We had some breakfast and tea before grabbing the wheelchair and some miscellaneous tools from the shop for our village visit today. Then Travis, Blake, Thomas, Cai and I crammed into a van with Megan (the Occupational therapist weve been working with for the duration of these projects), Punam (the lady who will be using the wheelchair), Laxmi (a Nepali occupational therapist), and our marvelous Nepali driver. We all drove out to some villages to do check-ins on three previous patients from the hospital. They all had spinal cord injuries a few years ago that took away the use of their legs.
Our first obstacle in getting there was a pole across the road meant to keep busses from going down that way. But our large handicap van was also tall enough that it was going to hit it. So, the patient's wife came out to meet us, stood up on a ledge, and held the pole high enough up so that we could get under. This first patient broke his back when he was thrown off a water buffalo 11 years ago. Megan was there to test the mobility in his legs to track his progress. While she was talking with him, his wife served us Mohi, a drink of milk and yogurt from their cow. Its a Nepali favorite but even Megan, who has lived here for years, doesn't care for it. They also gave us peaches from their tree. They weren't ripe but his wife showed us how to crack open the pit to get to this flavorful nut on the inside. I don't know how to describe it but they told us it was the best part of the fruit and I'd have to agree!
We left that house and drove a while to the area that the next patient lived in. We asked for directions to the next patient and these locals pointed us down a rocky road that they said eventually came to a paved one. What we didn't know was just how rocky it was or just how long it'd take to get to the end. At one point, we got stuck and all had to get out of the car to decrease the weight. Then Travis and Thomas helped push the van out of the rut so we could get going again. We finally got to the paved portion after a long trek of squeezing through a bumpy road with rocks on one side and a cliff on the other. Cheers to our driver who maneuvered our large handicap van through all that.
At the second house we went to, Cai, Blake and Travis had to carry Punam up the steep, rocky trail because there was no way to wheel her up to the house. This man fell out of a tree and injured his spine when he was 22. Then when he was at the hospital being treated for that, they told him to go give himself a shower. While doing that, he fell and broke his hips. Instead of giving him rehab which would potentially have let him walk again, they fixed his hips in place. So now 25 years later, his knees and ankles are also immobile from lack of use. The house he lives at is raised off the ground but has no ramps. Most of the doorways are too narrow for his chair anyways. The only place he can get to inside is a small area with a kitchen and bed. But it also has an open hole in the ground for his bathroom, so he can't use that space for sleeping. Instead, he has a small bed under a tin roof that gets wet when it rains, which is very often during the monsoon season. The government has a system to help handicap people but they sign the official papers saying everything is great yet there's people like this man who cannot leave his home and doesn't have good access to water.
On our way to the third house, we were directed by locals down one road that we ended up not being able to take. The van wheels spun out going uphill right after a turn where you could actually reach out and touch the rock wall on your left or look down off the right and see the inches of road left between the tires and the drop-off. We tried unsuccessfully to get up that hill but ended up reversing our way back along that narrow road to ask someone else for directions. Turns out that was the wrong road anyways so I guess God was subtly letting us know that by not allowing us to get through!
The third man we visited fell from a tree cutting grass for the animals, rolled down the hill and injured his spine. This type of injury is very common and accounts for many of the spinal cord injuries that Megan sees while she works here. Megan just did a quick check-in on him because she could tell as soon as we got here that he was stronger than the other two and had obviously been doing his exercises. He will also be going to the hospital next week to get a new wheelchair so Megan knew she could do a more thorough checkup then if need be. While we were there, they served us Wai wai Chau chau which was basically Ramen with eggs in it. It tasted pretty good considering we hadn't eaten lunch and it was already 3:00. We got back to the hospital around 5 when Van Dyke wasn't expecting us till 10! Thomas, Blake, and Travis joined in on a game of ultimate Frisbee that was starting while I made a few more changes to the manufacturing manual. We reconvened for our last dinner at the hospital. Then after stopping at the little store nearby to grab a few snacks, Travis, Thomas, Cai, and I went back to play more card games. Then once we all lost our momentum, we wrapped up and headed to bed.
Pictures:
The first patient we visited where we were served Mohi
Us carrying Punam up the trail to the second patients house
The second patient, the one with hips fixed in place
The third patient who served us Wai wai
