Giardia
Well - this evil thing is becoming the bain of our existence. Mark got it, took the medication and was delayed in going on the mid west trip but was feeling really good and the world was put to rights.
The medication he took before we went west kills the live bacteria but not the eggs so it is very common for the symptoms to return 10 days later as the eggs hatch. It did this last week. He took a double dose of the medication which has some nasty side effects as well. The world was not good!!! I took him to a dr who said that "the stool test is fine (which they did and had the results ready in 20 mins!) so it isn't giardia so what do you want me to do?" We thought that is what we are paying him for!!!

We eventually got hold of an expat dr who says that the medication dosages that he took were right but you can become allergic to diary products except yoghurt for about 2 weeks as the small intestine is damaged. The tiredness comes from the inability to absorb the nutrients from the food. We have knocked back all of these (hard in Nepal as chiyaa is made of milk and expected to be drunk although the lovely man at the office now makes a special tea for Mark) and the world was back to rights again... until today when the diarrhoea returned - and so did a very frustrated boy!!!! The stool test is again negative (not uncommon even if it is giardia). For those of you who are worried, he is eating lots so is not losing much weight!

The road
Well, the digger has gone and now there is a gang of mostly children with pick axes pulling all the individual rocks out of the road!!! This could take a while and is being slowed down the by small fact that we are now having daily thunderstorms with hail and really heavy rain!!
The government hasn't agreed to pay their share which has now dropped to 40%. Some locals have refused to pay! The amount they pay is based on the number of hand lengths their property has with the street frontage! A hand is measured from the elbow to the finger tip!

Weather
We have had thunderstorms most afternoons. Yesterday was a very dramatic one. It got so dark at 2pm it was almost nighttime. The rain poured down and the street was an inch deep in water in two minutes. The hail stones were the size of small golf balls and the thunder had a crack to it that I have never heard in NZ. I have bruises from the hail as I went to get our trekking permits!!
More water means the possibility of more power so there are some upsides to it.
The other upside is that the temperature has dropped 10 deg - it is now 22 deg (thanks to your thermometer Helen) - it felt so cold yesterday that I put thermals on and then didn't believe the temperature when I looked at it!!

Easter
It is Easter this weekend. Hard to know here as there are no hot cross buns or Easter eggs in the shops!
We are going trekking for four days which we are really excited about.
I pray that you all have a great Easter and that you remember that Jesus has died so that we can have forgiveness of sins and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the saviour of our sins.
HAPPY EASTER

Pokhara Thunder Storms

I managed to catch this on film the other day there were more impressive ones but by the time I got the camera out they had been and gone....

Happenings on our street

This is our street on Monday...

...and on Tuesday...
Not quite the same spot but close to it. The street we live on has been slowly deteriorating over the last few years, there are a few patches with tarmac but not many. On Tuesday a digger arrived to start digging up the road to repair it, by Thursday work had stopped because some of the locals don't want to pay for the stretch in front of their house. Typically the government pays 60% and the locals pay the rest and it depends on how much road frontage you have as to how much you pay. The road is now impassable by car or bus and any house with a car won't be using their car much in the next few months if it was parked at home on Tuesday. No one seems to deterred in fact the digger is quite good entertainment, you can see the crowd of people standing around watching well before the digger.

Mid West Trip

Well, we spoke too soon. We had said that we hadn’t seen the effect of bandh’s (strikes which at least close roads and shops but some can be severe and stop you leaving your house) and our health was good.
Mark got giardia so we decided he should come down a day later on another vehicle to allow the medication to take effect. However, a two day bandh was called and so he got another sleep in.

Jo went to Ghorahi and was staying in a hotel with another expat as by this stage we realised that Mark wouldn’t be able to get to Ghorahi. The room was little but sufficient. The bathroom hadn’t been cleaned since it was built including wiping the extra grout away which had since caked onto the floor making the bathroom look really dirty.

