Nicola and Liams Adventure

We set our alarm to get up for 7.30. We were both still really tired because we hadn't slept that well but it could have been a lot worse considering the creepy crawled we'd seen before turning the lights off and being left in the pitch dark. Luckily Liam's swollen bite had gone down too which made us feel a bit better. We were both really manky and sticky, I went down to the shed for my shower, there's no lock on the door but if you hang something people will know not to come in. I felt a lot better after that, Liam didn't bother and just used wipes. Sita, their mum, brought us chia and biscuits which we sat and ate overlooking the view. You could see a snow capped mountain in the distance towards where we will be going trekking in a couple of weeks. We kind of pottered around for a while and tried to be relaxed in doing nothing but it's quite difficult when you're in somebody else's home and the house is so different to what you're used to. We had breakfast around 9am which was dahl baht (rice and lentils). I couldn't eat much of it it's just too much for breakfast and just the same as what we had in the evening. She spends about 2 hours making everything each meal though so its a shame not to manage to eat it all so I'll keep trying! Liam managed to eat all of it, I think he will do ok with the food. We then went up to the school and medical centre at about 10. It's about a 20 minute walk up very steep rocky paths and through various parts of the village, coming across livestock and various people sat on their properties. Liam and I were on the lookout for leeches the whole time because bibas managed to get sucked by one lastnight for about 2 hours before we noticed and that was just from the walk up. We met the teachers at the school, and Liam was chucked straight into teaching English whilst I went down to the medical centre. As I walked away I could hear all the children getting up and chiming 'namaste!' The medical centre was built by ehn volunteers last year but is run by locals. The 2 women who work there are little more than health assistants really but they are the only ones with any medical knowledge. It was a difficult day for me because I don't come from a medicinal background so I had no grounds to go on, and when I did offer standard hygiene advice for equipment and patients it was ignored. The hygiene is appalling, I walked in to find a big bucket full of old needles and blood soaked cloths, blood smears on a couple of things, dirty stethoscopes and general mess. Once the staff arrived they did start to clean up a bit but I have a horrible feeling that was because I was there, not standard practice. There was dettol and after I noticed they were using the same equipment for all patients and not cleaning stuff or themselves I suggested they use it. They used it for one thing, once, before going back to cross contamination! I took a few people's temperatures which was hard enough because it's in f not *c and I don't know it. Plus I'm used to taking blood pressure with a machine not manually so I was trying to learn how to do that with limited understanding due to language barriers. I dont know much about drugs but they seemed to be giving out a hell of a lot of antibiotics to people who seemed to me to have common cold symptoms. By the time 4 hours had past I was well and truly overwhelmed, a little fed up and ready to leave...only 2 more weeks to go! Liam seemed to really enjoy teaching, I will get him to write one of his own about it. After about 4 hours we finished due to it being a half day, and walked back. On the way back bibas disappeared down the hill to another persons house after they were shouting to him, it turns out he was helping get a big snake out. He held his hands up to show how thick it was and I'm glad we didn't go with him! Liam and I spent the rest of the day wondering how we're going to manage when it's time to have a poo in the hole in the ground with nowhere to put toilet paper and no shower source in the cubicle! We played cards as well, sometimes alone and sometimes with the others. We watched them make soap which they sell up at the shop and snacked on banana and popcorn. Part way through the soap making their dad came back from the fields with the oxen and buffalo, their mum went to milk the buffalo straight away for us to have some warm milk with food and their dad joined in with cards for a while. After dinner (rice and lentils) and some playful time with the cards and learning words from each others languages we all went to bed. It's only 9.30 now but it's been dark since about 6 and everyone gets tired. Liam is asleep again! I've smothered myself in talc tonight in the hope I wont sweat so much....we will see! Im going to make Liam have a shower in the morning and we will wash our clothes as well. Going to walk down to trishuli for something to do tomorrow (1.5 hour walk) so will probably go on the Internet and post these :) Since getting here new bite tally has begun again at Liam: 6 bites Nicola: 6 bites