Out and About in Bouddha

It’s official; I have been lost on the other side of the world. Following an abdominal muscle-straining ride on the back of Mark’s motorcycle with my smaller backpack (think acceleration + 20lb back pack and you’ve got Jen gripping Mark and the passenger handle as tightly as possible), I had a tour of the clinic where I’ll be spending the next three months. The compound is slate-tiled, there are gardens, and it’s wonderfully sunny. The staff is all very friendly, although I’m going to have to work on my Nepali to get to know them better. I’ve had a tour of the facilities, talked with the medical director and a visiting cardiologist, and had lunch. And then I was set free on Bouddha.

I confidently strode out the clinic’s gate, through the monastery grounds, and off into the wilds of Bouddha. I received lots of stares, as I got more and more turned’ round, though not necessarily for getting lost. Keep in mind I’m taller and whiter than most everyone else in the city. I ended up in the town next door, down a dead-end street that abuts the local Hyatt; I knew where I was!

I also managed to find a grocery store in which there was a cloche of Germans, one of whom was friendly enough to start chatting about the availability of bottled water; she didn’t want to buy the Pepsi Co. water, but there wasn’t a local option. She’s volunteering at a local school for three months and then traveling in Nepal and India for the remaining three.

Having finally found my way back to the clinic, I met with the deputy manager and the clinic coordinator and have a better idea of their expectations of me. I will meet with the nursing director and the medical director tomorrow; from there it will be decided where I will volunteer. I know, you’re all thinking “you told us you’d be in the reproductive health clinic”, but that’s before I realized that the “hospice” is actually an in-patient hospital for indigent folks. So, it’d kinda be like in-patient nursing, but not in a hospital. We’ll see. As for the reproductive health clinic, though I may see patients, the focus is mainly on teaching the staff additional skills as they have several new nurses right out of school. I like teaching; I have mixed feelings about teaching in a foreign language I don’t know. I still have lots of questions, but am glad to be here starting my mission.