Chauturali: Week 1

I'm BACK!!! Here is the recount of my first week in Chauturali...
I have decided that I am always going to be alittle nervous when I head out to a new placement. When Tashe (this sweet Tibetan/Nepali guy who works for Volunteer Nepal) showed up on March 3rd to take me to Chauturali, I was hesistant to leave the volunteer house. But I fought off the nerves and headed out to the bus at 8:30am. We took a series of cabs, and buses to get to this town about 2 hours outside of Kathmandu. Now, when I chose this placement I knew there was a 2 hour walk from where the bus dropped you off to the village. Well I really think it should have said "walk" also known as a 2 hour HIKE! Honestly, I was just thanking my lucky stars that we were hiking down instead of up, because the trail was REALLY narrow and steep. Several times on the hike down to Chauturali I almost fell, thank goodness for Tashe! He carried my pack all the way to Chauturali, true to me in Nepal...I packed WAY too much crap!
After two hours, Tashe and I come into this little village which "main street" is shorter than a football field. We go into my host families house and I immediately think...."is this a barn?" I quickly retract that thought, telling myself I am a country girl and I can do this (but obviously still really unsure of myself). So as I go up the ladder I peer out in the "yard" and there are three goats, a cow, a calf, and several chickens....Yup! This sure is rural. Once upstairs, I note the dirt floors...no more wearing socks (for the entire two weeks, I loved it!). Then I noted the food the host family cooked for Tashe and I was made over a fire....no stove, no gas, wood fire! Yeah! this is definitely rural! Tashe had to leave shortly after we arrived in order to make the hike back for the last bus....have I mentioned yet that NO one in the house speaks any English? Well you got that right, NO one speaking English.
With Tashe gone, I am just trying to remain calm...tell myself that I am overreacting and I will be fine. But quoting my journal, "my bones were screaming for my to get the HELL out of here!" Still forcing myself to remain calm. I read my book, wrote in my journal, then my host family two youngest components came home from school Ashik (13) and Nabin (11). My host family consisted of Narayan and his wife (I asked several times, but she never told me here name???), there two sons (Ashik and Nabin) and Narayan's parents. After dinner, I quickly headed off to bed...after the hike and all my nerves I just needed to sleep. My room was simple, my door was held close by a nail and the line that ran to my light was live (yes! I actually touched it twice...to make sure). I do have to say it is good I am only 5'0" because if i was any taller I wouldn't fit in the space between the two walls of my room.
Day 2, I woke up resolved that I was going to make this experience great! I was going to the clinic this morning and someone that HAD to speak English and I would feel a ton better. Well that dream was squashed once I got to the clinic. Narayan walked me up to the clinic with two other random Nepali guys. They unlocked the clinic and set up everything...and then they acted like they were going to leave. Panicked I look at these men and try to explain I am not a doctor and I don't speak Nepali....Don't leave me here! So, one of the guys stayed and essentially did all the work for that day. He didn't speak English so he couldn't tell me how to help him...so yeh, the first day I just kind of sat there and watched. I went home feeling defeated, I had woken up with a new spirit about Chauturali and it quickly had been crushed. I decided that night, in the morning I was going to call Emma and if no one was going to show up at the clinic I was coming back to the capital. It was that one thought that got me through to day 3.
On my third day I called Emma, highstrung and emotional....she reassured me that Shivani would call the nurse and then get back to me. After talking to Shivani and making sure the nurse would be at the clinic that day, I began my 10 minute hike up the hill to the "Al post" (which is what my host family called the clinic aka health post). And much to my surprise, there was the nurse!!! I spent my first real day at the clinic learning the Nepali to interview the patients that came to the clinic (honestly, my Nepali didn't improve a whole lot from that day forward). Because it was Friday, the clinic closed at 1pm instead of 2pm. Heading back down to Chauturali, I was worried what my boring weekend ahead held for me. Much to my surprise when I got home Ashik was already home and he coerced me into going out into the fields with him. It was beautiful! The crops and the hills, everything was green....so wonderful. Then we ran into Ah-ma with the cow and goats...she delegated the task of corraling the cow home, to me! I was so excited, she gave me a big stick and everything. I was so proud. Day 3 ended on a very good note.