We had an extra friendly young boy who felt it was his duty to make us really comfortable – at the expense of personal space! He knocked on a door on the first night to offer us complimentary chiyaa (tea) in the morning. We since learnt that black chiyaa was complimentary but while chiyaa (normal Nepali chiyaa) was chargeable. We ordered chiyaa for 8am – it arrived at 6.30. He was then back to take our breakfast order and then came back with the menu just to check we were happy with our order! He then came back to tell us it was ready – all while we were in various states of dress after having a freezing cold shower. We went to the restaurant to eat only to wait ½ hour for the food to be cooked!!!! Bless him, he was trying so hard!!!
We attended a local Nepali church where about 10 people gave testimonies of God healing them. This is the main way that people are turning to Christ, healings that the local holy men have failed to achieve. We were invited back to the pastor’s wife’s house for lunch (he was attending training in Kathmandu). She was a very lovely lady and lunch with her was a real blessing for Nicola and I.

Ghorahi is a lovely, semi rural town although a lot bigger than I expected. It has a good sized bazaar with lots of local products and then the houses are scattered around. It is very spread out and there are lots of empty plots of land. It rests in a wide, flat valley with hills in the background but I really did miss the mountains and I am glad that we are staying in Pokhara so that I can look at the mountains with snow on them!! (We were going to be working in Ghorahi after language training.)

The work in Ghorahi was limited due to the bandhs meaning we couldn’t drive anywhere to see the community work. We sat in a few meetings that were in Nepali of which I understood nothing!! One meeting was in a cute mud brick church that used bamboo as its scaffolding. There was about a ½ metre gap between the walls the roof to provide ”air-conditioning”. The roof was tin so I don’t know what you would hear during the monsoon. We sat on the floor in a circle with all the village and church elders and had another meeting – all in nepali that I didn’t understand. I felt like I was in survivor and managed (I don’t know how) to walk out with my torch still ignited and was allowed to carry on with my day!

We got to meet a very lovely old lady called Suk Mya who developed leprosy just before she was to be married off. She was sent away from her village and occasionally her mother would bring her some food. She slept near the edge of the jungle with the cows.

She heard about INF personnel who came to her village but by the time she walked there they had left. Therefore she walked 16 days on ulcerated feet to the Ghorahi clinc. There she was treated but the staff failed to reintegrate her back into her village. A local church man allowed her to have some of her land and INF built her a 3x4m house incl toilet and kitchen area!! She was sooo proud of the house even though all it had in it was a stack of firewood for the woodburner, some rice, dahl and a packet of biscuits which she insisted that she shared with us.

We had another day in Ghorahi looking at the TB hospital before driving to Nepalgunj. We saw jackels and monkeys on the road which was a treat!!!

We finally arrived in Nepalgunj at around 6pm and meet up with Mark who had arrived earlier at about 1pm. We stayed with Ross and Ester a couple our age who are working in Nepalgunj with INF. The temperature was a significant jump on Pokhara it was hitting mid thirties during the day and not dropping below 25 at night. Nepalgunj is smelly, hot, dusty and has the most vicious mosquitos even seen (they bite through trousers and socks!!) and it made us appreciate Pokhara even more. We spent the next day visiting various patients of INF who had been through the community based rehab program (or CBR). In these CBR programs INF helps patients to integrate back into society following a disability. INF oftens helps by setting the patient up with some form of income, typically this is in the form of a shop or some goats or pigs that they can breed and make an income from. There are often housing modifications required as well as wheelchairs which can all be provided by INF.

We had dinner on the Tuesday night with most of the INF team in Nepalgunj which was great they are a wonderful bunch and all really close. The next day we had a quick tour of Bheri Zonal hospital in Nepalgunj, all I will say is don’t get sick in Nepal!!!

