The sunsets in nepal are absolutely gorgeous. And the camera cannot do them justice. This is one of the many views from our roof. Depending on the smog, we can see quite a few, or no mountains. It seems as the sun sets, the mountains become more defined until dusk. The picture below is our mansion that we are staying in. Equipped with all the luxeries I wrote about in the previous blog post.

I have been to my placement at Hospice Nepal for 3 days now. Although there is not much to do there at this time, I have been learning alot about culture, language, and health care. In Nepal, being sick is a family affair. The individual is rarely alone, and the family tends to take care of almost all of their needs. I do not think that nepalese people get bug bites, so they are enthralled and worried about the many I have on my legs, but they are getting better now, and not as itchy anymore.

I went on a Home visit yesterday afternoon, and was welcomed by a gentleman that spoke english. This made it much easier to understand what was going on. Our nurse that we were following, needed to do some more stuff in town after the home visit, and so Marie and I were going to take a taxi home, but he insisted that we take a tuk tuk. A tuk tuk is a small, 3 wheeled vehicle, that seets a max of 10 passengers facing each other sideways, with no back door, and is aprox. 4 ft x 10 ft in size. Costs about 12 R each (so maybe 20cents canadian). Our nurse helped us cross the busy road, put us in the right tuk tuk (as we really had no idea where we were, or which tuk tuk to take, as they have specific routes like buses), bartered the price with the driver, and sent us on our way. He is taking very good care of us. And we made it home safe and sound.

This is the outside of the hospice building.

Today on our walk to Hospice, we saw a dead dog, a child rooting through the garbage for food, and another child (maybe 7yrs old) happily smoking a cigarette. All this before 7 am. Still not a lot of action for us at hospice, as there is currently only one patient. But today was a school holdiay for the kids, and the guard's 10yr old? son was at Hospice today, so we played makeshift cricket/ baseball with a peice of bamboo and a tennis ball. And practiced speaking Nepalese, which made everyone laugh. We went on another home care visit. So far the homes we have been in have been very nice, and likely above average for here. But driving to them has been quite an eye opener, and in this, we are lucky as we have seen alot more of kathmand because of the home care visits. We took another tuk tuk home, and it is getting a little easier and more comfortable being in the traffic, even though we are terrified most of the time :)

The nurse that marie and I have been with for the last three days is the one that does the homecare visits. He is one of only a few, and he does it almost all as volunteer work. Nurses here make pennys compared to us back home, even when compared with the cost of living. He is very dedicated to it, and the work he does, trumps canadian homecare, and is a great example of the relational practice that we are taught and preached, but rarely see at home.

This is a picture of Patan Durbar square. Lots of beautiful temples.

It takes a really long time to upload pictures here, so many will have to wait until I get home.

till next time

- Jodi