“the vista view of nepal”

Namaste, tapai lai kosta chaa? (or hello, how are you?) its been a while since I’ve blogged but I figured its time because big exciting things are going on in my life right now…as in I’m in Nepal. I have been here four days now but it seems a lot longer than that. I’m not sure exactly where to start but I guess the trip over is a good place–4 hour flight from Atlanta to Newark, then 12 hours to Delhi (YUCK) India. You might wonder why I have such negative feelings toward Delhi–well do the words SEVENTEEN HOUR LAYOVER help?? Haha. That was def. the most difficult part of the trip. I was planning on just staying in the airport but after claiming my bag they told me that I could not stay and would have to come back the next day 3 hours before my flight.  Pretty much at this point I broke down. I was tired and terrified and sobbing on the telephone to my wonderful boyfriend. what an adventure…then after leaving the airtel telephone booth a miracle occured–I saw a white girl, sitting by herself near where I had been sitting just moments before–and I started to approach her to see if she was going to be staying the night by any chance–as I approached I recognized her! She was a friend I had met via facebook who was also going to Nepal with the same program…It was a lifeline in a sea of scary. So together we lasted the night in that airport–watching guards with AK 47s, and women in Saris. We ended up in the “visitor’s lounge” around 3 in the morning (when we finally decided it was time to move). Unfortunately we weren’t on the same flight from India to Nepal so she left me that morning with promises to haunt the Nepal airport for my arrival.

Time seemed to move backward at this point as I waited and tried to keep my eyes open. Finally the time for my check-in arrived (still 3 hours early). After getting through security I sat at the gate–soon after I sat down however the dubious voice of an airport announcer came over the PA announcing that my flight would be delayed about an hour. Blast. It was at this point that I heard a voice from a few seats down from me–”you were on the flight from Newark?” it was the man who had been sitting in front of me on the 12 hour flight from america. It turned out that he had gone to America to go to school in Texas and he was returning home to see his family for the first time in four years. we talked the whole flight to Nepal (and I apologized for kicking his seat so much on the flight to Delhi!) and the trip passed fairly smoothly…

Jump to touching down on the tarmac in Nepal, descending the airplane President style with stairs and all…then I get up to the visa room and, surprise! discover that I did not have enough cash for a visa. I ask about the nearest ATM? there’s one downstairs. So I leave my passport upstairs and my baggage circling the baggage claim conveyor belt and dash downstairs out into the crowd of Nepali men wanting to take my bag and put me in their taxi–Some of them drop off however when they hear that I have NO money. Haha.. Try the first ATM-its out of service. And anyway I know now that I need to know how much I need in rupees–so back through security and up the stairs to the visa room…7,490 rupees. Ok, back downstairs and past the broken ATM to the next ATM about a block down the street-try my first Visa card…Cannot process at this time. And my backup card…Cannot process at this time. Panic. Remember that you changed some money into Indian Rupees, maybe that will do? back up to the visa room…change some money into Nepali Rupees, hand over all my American dollars…AND….I can go! Finally I am able to officially enter the country.

Mohan (the nepali man who helps out here) picks me up at the airport and we buzz off through the throngs of people for my first real view of Nepal…CRAZY. There are no real traffic lanes and horns are honking everywhere (here horns are used as a way of saying “I’m about to pass this bus on the wrong side of the road, so if you don’t move, Mr. Motorcycle, you’ll be flat as a pancake.”), cows in the street, buildings, dust, little children, garbage, more cows. It was really a new experience and wonderful in a crazy disorganized way.

I’m going to skip a few days to get to today–not cause they weren’t interesting, just cause I don’t feel like going that in depth right now!

Today was my second day at the hospital–I was trying to get there at 7 to work a typical nurse’s shift here (7am-1pm, 1pm-7pm and then night shift which is 7pm-7am)…however I was about ten minutes late-I arrived to find that my fellow nurse for the day was a girl named Sharila, who was probably around my age (I have some trouble estimating ages here for some reason). She was so sweet. Anyway, we had still, our little boy patient (who had been there for quite some time) who was from the Everest region and had been chasing a jackal that stole a chicken from his family and had fallen on some bamboo- after surgery to remove the bamboo he had spiked a fever and it was hanging around 100 (probably a hospital acquired infection since the hospital is basically the same thing as the street in terms of sanitation). Another interesting patient was an old lady who had arrived just as I left the day before. Her IV had become infiltrated so the nurse and I went over to try and start a new one in the other arm. The needle was huge ( maybe a 16gauge??) and long…As soon as the nurse got it in the woman’s arm a bump appeared an grew to about the size of a grape. No good. The nurse pulled the needle out. I went to throw it away…NO no no. They would use that same needle about eight more times as nurses and doctors tried to start an IV on the woman.  (interesting side note here–the hospitals here do not provide anything–the patients’ families have to take the prescription out of the hospital and buy the medications, needles, even sterile gloves, at a little drugstore right outside the hospital. Also food is all from the patient’s families.) Anyway, they finally started the IV. The woman’s BP continued to hang aroun 80/50 and without oxygen her O2 was about 80 as well. As I was leaving for the day the doctor came up and recommended her family move her to the ICU of a larger hospital where she could be properly cared for.

So that is a brief overview of my stay here in Nepal. Its hard to believe I have only been here four days.

Goodbye for now. I’ll write again soon with more adventures.

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