COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: UniBreak - Kathmandu
PROJECT: Community Healthcare
WRITTEN BY: Sherman Chu
Our second week has gone by so quickly! I think everyone is more settled into both their families and placement sites, and feeling more confident, more proactive and being more hands-on. I think our week has gone by so quickly because some of us only had 2 days of placement! Our Monday and Friday was occupied by vocational activities- Mountain flight on Monday and early weekend departure to Chitwan Royal National Park on Friday. Wednesday was a public holiday for some placement sites (SERC and CP centre), so some of us took this time to be a tourist and explore the Kathmandu city. Kiara and Jess visited the Swayambhunath (also known as the Monkey Temple), which is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Nepal’s most sacred Buddhist shrines. Catherine joined them to visit Kathmandu’s Durbar Square, which was once occupied by Nepal’s royal family and now home to the Kumari, Kathmandu’s living goddess. The Kumari is selected from a particular caste, be somewhere between four years old and puberty, and meet 32 strict physical requirements ranging from the colour of her eyes, the shape of her teeth to the sound of her voice. We all found this so intriguing!!
Back to placements. Alana and Lisa are still waiting to see a surgery at Stupa hospital, but in the meantime, they’ve bonded really well with the staff there. They have their daily lunches and mini Nepali lessons with the nurses at the hospital cafeteria. Emily says she is having a great time at BAS! She doesn’t mind the morning start at 8am! She has the longest day out of all of us, with a very structured routine. E.g. 8am feed the children, 9am play time with the children, 11am shower time for the children. She has really got herself involved and feels a great sense of achievement each day! She also mentioned that they only have one pair of latex gloves and they wash and reuse that one pair. Back in Australia, we would use maybe three pairs of gloves when performing first aid on someone (one pair for each wound). After hearing this, we were thinking of using some the money we had fundraised towards a few boxes of latex gloves. Anthony and Tarryn are very well-settled and doing physiotherapy sessions at Sahara Hospital. They’re seeing clients daily as if they work there! This week they were very lucky to see the staff deliver a baby!!
Last last weekend, we all went to Bhaktapur and Nagarkot. Bhaktapur has the best-preserved medieval architecture in Nepal. It is famous for its pottery and making its own special kind of paper. Many of us bought this special handmade paper for souvenirs. Nagarkot is famous for its panoramic views of the Himalayas. We had stayed there overnight, however, it was very cloudy both days so we only saw some of the peaks intermittently.
Last Friday, most of us took a trip down to Chitwan Royal National Park for some safari adventures and with hopes to see a rhino! A 5 hour trip turned into a 7 hour trip due to windy cliff-side roads which will only allow one vehicle to pass at each curve. This weekend was packed with adventures from wild jungle walks, jeep safaris, canoeing down the river and elephant safaris! We spotted monkeys, elephants (wild, captive and also baby elephants at the breeding centre), boars, deers, peacocks, bison (less than 2 metres away in our jeeps), ducks, wild chickens, crocodiles and TWO rhinos!! We were all SO happy to see 2 rhinos on our last day during our elephant safari. Overall it was another relaxing and dust-free weekend of quiet and no honking cars. Next week, we all have split ideas where we want to go, after all it’s our last weekend trip!
Super ratri! (goodnight!)
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