A Week of Work and Some Stuff That is Definitely Not Work

I've only been volunteering at Stupa Community Hospital for a week now, but I feel like I'm already settling into the pace. I work with the two other volunteers there, Jens and Sophia, and Dr. Swasti. He's been practising for thirty-some years and is the hospital director. He's a funny, knowledgeable ma and I quite like working with him. It's a hospital designed for the poor in a poor area so it has just the basic necessities for a hospital like x-rays and such. Many of the patients' problems have were very similar the first couple of days with many chest infections, which are common due to the pollution, and gastritis with a random problem thrown in once in a while like tuberculosis. Wednesday was the eve of Buddha's birthday so the hospital held what it called "healthcam" where all treatment and medications were free. It was definitely the busiest I've seen the hospital so far with large groups waiting in line to see the doctors. The issues also varied much more, there was everything from osteoarthritis to typhoid. It seemed much more like the busy hospitals in Canada that day.

That night we went to Pashupati and had the chance to watch a Hindu funeral. Pashupati is a complex of Hindu temples on a river which stretches into India. Funerals are held on the steps leading to the river and after the bodies are burned, the ashes are swept into the river where they are meant to travel to India. Given the difference in surroundings, it was interesting that the occasion was just as solemn and emotional as the Christian funerals I've been to, if not more so.

The festival of Buddha Jayanti was on Thursday which is Buddha's birthday. Boudha is a heavily Buddhist area so the streets were teeming with people and huge flags were hanging over the busy streets with prayer flags flying everywhere. Dr. Swasti had a holiday that day so we went to the Boudanath stupa. It was packed with thousands of people and monks walking clockwise around it praying. There were also some monks parading around in costume as well. All in all, it was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience I think.

Work at the hospital was slow on Friday, but there were two cases of jaundice which was something I had never seen before. So there's that, anyways.

Saturday I got to do something horribly touristy: bungy-jumping. There's a place called the Last Resort very close to the Tibetan border with the largest bungy-jump in Asia: 160 metres off a suspension bridge. I only jumped once that day, but I feel that was enough considering I've never don that before. I had some trouble as it was jumping though, I had to try twice, my legs bent the first try but my body simple wouldn't move. It's a very long drop and very insane. I'm pretty sure my brain rebelled against the fact I had just thrown myself off a bridge since the left side of my head started to hurt and kept hurting for a while after I was on solid ground. It as definitely an experience I'll never forget.

Sunday was, of course, another adventure. Me and a few of the other volunteers that live at our host family decided to just hop on a bus going east out of Boudha and see where it would take us. After rolling and bumping along (the buses here aren't exactly comfortable) through some hilly countryside, we ended up in Sankhu, a small country village which used to be an important point on the trade route from Kathmandu to Tibet. We visited a school there where the kids were on recess. Everyone was nice, the teachers chatted with us and the kids showed us around. It also seems to be rice-planting season in Nepal so there were many rice patties with people working on them. A large Buddhist temple named Bajrayogini is at the top of a small peak nearby so me and another volunteer, Nicky, took the two km hike up. There were a bunch of people eating a large male at the temple, but it turns out it was just a normal daily celebration, though it seemed large enough for a festival. We also found a bunch of meditation caves carved into the hillside with shrines carved inside each and benches carved in to them for devout monks to stay in. There were also a surprising amount of monkeys (including a baby one which tried to grab the hem of my pants)! By the time we got back down to where the others were waiting from our "spiritual journey" the other three were drinking chang (rice beer) and gambling with people working at a local restaurant. I really think our group is a good influence on these small villages!

Today, Tuesday, has been pretty much a normal day except for one thing: I was visiting some local Buddhist monasteries and got a good luck blessing by lama, Surye Lama, and was given the gift of a khata, a white silk scarf! Really not much else to say about it but that, but I'm quite excited by this.

Well, unfortunately, the internet's too slow for me to do pictures, but hopefully I can do a whole post with them on the weekend when I'm in Thamel with faster connections. Until then, namaste!