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...