Today the nurses came at 10:30 and Rajiv came from Kathmandu sometime
around 11. So it was not an early start
for us.
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| Rajiv and the Nurses with our Kavre map |
I was paired with Andrea in Team
C with Indu as our nurse. I think we're going to have a fabulous team. Geff came with us too and we got a car to
take us to the Pinauti health post. It
was telling that we had to ask a few locals where it was and most didn’t know
even though it ended up being just down the road. Once we found it, Indu asked for the women on
our list and we were re-directed to a different health post up a little
hill.
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| The first health post |
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| These boys really wanted a photo |
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| Family planning registry |
So we started walking about
arrived about 30 minutes later. As we
walked up, the two workers were sitting outside doing nothing (same as the
first post, another telling sign) and we found out that they close at 2 pm (it
was about 1:50 by now). So Indu talked
to them for a little while and we didn’t know exactly where these women were
though they did refer us to another health post but by the time we would have
arrived, it would have been closed. We
asked this health post for a quick tour but they wanted to go home. So we didn’t make it very far and it was
early and we had come up with nothing. I
was a little disappointed but Geff suggested we get lunch in Pinauti and so we
found a little momo place and it was fun to get to know Indu more.
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| Learning how momos are made |
She is chetri, a higher class of the caste
system, and lives in a nuclear family in which he father owns a hotel and her
mom is a housewife. She has two younger
siblings too. So basically, she is
pretty well off and we are definitely getting her out of her comfort zone to go
trekking up and down the hills looking for women who’ve had a much rougher go
at life. Indu is 22 and never had a boyfriend and lives at home. She is very different from the women who get
married very young in Nepal and start having families by her age. We also learned more about arranged marriages
in Hindu traditions and how she expects to have an arranged marriage when her
parents decide it is time. She is also
still looking for a job and hoping to work at Dhulikel hospital (in which she
would make 22000 rupees a month or about $220) or at Scheer (in which she would
make about 160000 or $160 a month for working about 15 shifts a month). That’s less than I make in one shift. Granted, she has a low cost of living as she
will stay with her parents probably until she is married. Anyhow, we eventually parted and took the bus
to Banepa where I picked out a kirta outfit and had the tailor fit it to my
body (for under $3). We eventually
bused back to our hotel and I’m finding it pretty easy to use the public
transportation system. Even though it
isn't actually public since they are privately owned busses that it looks like
families run since you have the man driving it and then younger boys hanging
out trying to recruit people to hop on and collecting our bus fare (10 cents
from Banepa to Dhulikel, about 15 minutes away). They usually wait until they are pretty full
(standing room only) and we have seen many busses with people and/or goats on
the top and I've also watched goats being stuffed in to the trunk. So different!
Every night we eat dinner at the restaurant and it is always very
good! However, lots of carbs like
potatoes and bread, and I’ve been avoiding meat so basically, it’s going to get
very old very soon! But they always have
a nice dessert and there is even a fireplace in the bar which is nice to warm
up by. We have a great group and dinners
are a good time to get to know everyone.
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