We are winding down our first week
working in the clinic and have a few highlights to report. Our team has come together nicely and
we are having a good time together.
We had a lot of ideas of how we thought things were going to go but
every day has been slightly different so we adapt to what comes up. This week has been a bit of a
wild ride because we are short on interpreters. For a few days all of us were in one room with all of our
patients (plus a few observers).
We had to share one interpreter, Satya Mohan, who was blessedly
patient. Amazingly, it worked but
now we have two interpreters as one of the nuns from last year has graced us
with her presence. The past couple
of days we have spread out over two rooms so in comparison it seems quiet. We’ve now had a chance to see some of
the patients a few times this week and are starting to get to know our clinic
community. A few of the patients
are quite rowdy and like to tease us.
We are learning a lot and already feel like we are honing our skills to
better meet our patients needs. It
takes awhile to establish a rapport with patients but as the week progresses we
are getting to know each other which makes each treatment stronger.
On the home front (which is right
upstairs from the clinic), we have a full house. There are the four of us, Andrew, Nicky the clinic director,
Joel from the gompa (monastery) next door, the two nuns Ani Yangchen, and
Kolpana as well as rotating sick monks.
A couple of the monks from next door have had the flu so we quarantined
them to a downstairs room so that we didn’t end up with a monastery full of
sick boys. The highlight of the
week has been the moxa and herbs for rest of the boys. We line them up to give them moxa on
four points for the immune system.
They mostly tolerate us and do a lot of whispering and giggling as we go
around. If only we knew what they
were saying. It is quite the
production.
The food is fantastic as we have
our own cook. We even had cake for
breakfast the other day. Nikole’s
birthday was on Wednesday so we surprised her with a banana and fig cake that
Nicky made in the rice cooker. It
didn’t turn out like we planned so it wasn’t ready that night but with the time
difference technically Nikole had her birthday for a day and a half. You can justify anything if you try
hard enough.
Overall things are shaping up and we are starting to get the hang of it. We are not as busy as last year yet (probably due to harvest) but this is merciful as we are getting up to speed ourselves. All of us are learning a few key Nepali words and can now head bobble with the best of them. Tonight, we are treating ourselves to a night in Kathmandu with the B Team women, Sarah and Jackie who have arrived early to trek.
