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By Allyndreth Stead

Created: 21 October 2009

We are settling into a routine at the clinic now. At 5 a.m. we are awakened by the sound of symbols and drums, followed by the sounds of "elephant" horns from the monastery next door as the monks start their morning meditation.  We shower, practice yoga, qi gong, or meditate to the sounds of the village slowly awakening.  Those of us who are taking care of the latest flu cases, check on the the sick monks and give them treatment.  Then we eat our breakfast of curried potatoes and chapatis, or pounded rice and milk tea.

At 9 a.m. the clinic opens.  We are treating a wide array of conditions from knee, back and shoulder pain, to myriad of digestive issues from parasites to ulcers. We also treat a lot of hypertension, diabetes, asthma, pneumonia, and a woman with a prolapsed uterus. On top of all that we have been treating some trauma cases from the construction site next door.

At 10:30, Umilla our fabulous cook, brings us sweet tea to keep our energy up and to give the interpreters a bit of a break to wet their throats. By 12:30 we have finished treating our morning patients, and break for lunch. The food is delicious and nutritious, consisting of Dal- Bhaat (brown rice with lentil soup), bitter greens, and curried vegetables.

At 1 p.m. it is back to work to treat our afternoon patients. As we bid farewell to our interpreters at 5pm, we clean and straighten up our clinic rooms and discuss the difficult cases of the day. Slowly, young monks with upset stomachs, minor injuries, or new flu cases trickle in and are treated.

By 6:30 it is time for dinner and around 9:30 p.m. we crawl into bed to the sounds of the village "street dogs" singing or asserting their territorial rights to sleep on a particular doorstep or defend it from interlopers. As we fall into sleep, we wonder what challenges tomorrow will bring.

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By Jennie King

Created: 09 October 2009

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. 

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By Andrew Schlabach

Created: 03 October 2009

Nikole Maxey, Heidi Stoeckl, Jennie King, Andrew Schlabach and Allyndreth Stead arrived in Nepal Sept 28th having successfully transported over 500 lbs. of clinic supplies and equipment half way around the planet.  We have spent the last week adjusting to the local time (about a 12 hour time difference), sightseeing in the Kathmandu Valley, setting up our clinic facility in Chapagaon and conducting some team training. It has been very exciting to be back in Chapagaon and seeing many familiar faces in the village. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the clinic team this week and getting to know each of these gifted practitioners. I could not have hoped to bring a more delightful, insightful and hard working group to Nepal. I know they are going to be doing some great work here. The team begins clinic operations tomorrow (Oct 4th).