Lets try this again!!

Oh boy...where to start.  It feels difficult to write about the city and it's chaos because I already feel a little used to it.  The first day here, I was in complete shock.  I knew that I was coming to a third world country, but you imagine the bad areas of Columbus, which is not even close to what it is here.  Imagine the worst poverty that you can and then multiply that 3 times.  Cows, dogs, and chickens roaming the streets with ribs showing and digging through trash piled up on the side of the road.  Some animals dead lying in ditches by the road.  When I say that trash covers the streets, I am not exaggerating. We walk about 40 minutes to work and there is not a step without trash under your feet.  The smell of urine and trash is so overwhelming you have to wear a mask.  Many of the natives wear masks as well.  I have learned that many people here suffer from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) due to the pollution and dust.  We walk mostly everywhere because its either that or pack yourself into a bus with 27 people ( I actually counted once) where in America the legal limit would be 11.  Boys about the age of 8 hang out the bus doors yelling at you over and over to get onto the bus.  As you have seen in movies, there is no traffic pattern.  Buses and scooters all trying to dodge each other going 30 MPH.  I know that doesn't seem fast but it is frightening!  Continuous honking for no reason it seems!

The hospital is a whole other story.  Doctors in flip flops handling blood and urine, moving in and out of different wards without washing their hands.  If they do wash there hands, they dip them into a community bucket.  Not sure if they use soap?  The same beds and thermometers being used with multiple patients. All the patients at the community hospital are from the rural areas of Nepal.  They are very poor and pay a minimal fee to be at the hospital.  The doctors also get paid very little.  The wards are small, probably the size of a walk in closet. Again, the smells are unbearable.  So far, I have observed the Medical Ward, ICU, USG, and Radiology.  Despite everything that I just said, for the resources that the hospital has, they seem to be doing an amazing job.  I just wonder why they can't make small changes to increase the sanitation and therefore help to eliminate transmission throughout the hospital.

In fear of losing everything again, I'm going to sign off now.  Tomorrow we will be heading to a Leprosy clinic then on Thursday Mother Theresa's clinic; Sisters of Charity.  Stay tuned!!

XOXO

Namaste.