03.07.07

More time at the hospital. The Bible continues to be a great encouragement to me. However, I believe that this morning’s reflection showed me that I need more time in the word with other people. The time with the SGP ppl was great, but far too little. My discussion with Kamal the money exchanger who is being witnessed to by JWs was also encouraging as we looked into Scripture together. Hopefully we’ll have more chances to do that.
We went to Tripushwor to buy medical equipment for the hospital with the surgeon today and none of these stores seem to stock anything. You ask someone, and then they send someone to get the goods. So we were sitting there for what seemed like an eternity (probably 20 minutes), but we were kept on being told it’d be a minute. The surgeon noticed my irritability and laughed at me. He likes to ask “so why you come to Nepal?” a lot. Anyways, I was happy when we walked out of the store only paying 4500 when the bill said 4675. I think the surgeon was ready to walk out paying only 4000. (This is a new was of forcefully bargaining. Only drop what you’re willing and walk out.)

Prayer items:

1. relationship with host family, bridging the cultural gap and mutually blessing each other.
2. relationship with surgeon: the bulk of the day seems to be spent with him. He’s really keen on getting a small group of dedicated doctors to practice good medicine. Already, he’s established another hospital, but he’s thinking of downsizing to a smaller more manageable lot. But that requires finding a plot of land that’s in a good location and developing it. The current hospital (Gorkha Hospital) is situated in a congested part of the city most conducive to ambulance ambulation. As well, the lot is a bit too big. I’m convicted to take action, but ‘what to do’ is still in the air. Please pray for discernment. I will also share more with you about the medical situation here when I return. But this guy is very serious about doing quality work. The sisters and patients at the hospital and outside the hospital genuinely respect him and not just because of his rank – the caste system is pervasive in this country. They respect him because he genuinely cares about his patient and the patient care providers doing quality work. One of the sisters in the burn ward say he’s the only doctor who actually touches the patients. During rounds he usually changes dressing for those who he is around for. As well, he’s also taken a lot of time out to help us buy the right equipment for the hospital. This is huge, especially in a hospital that most of the staff don’t really seem interested in. It’s a government hospital so treatment is for the poor. Since the poor don’t have high expectations the quality of care is low. As well, doctors don’t seem interested in maintaining equipment here as they many seem to come for the experience – they get to see a lot here, not contributing (This is from my personal observations) more later…
3. how to process all that I’ve been seeing and experiencing
4. spiritual walk – Matthew 5 is good. And psalms continue to be huge encouragement putting the thoughts in my mind and mediations of heart to words.
5. what to do with remaining time. I think next week, I’ll be bck in the villages visiting people from a village church network; the following week, Ernest and I are planning a trip to the Tibetian boarder and then more time in Bhaktapur considering Nepal.
6. perhaps also trying to realize how to be light as per Matthew 5:16.
   
   Ok it for now. I guess that was a long list.