A broken hip, a disgruntled cook and a thing called raksi - Medical Trek Part II

Medical Trek Part the Second

Awake at 4.30am to the sounds of a kid from the village practicing his singing or yelling or whatever it was supposed to be. Snooze till about 5 when the sounds of chickens being...hmm 'processed' for Dashain festival awaken us all to a chilly morning. Later that morning we would see goats being walked up a hill and then having to be carried back down with a plastic bag in the place where a head used to be. Nepalis love goat meat and Dashain seems to be the best time to eat it, nice and fresh anyways!

I climbed to the top of the partially constructed new section of the school to enjoy my morning coffee and admire the architecture. In the second photo bamboo poles are used to prop up the cement floor above. I guess once all the 'support' structures are in place the poles are removed and you hope for the best. 

We managed to make a fairly early start for Kelleri, only about 3-4 hours walk away. As our group entered the very pretty hillside village children seemed to come from everywhere. We took refuge in a community centre for some lunch before setting up for another medical clinic.

Today, our focus was on health education and not just medical check-ups. Even though it was a Sunday most of the children showed up in their school uniforms, most likely because they were their best clothes. I don't know exact numbers but probably 200 or so children showed up and were divided into class groups. One English speaking person and one Nepali translator were assigned to each group and proceeded to educate the children on the importance of hygiene, handwashing, teeth brushing, covering your mouth when you cough and eating properly. One suggestion from Qwe, our Vietnamese-American engineer was to distribute recordings of our message in Nepali to villages to be played over-and-over through loud speakers, much like communist parties do with propaganda in certain countries. This way the importance of hygiene and dental care could reach thousands and hopefully the message would sink in. A little extreme I know but with the Maoists in power you never know......

The school at Kelleri was pretty much on top of the hill at the highest part of the village. This may have helped keep numbers down for the afternoon clinic as we only saw a handful of sick older people amongst the 100 or so patients. The previous day's clinic, however, people were carried in on stretchers from their homes. One elderly gentleman of 95 years of age complained of having a painful hip for the past 8 years. Turns out he fell 8 years ago and, by the looks of his significantly shortened leg and feel of his hip, he had actually fractured the hip. So I gave him a few boxes of paracetamol and sent him on his way. On the bright side, it probably wouldn't bother him for too much longer. 

Our clinic that afternoon saw about 100 people in a few hours, mostly the health was pretty good and only a few cases of significance had to be referred to Kathmandu for further treatment. Mostly these were obstetric/gynaecological cases which needed proper review and potentially surgical treatment in some cases. 

That night an argument erupted down in the village at the community centre where the medical team was sleeping. Our cook, Raz (above right), got pretty drunk as he seemed to most nights and had a pretty heated exchange with Jenee, one of our Nepali guides/translators/organiser. Raz then proceeded to rile up some of the locals against the group so Binod removed the large gas cylinder from his reach and used it to barricade the door. The next morning the majority of the porters left with a lot of the equipment to head home for Dashain. This was the arrangement, however, as the medical part of the trek was now over and were to be staying in homestay from now on. Four of us, however, were oblivious to the commotion as we camped at the school on top of the hill.

The walk to Patle was beautiful, passing through a high mountain pass, down to a bazaar for lunch then continuing over hills, and down ridges to reach our homestay accommodation. 

 We received a very warm welcome at our homestay, a cluster of 20-30 houses near the village of Patle where all the farming is organic, people live very traditionally and they produce their own biogas using cow manure, human waste and water. Another thing they produce is Raksi. Made from millet grown locally and usually distilled at home. The potency of this evil home brew is unknown but it is usually served with a certain vigour from the host and a wry smile.

Our homestay hosts knocked up a very nice feed of rice, dhaal and goat meat which we devoured whilst sitting cross legged on the kitchen floor. The host then cracked open the 'local raksi' and proceeded to pour out generous helpings for each person. I tried to refuse as I had fallen prey to this evil potion whilst on my rafting trip to Chitwan. The taste is not unlike Japanese sake and it doesn't taste too strongly of alcohol. Have a couple of glasses, though, and a monkey soon whacks you on the head, your eyes glaze over and you begin to wonder why you are drinking from a 5 litre motor oil bottle. I discovered that only the best raksi is served from motor oil bottles where it is stored after distillation to, I can only presume, age and take on a delicate polyurethane and engine oil taste.

Millet

 Donuts Nepali style for breakfast with curried spuds and some pickle all washed down with several cups of coffee to get the batteries charged. The previous night's sleep had been somewhat interrupted by our inability to locate the light switch so the 5 of us sharing a room slept with the light on all night. The light switch was in fact disguised as a powerpoint and none of us bothered to check that switch even though it was located just next to the light globe. Live and learn I guess. Next time I'll just drink more raksi and the light won't bother me. Scott's snoring on the other hand....