Dal bhat & Holi

Az elsö kórházas èlményem véget ért Anandabanban és ismét Kathamanduban vagyok a norvég házban. Holnap Nemzeti ünnep itt, ami a Holi névre hallgat és abból áll h emberek színes porokat dobálnak egymásra. Közben az itteni orvosok rájöttek, hogy lehet feladatokat delegálni nekem, így beadtam rengeteg (az indikáción túlmutató) szteroid injekciót, visszaraktam egy könyökficamot és összevartam mindenfélét a mütöben. A múlt hétvégén visszamentem a városba és foglaltam egy hostelt, amit csak sokadszorra sikerült megtalálni, igénybe vettem a helyi motoros-taxit (nyilván bukósisak nélkül) és megnéztem egy marha nagy sztúpát, amit csak egy irányból szabad körbejárni. Sajnos a végzetemet nem kerülhettem el, így pár napot a wc társaságában élveztem leginkább, amíg nem kezdtem el egy antibiotikum kúrát, ami hatásosnak bizonyult. A kaja a képen az egyik gyanusitott, amit egy helyi mama készít minden nap a kórházban.

Days are passing by and soon I am leaving Anandaban Hospital (wow, it’s a rhyme). During this time I have also visited the daycare facility for leprosy patients where they get educated about the disease, for example how to take care of chronic wounds. When they had a session I have been put  in the center of attention (like a show item) and they found it really interesting (a little bit too much interesting) that someone from the western world is visiting them.

Last Friday we had outpatient clinic again (this time without the dog), where I got to relocate an elbow only in local anesthesia (patient was totally silent the whole time) and Dr Ashim realized that he can delegate all the steroid injections in the knee to me and he was really generous with prescribing them..

The area around, hospital is on the right side

For the weekend I went back to the city and booked a hostel which was recommended by my new french friend. The only problem was that there are two hostels with the same name and of course I went to the wrong one. It was already dark and I started to panic a little bit but finally I found the right one after 2-3 circles because the location was not exactly where google maps put it so finally some local man helped me out and called them. During the day I was walking around Thamel the tourist area with the bazaar but after a while I got just too tired of the constant  “hello madam where are you from” and “taxi, madam?” so I had to rest some hours before I could continue. Have also visited one of the biggest stupas in the world, the Boudha Stupa where you can go around only in one direction so every time I found something interesting on the map, I had to go one more circle to not to mess the direction. 

Then I also tried the new transportation method which was also recommended by Marie and is similar to Uber. So there is an app where you give the destination and the car (or the motorbike) picks you up. The only problem that the drivers always ring you immediately for some reason despite they don’t really speak English which makes it a bit complicated. With this system  I also tried riding the motorbike (on the back seat) which was quite an experience (of course without the helmet). In the evening I thought to try out some (in local standards) fancy western pizzeria called Fire and Ice (thank you Alison for the recommendation). The only problem was that after 2 bites I felt so sick that I had to leave so my most expensive food so far went to the waste. Not the food’s fail though, I didn’t feel well before either..

On Sunday I found a local church where probably all the western expats are hiding, there were at least 80 ppl, was a nice experience. After that I was just resting the whole day as I couldn’t escape destiny and stomach problems became worse and lasted a few days until I started to take some antibiotics. Surprisingly this time I succeeded with my empiric therapy. Yeah maybe shouldn’t eat everywhere on the street... or maybe it was the “dal bhat” (rice and lentils which they eat every day here) which I ate always at the hospital prepared by a local old lady whom everybody just calls “mamma”. Unclear hygienic status of the cutlery...

Dal bhat a la mamma (now only by looking at it I am feeling sick...)

This week we had a couple of surgeries partly reconstructive procedures for leprosy patients but also simple things like trigger finger, which I got to perform and also sutured a couple of other things. So much about not being allowed “to touch patients” without nepali work permit.

Today I am back to Kathmandu again as tomorrow is a national holiday here called Holi where people are throwing colourful powders on each other and party all day. Will se how much I will be a part of this.

The rhododendrons and me in front of the hospital