Valuable hospital experience in Pokhara

COUNTRY: Nepal - Pokhara
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Community Healthcare, Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Divya Venkataraman

Sorry for the delay, readers! The January Pokhara UniBreak group has been up to a lot lately. This past week has been taken up predominantly with placements and trying to get the most out of them until we finish up.

Hayley and Jess have had some interesting experiences in the neonatal ward at the Manipal Hospital, taking care of new-borns and even getting in a little practical experience under the guidance of the staff. Lucy and Clare have also had a valuable time at the hospital, and have even been teaching health at the nearby monastic school and nunnery.

Cameron and Kirsty have been filing orders, stocktaking and selling handicrafts all around the world as part of their work for the NGO. They’ve also been involved in gathering funding and resources from other companies through some promotional writing.

At the schools, the girls have taught primary and lower secondary classes for the most part. Our classes have ranged from creating haikus to story writing to making up our own inventions! The children are difficult to manage at the best of times, but we’ve found that embracing the chaos is the only way to get anything done. The boys however have taught Science and Maths at their school, and ended their time with a school staff picnic during which a school bus full of rowdy teachers was louder than the one usually full of children. The unexpected holidays are always a bit startling, but again, we’ve learned to be at one* with it all.

Some members of the group also tackled the Poon Hill trek on the weekend. It was reported to be a fantastic hike, with the magnificent views of the Annapurna range more than making up for the loss of walking ability for the succeeding few days. The 5am awakening to trek up Poon Hill and trudge through the snow and bitter cold may have been a tough one, but the girls had an incredible time. Other members of the group are undertaking the same trek this week!

More to come on the last blog post- we’ll keep you posted!