After the tour we ended up sitting around waiting for nearly five hours for a meeting to finish before we could leave for Surkhet, so we found a fan and plonked ourselves under that to pass the time. We finally left at about 3pm, we were supposed to be in Surkhet at 1pm for a meeting. On the way we came across an INF expat stranded on the side of the rode with a puncture on her motorbike. One of the Nepalis with us rode her bike slowly to the next town (11km) where we fixed the tire. After all that we ended up arriving 7 hours late in Surkhet. The drive to Surkhet is beautiful, the road goes through one end of Bardia national park which has some pretty good scenery and mobs of monkeys hanging out on the road.

The next morning we had more tours similar to Nepalgunj and more meetings in Nepali that we didn’t understand. That afternoon was a meeting in the INF Surkhet office of all the Rehab teams from the various programs, this was a chance for everyone to find out what the other programs had been up to and toss ideas around. The next day was a full day rehab meeting which I (Mark) was noticeable in my absence. I decided that rehab work was not really my forte so I teamed up with a couple of young English guys on their gap year and climbed the hill behind Surkhet. It took us about 9 hours and was a great day despite being outside without sun cream for the whole day in the scorching sun I only got a very mild dose of sunburn (no hole in the ozone layer over here!!!).

The next day we set off at 7am headed for Butwel which is small city half way back to Pokhara. We arrived early in Butwel so decided to continue to Tansen. The road between Butwel and Pokhara is quite narrow and in several spots it cuts across large cliff faces. At one point the road is being repaired following a landslide which probably occurred around last years monsoon and will no doubt occur again this year. The road is down to one lane and we had to pull over to let a large bus through, we ended up perched on the edge of a cliff with millimetres between us and a huge drop into the river below and millimetres from us on the other side was the bus. That was a nail biting experience!! After a night in Tansen to break up the journey we returned to Pokhara the next day thankful for the higher elevation and cooler temperatures.

Ghorahi Church - mud brick with bamboo supports

 

The small house belonging to Suk Mya (lady on right)

 

Nicola (another expat) and Suk Mya

Horse and cart in Nepalgunj

Jo with Nepali baby in a village near Nepalgunj. This baby was 2 months old and the parents were very keen for me to hold her but very unwilling to take her back. She appeared very small so I think they hoped I would nurse it back to health.

A Nepal stove in an INF patients house

INF patients sleeping area

Patients house

A typical warrd in the Bheri Zonal hospital in Nepalgunj

Patients queuing to be seen at Bheri Zonal Hospital

A stove at a tea house on the way to Surkhet

 

Typical house in the villages surrounding Surkhet

 

A patient with a spinal cord injury as a result of being shot and her baby 

 

A typical sight on Nepali roads (overloaded buses) 31 people died in a bus accident on this road the day before this photo was taken

 

A vulture (very impressive to see) about a 1.5m wingspan

Safely home from our Mid West Trip

We made it back safe and sound from our Mid-West trip despite several bandh's (strikes), a bout of gardia and the death of the much loved ex prime minister of Nepal. We'll add some photos and a few words about what we got up to in the next few days.

Giardia Strikes

Well its now official, I have Giardia (Mark). It's not very pleasent, fortunately I've been given a cocktail of drugs to send it on its merry way, unfortunately some of the side effects of the drugs seem to be nearly as bad as the gardia. Hopefully I'm all plugged up by 6am tomorrow when we get in a van to drive to Ghorahi. I've got no idea where I could have picked it up, it seems that it brews away inside you for as long as two or three weeks. I laughed when I saw the packaging for the drugs, old newspaper with instructions written in vivid on the front, at least I think thats what the writing is!!

Post Comments

I've just discovered that I can change a setting which means anyone can comment on our posts. So those of you that have complained that its hard to make comments should now be able to do so without having to sign away your first born son.

Happenings in Pokhara

Holi Festival

Last Sunday (28^th Feb) was Holi festival which is a Hindu festival during which young people run around chasing after each other with water balloons and bright coloured paint. We saw several mobs of teenagers chasing each other on motorbikes with pillion passengers throwing water and paint at each other. The festival is in celebration of the end of winter, amongst other things, and is held on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna. We were warned that foreigners are fair game and are often picked on so if you venture outside be prepared to come back a different colour. Being adventurous kiwi's we decided to venture down to lake side which is one of the hot spots where the locals go to pick on the tourists. Unfortunately due to the water problems mentioned below we didn't manage to get to lake side until nearly 4 pm, by which time most of the fun was over. We did find several rather odd looking tourists though.