Saturday or holiday as the Nepali call it. I went out to the fields with Ah-ma, Ashik, and Nabin with the cow and the goats. AND I met the water buffalo! On this day, I finally realized how hard the women of my host family worked. While Ah-ma was in the fields gathering greens, tending the the water buffalo (which meant cleaning his pen...which in the states would be done with a pitch fork, in Nepal it is done with your bare hand. Yuck!), and getting water to take back to the house. Ashik mother (not to be confused with Ah-ma, who is their grandmother) did all the washing of the dishes and the clothes...then preceded to start dinner preparations. Emma said to me "The women of Nepal do all the work and the men of Nepal have all the power" I am starting to agree with her on this point. It was about this time in my stay at Chauturali that I finally thoroughly investigated and discovered there was no running water at my host family's house (information about the placement had claimed otherwise), this commenced on my two week long hiatus from personal hygiene.
Sunday, was back to the work week at the clinic. For whatever reason I seem to be arriving at the clinic too early, because no one was ever there when I got there (later on I learned that when the clinic opens at 10am, it means you leave your house to walk up to the clinic at 10am). That day it was just the doctor and I, it was quite a busy day. We had several cases of typhoid fever and conjunctivitis (conjunctvitis is very common, as you can imagine because proper handwashing techniques are not encouraged). We also had cases of COPD, gastritis, pneumonia, a "family planning" shot (Depo), a boy with a deep cut on his ear, and a girl with a abcess on her face. Woweee!
On Monday much to my surprise the nurse came to the house I was staying and told me it was "holiday"...no clinic. So I decided I was going to just lay around read my book and hang out. Not an hour later she comes up and tells me there has been a motorcycle accident and a man needs stitches, please come with her. Ofcourse I obilge, as we walk up the clinic this guy is bleeding all down his face and all he is doing is holding his bare hand up to his face. Once at the clinic the nurse tells me I am going to do the stitches...I am like "what the...!" I quickly explain, as clearly as I can that I have never done stitched before, but if I watch I might do the second set of stitches. She does that strange Nepali head waggle which evidently means she understands. Then as I am watching her stab at this guy's face (did I mention the local anesthetic expired and so he was doing this without any drugs? yup! that's right!), the neddle finally breaks through. I look away and I feel REALLY dizzy. I quickly try to convince myself that I don't feel sick, because I really want to do the stitches...but my body has a mind of its own and I bolt for the door as quickly as possible. Honestly, I have never ever had a problem with blood or gross wounds or anything before...It was really weird. With motorbike guy all stitched up, the nurse (Gyami) and I head back down to Chauturali. Just outside the clinic she is stopped by a man, with a woman who is so sick that she is being carried on his back like the porters do bags of rice. Gyami and this man exchange words for a moment and then we walk down. She then explains to me in her broken English that she wouldn't open the health post back up for that sick woman, because no matter what Gyami did the woman would have to go the Kathmandu. The rest of the day was spent hanging out, trying to recover from my near pass-out session over the stitches.
Tuesday, was a typical laid back day at the clinic filled with cases of pneumonia, conjunctivitis, scabies, and teeth extractions. YES! Teeth extractions, no local anesthetic...so if you ever have a sore tooth just get out your pylers and a cotton ball and rip it out yourself! Save you a trip to the dentist! That afternoon I went with Gyami out into her fields and met her water buffalo and its baby! It was so cute, but it was HUGE and only six months old. The land that surround her fields was so beautiful, I can't even begin to describe the landscape (pictures to come!).
Wednesday, the clinic proved to display some cultural discrepancies. The was a young married girl who came to the clinic claiming to be 17 years old (she looked like she was about 12) and requested oral contraceptive. After she left, Gyami said that men come from Kathmandu and marry young girls 13 or 14 years old. She didn't agree with the arranged marriages of young girls, I totally agree! That night I did one of my new favorite things in Chauturali, help the boys with their English homework. After, they sat around me and drew pictures of the Nepali national flowers and the homes they want to build one day. I was falling in love with Chauturali, one challenging day at a time.