Update

Hello.

Events durig the last little while. My answer to pray came as Jason arranged for me to travel with a group of young Singaporean professionals. The most encouraging thing was the fellowship. I realized that I really miss being able to be understood, sing praises in a language that I comprehend and pray together with siblings. (I hope I'm not being too self-centred with 'my' worship). Anyway, the random discussions that Moreover, it was a good break to be able to travel out to see the Annapurna mountains. Despite the cloud cover, we were still able to catch a glimpse of the fishtail peak (Annapurna I) early one morning and in the afternoon of another. It was a great change to be able to meet village people. I was seriously starting to get really intolerant of the ridiculous amount of unjustified horn usage within the city.

It was nice not to see any type of motorized vehicle, but also painful to see a 52year old man carrying 50kg of aluminum roofing for on a 2 day hike. He starts at 0700 each morning and goes til about 1300. This is usually when the rains start to come down.

Got my first leech bite as well. They actually don't hurt at all. The only reason why I noticed was because my toe was wallowing around in a pool of blood. Other little accidents included slipping on the rocks. But it was a small price to pay to get away and see a more representative perspective of Nepal. ~80% of the Nepali people live in villages away from the city centres.

Just got back from another dinner with an uncle here who has essentially extended a helping hand in every way since my arrival.

The week prior I did another presentation at ENPHO to a group of undergrad students with the Clean Air Network Nepal division of Clean Energy Nepal. They have been trained to do pulmonary function testing on class 8 students. The idea of this study is to gauge the effect of air pollution in student who live in areas where the air pollution levels are tracked. Testing has been goign on during this last week. I'll probably meet with them sometime this week to debrief. As well, maybe sharing results with traffic police this week. But we'll see...

Last week, I was also fortunate enough to shadow a pediatric surgeon at Kanti and also at the Gorkha Hospital - a much cleaner and less chaotic hospital. I'm still digesting a lot of what I've been exposed to in the hospital. But perhaps it's something I will have to get used to - the hospital is a place of sick people. Nevertheless, some of the treatment methods are quite brutal. It's hard to sit there and not cringe when the wrong equipment is being used, or when you are exposed to the ironic realities of organizations. It seriously is a tragedy. They have had some of the most high tech equipment donated by the Japanese in 1994, but it hasn't been used. It sits in a fancy display case because no one knows how to use it. As the Nepali's would say: "ke garne" (what to do). It's a fatalistic statement that states the frustration in situations that just shouldn't exist, but do.

I didn’t realize this, but my time here is running short. With a little over a month to go, I’ll be visiting some other missionaries in Nepal in the following week and may go to the villages once again with a church group. There may be other opportunities to begin a lung function study comparing people using eco-stoves vs. those with an indoor wood-stove, but we still gotta see about that.

Oh on the way back, we stopped in Maleku, where I went last week with Ernest, Sandip and friends (Sujan, Puja, Bimal, Indra and another really quiet girl). Anyway, we had met a doctor there. She’s the only live in doctor in this hospital that was set up in memory of an Italian photographer that died in a vehicle accident. It’s the only hospital in a 70km radius and has to service all the accidents of insane drivers going break-neck speeds around blind curves. Anyway, I felt like the prodigal son as I ran to the hospital during our 25 minute lunch stop-over. Before I even got the hospital door, the doctor and the assistant had come out to greet me. I overpaid for lichee nuts, but they were more encouraged by being able to see someone who will listen to their situation. Hopefully Ernest and I will be able to spend a couple days there. They have quarters for people to live in at the hospital too. But this clinic is pretty nice, it’s clean and decently stocked.

Anyway it for now. Gotta get going before host family worries. Will update more later.

Peace be with you all!