Biratnagar

Well, I'm finally back from Biratnagar. Very wild ride. It is almost too overwhelming to begin to separate and categorize what happened.

I have tons of photos to upload, from sick temples, and rural RURAL nepal, but I can't export photos from iphoto to picasa anymore. Do you have any ideas? Is there some other way? AND when I try to do it takes almost an hour for a single photo. What is wrong?

Anyways, I left for Biratnagar pretty down about leaving Kathmandu, I've become quite attached to this place. I got so lost in their airport. The domestic terminal is apparently about a mile away from the international terminal (as with all here using "terminal" very loosely).

The hotel we stayed in way something akin to the New York subway station, if you can imagine - smells and all. The temperature was well over 110 while I was there, except for the day the monsoon hit full force and flooded the town. No airconditioning, and a fan that worked about 30 minutes out of the day. No electricity. Lizards all over the walls. Mold everywhere. We were about 2 miles from the Indian border, and I think I may be about one of 6 westerners to ever visit Biratnagar. The mosquitoes were about the size of half my thumb, (this is in the Terai which is highly endemic for malaria and Japanese encephilitis) and I forgot my mosquito net, and raincoat. Oh, and I did not bring any long pants or long sleeve shirts to protect from mosquitoes because I only thought about the heat. oh, and I forgot my water filter. oh, and I messed up my encephilits series.

So, all that being said, the Biratnagar trip was one of the best experiences of my life. The poverty strikes me afresh each time I face it, but this was different again. I went about 3 hours away one day - this is 2 hours on "pavement" and one hour on a dirt road, away from the already VERY rural Biratnagar. We had community empowerment sessions with the Hasandha Village Development Committee. I mean, I sat and listened and understood very little, I had couple of translators who are field officer and health correspondents for BNMT who were awesome.

I wanted to go see this river that is subject to torrential floods from Himalayan sedimentation and outwash plain. We went, and met up with another kid / man/ who really wanted to go to his home and have some sort of afternoon treat. (I was like, oh GOD this is not going to be good I am going to be so sick) Rather than pass out from dehydration, I had to drink the local water from their contaminated wells... obviously water bottles or filters have NEVER seen this part of the world. I mean these people have absolutely nothing. But, it was awesome. They literally live exactly like we do. I mean, they are people, they talk about the same things, do the same things, interact the same way, even though they live on dirt floors and have seen about three cars in their whole lives. They totally don't have plastic, or phone wires, or raincoats, or tennis shoes. Their homes were in worse condition than my treehouse growing up. They were so completely normal though. We ate mangoes and yogurt stuff with squash and water (I was really thinking I was going to become very ill).

It was cool.

My presentation was awesome. Both the people from BNMT Kathmandu and BNMT Biratnangar are really excited about this work. They are right, that if this can be pulled off, it will put them on the forefront cutting edge of this issue in Nepal. Dr. Subedi is thrilled about this, and has become a huge advocate.

I had another interview today with the Environmental and Public Health Organization in Nepal. INGO from Italy. The CEO was a little bit of a dead end, but I think I am going to the Epidemiology and Disease Control office of the Nepal Ministry tomorrow. Should be exciting.

The night-life in Biratnagar was obviously non-existent, but Vivek was there. He knew I really can't stomach the food somteimes, so we had dinners of Kit-Kat bars and Nepalese whisky.