Even the cows are fair game

The streets covered in paint

Tourists caught in the tourist trap

Some of the local kids around our house

Water Issues Again!!!

We ran out of water again last weekend and had to get the water truck in to fill up our ground tank.

The water tanker delivering water

Upcoming Midwest Trip

We're off on our Midwest trip this coming Friday; we travel to Ghorahi to look at the INF projects operating in the region. We then get back in the jeep and head down to Nepalgunj for three days and then off to Surket for three days. Both of us are really looking forward to the chance to escape the class room and also to visit Ghorahi. Ghorahi is where we were originally going to be located. I suspect that we will breathe a sigh of relief that we are now able to enjoy the comforts of Pokhara where you can buy toilet paper and western toilets are common.

Mid West Trip

Housing

Although we are enjoying the comforts of the INF guest house at the moment we have started to think about setting up our own house. The expat team coordinator in Pokhara has a couple of house coming available in the next month or two so we've been house inspecting over the last couple of weeks. One of the houses is almost next door to where we are now and is a lovely house but unfortunately is right on a rather busy and noisy road and the rooms are small so it would be tight when all our friends come to visit!!!! The other house, known as church flat, is slightly older but is set well back from the road with quite a bit of open space around so should be nice and quiet. It also has great views of the mountains from our private deck. At this stage our choice is the church flat, we're not sure exactly when we will be moving in but will keep you posted.

We couldn't understand why the Nepalis lived on the bottom floor and rented out the top floor of houses as in the west the top floor is more desirable. We have found out that with the concrete roofes on the houses they get very hot and make sleeping at night in the hotter weather unpleasant. Having a room above can drop the temperature by 5degrees which makes a significant difference when it is 35deg outside. Nepalis also like to be close to the vege gardens that they have.

The church flat has no-one living upstairs but has a room above what will be our bedroom. It is for puja (making offerings to the Gods) which isn't ideal but better than no room at all.

Dinner with Pushpa, Menuk and Jonathon

Last weekend we were invited around to dinner with Pushpa, Menuka and their energetic son Jonathan. Pushpa works at INF in Green Pastures Hospital in the financial department and they worship at Ram Ghat church. Pushpa and Menuka are good friends with one of the INF New Zealand board members so they are quite familiar with New Zealanders, Pushpa was even wearing a Kathmandu jersey which was a slightly strange sight. After playing soccer, badminton and cricket with their budding sports star Jonathan we sat down for Dahl Baht for dinner. Pushpa came searching for us at the office on Monday to check up that they hadn't made us sick. Nepalis have stronger stomachs than foreigners do and as a result are not quite as careful with boiling water and things like that. Fortunately both of our stomachs seemed to come out unscathed.

Jonathan playing badminton

It is traditional for the women who do the cooking to serve the men and the guests the food. Only when they have finished will the women eat and they do so in the kitchen which is out of bounds for visitors. When everyone is eating no-one talks - the conversation is held afterwards but not for long as most Nepalis will leave soon after having been fed.

Jo was very priveledged to be allowed in the kitchen to learn how to cook dahl bhaat. Menuka did eat in the same room but only after everyone else had eaten. We did stay and played rummikub for a few hours afterwards!

Weather

It has got a lot warmer this week. We have taken a blanket of the bed and the mosquite net has gone up as they are coming out!! According to the paper we are getting close to 30deg during the day but it is nice and dry so loving it!!!

The thunderstorms are starting. We had a very dramatic one last Friday night - went for about 2 hours and some the claps of thunder were really really loud. Nepalis call thunder gadang gadung which translates as the sky is shouting - how great is that!!!!