets a kick out of my little Nepali. I can say water and give, and that is basically all that I need to buy my water.

My orientation schedule-

7:00 or 8:00 AM –wake up and I study my scriptures or read a book.
9:30-- we eat breakfast
10:30—my language class starts
12:45-- we head out for the afternoon
5:00-- return home and use the Internet and chill with the family or some of the othervolunteers.
8:00-- Dinner
9:00 or 10:00 go to sleep

My afternoons have been spent out doing things. I have seen some of the sights around town and have walked to see some of the surrounding areas of the city. My language teacher Sujan (pronounced Susan) usually goes with me to wherever we are going for the afternoon and gives a bit of background of what we are doing. Sometimes he even fills me in on some of the Nepali delights...yesterday we had some really yummy sour milk and curds. He loved it...I could only eat/drink about half of my small glass. It cost us about 30 cents of the two glasses. Sujan is studying at one on the Universities here in Kathmandu. He has classes starting at 6:00 or 6:30 AM (not an error) and then comes to start the teaching at like 10:30. Crazy huh??

I will have this orientation schedule for the next week or so and then I will start with my volunteering at the local community hospital. I have yet to check it out, but I think I will in the next couple of days. Today, I am going to one of the orphanages that VSN helps to support, and also where I will be doing some check-ups and immunizations.

If you have any questions then go ahead and email me or leave them in a comments. Thanks for reading...

Here are some other pictures...


These two are at Darbur Square

And this last one was taken by a very excited Nepali kid and is out almost past the city boundary.

Namaste from Kathmandu

Namaste!

I am finally in Nepal. It has been over a year since I have had this experience planned and it seems like it would never come. Stepping off the plane here in Kathmandu was a huge relief, and felt so great to be here. The sunny weather and beautiful mountains makes this feel like a home away from home.

But before I speak about Nepal I have to tell you about Bangkok. What a city! Crazy with tourists. It is almost overwhelming how many people are here vacationing. Although I enjoyed the sites I really wanted to get away from the vacationing masses, and the unsightly number of 7-Elevens.

I guess the highlights were the canal ride, the reclining Buddha, and flying kites with locals in the city park.

The kite, which cost me 75 cents, was sweet-- cobra like with green and orange. After I finally got the hang of it, it really soared and even the locals were impressed (well at least the eight year olds.) After baking in the sun for an hour I gave the kite up to a much better 10 year old flyer and just enjoyed the kites in the air for a while.

I am also a sucker for “local entertainment” and allowed myself to be taken on a tour of the city by a tuk-tuk driver. I was taken to few “wonderful” jewelery stores, tailor shops, and over-priced gift shops. The drivers get gas money if they bring tourists and if they stay for a certain amount of time. I had a few hours to kill so I helped the guy out. At each place I had to ask him how long I had to stay before making my exit! He also took me to a few temples and real sites in the city. It was fun....

Wow...my bloggin' skills have got to improve...oh well. This is fine for the first post in a while. Hopefully in the next few days I will have my first post about Nepal. But just for fun let me show one of my favorite pictures I have so far...