Gai Yattra

The time of festivals is really ramping into gear. Next week the biggest Hindu festival of the year starts. There have been a lot of smaller ones lately. About a month ago one of them was Gai Yattra. I was studing it in class so my teacher and I hopped on the motorbike and off we went to have a look.
It is a Newari festival. The Newari people are an ethnic group that typically live in the Kathmandu valley but there are some living in Pokhara. The festival started many years ago when a king, seeing his wife's anguish at losing their son decided to have a day where she was entertained in order to try and cheer her up. A festival was formed and every year, those that have lost loved ones form parades with photos of their loved one dressed like cows (?) in order to help them get to their next life. They also partake in dancing etc in order to cheer themselves up and festival is the one time in the year that practical jokes and political sattire are allowed.

A competition has also started where groups meet and have dancing competitions at this time. This is one group that didn't have family that had died but were dancing on the street to practise for the upcoming competition. 

Traditional Nepali instruments are used to create the music.

 Devotions are carried out in the street temples during the trip.

 

The living goddess of Hindu. This is the part time one, the full time one lives in Kathmandu!

 And on the back of the cars is people acting out the lives of other gods and goddesses.

Rich people pay for cars for their processions.

The traditional Newari coloured saris.

Didi/bahini training

Lately I (Jo) have been looking after all the expat housing in Pokhara. As part of this I organised training for the didi/bahini's (older and younger sisters) that do our housework. All the didi's met every Friday for five weeks at one house and the more experienced didi's taught the less experienced didi's how to cook everything from pasta sauce to brownie.

They all loved it and frequently invited their friends and family.

Some of the didi's peeling potatoes
to make mousaka, some have run
into the other room for some peace and
quiet.

Working in the Nepali health system

As many of you know, I (Jo) am working in the Nepali government health system. It is a user pays system although the prices at the government hospital are a lot cheaper than the thousands (it seems) of private hospitals around.

This is the enterance to the emergancy area. What you can't hear are the screams of a little child that is having a proceedure done with no anaesthetic as that costs money and isn't considered necessary.

When  the patients arrive at the hospital they go to the ticket counter and buy a ticket in order to see their respective specialist. It seems to be one place in Nepal where people form orderly lines.

 

Once they have got their ticket they see the respective specialist - medical on the left, surgical on the right and ortho at the end. There aren't many people yet as the hospital doesn't really start work until 10am and these photos are taken at about that time.

If medicines or plaster casts etc are needed they are bought at the pharmacy in the hospital by the relatives of the sick person.

The relatives have to do all the washing etc - here are clothes and bed clothes of some patients drying.

If the orthopaedic surgeon decides that physio is needed they are sent to the dept (room no 22). If they have a shoulder problem then range of movement exercises are given just like Rasoul is teaching this Aama at the moment. Even if the shoulder has full range and the problem is something else this is still given as it appears that the ortho surgeons and the physios don't have the same level of assessment skils that would be expected in New Zealand. The education system here is all rote learning - they struggle to analyse anything, and often to analyse assessment results is too difficult for the staff and isn't done.

Ultrasound treatment is given as if the power will go out tomorrow (which is may well do!). There is very little evidence for ultrasound especially the in areas at the doseages that they give but it is given none the less. Last week I solidly ultrasounded about 20 patients in 2 hours - enough to make anyone go mad!!

Some of the rooms in the hospital are filthy but then inside is really flash equipment such as this xray machine - only an expat can take the photos that I did!

The area outside the CT room- really nice machine and just to the left of this photo is very wet damp areas that I have frequently seen mice running around in.

This is the ortho ward - men and women are all in together - privacy is not considered important

One of the physios job is plastering fractures.

The physio dept - Rasoul teaching the prescribed exercises for a sore neck, another patient doing her exercises with a patient in the far right of the photo receiving ultra sound.

The surgical ward. Rasoul is giving therapy to a patient, the family of all the patients standing around, helping their sick relatives and providing linen and food.

Sari shopping

Very very sorry about the lack of postings here lately. The internet we have is a modem that works like a cellphone. During the monsoon with low cloud the internet has been terrible. I got this post all set up - took 1.5 hours to load all the photos and the internet packed in and wiped it all! We have also both been very very busy with work.

A friend of Elly, another expat, and myself needed saris as there are several weddings coming up that we've been told attendance is not optional. Once a wedding is arranged the wedding is often held within two days time. To buy a sari can take a day, then the blouse takes a week to sew - it will be ready once the honeymoon is over (as they don't really have one). Therefore, with news of possible weddings we went shopping.

You basically go into the shop, look at the rack and pick a colour you like and the shop keeper will pull everything of that colour out for you to try! Generally, you take one look, disregard it and ask for more - the pile builds, but that is their problem, not yours!!

I initially thought I would go for a deep
red (bright red is the colour of the family of the
bride) or a deep blue.

 

 Then I saw this one that is more
turquiose than the photos indicate.

Then I had to make a decision!

I went with turquoise and Tasha went
with red

Here are some of the saris that
we didn't like! The flamingo is from
 Tasha's church in the UK and goes
overseas with people and gets his
 photo taken doing strange things
like sari shopping

Out for a dinner of momo's

 or swimming in the local lake - better him
than me!

We then had a night where all the girls got together to learn how to tie the 5.5 metres of material!!!

 

 How fat do you think I am!!

 The way it sits at the end is the most
important bit

Jo in a sari - now to get the blouse sewn
so that the top underneath looks better

House Construction in Nepal

I made this little video while we were living in the guest house after first arriving in Pokhara and have finally got around to uploading it. I'm not sure how this would have fared if it had been built in Christchurch.

The roller came back

We have been keeping you updated with the building of the new road. The top bit was sealed (albeit with a thin layer that is wearing out quickly) and then the money ran out so we were told that it was going to be a rocks/shingle/dirt mix for the rest. This had been bought in and we thought the job was finished. The road was really rough and unpleasant to ride on if your bike has no suspension. However, this week the roller came back with a few more trucks of dirt and has made it slightly smoother, although I am glad that my bike shorts are coming out from NZ next week.

Check out our roller

When they had nearly finished the upper section of the road, they in the middle of the monsoon, dug up the lower part. Motorbikes/buses/trucks etc continue to use this road, it is a bit of a rollercoaster and is most uncomfortable in a car and I cycle around it. It isn't as obvious with the rain as it is filling up the the ruts but the bus that is coming I can assure you was bouncing around wildly.

More monsoon photos

Mark walking to work - an hour later it was past our ankles but the ground is very porous and it absorbs really quickly as well

The road (river) - the fence on the right is the edge of the hospital property