Nepal is an ancient country but really has only been opened up to the west in the past few decades. What we have seen so far in Kathmandu would attest to this. There are no sky scrapers, in fact we have not seen any “modern” buildings. The electric power poles are rats nests of tangled wires. The streets are not marked, some are paved but most are partially paved and filled with huge potholes, one reason the chaotic traffic I described earlier can function at all-it’s impossible to go fast. The dry conditions foster clouds of dust in the streets and there is usually a haze over the whole city. Most people walking or driving in the streets wear masks to protect them from the dust. The masks are hand made and look like surgical masks but are made of cloth. We’ve been wearing surgical masks we brought for the clinic because the local ones don’t fit our big American heads.

 

It’s all a great adventure. Our comrades in the clinic are a dedicated and interesting bunch. It’s pretty much a first name group so that’s the way I’ll describe them. There are 3 “staff” volunteers, I suspect they get some of their expenses covered,  but I’m not sure.

 

The clinic director is Dr. Tom, a retired dentist from Durango Colorado. He has been a clinic director for many years and will be working at the next clinic in Kathmandu and immediately after that goes to the clinic in Ley, India for 4 weeks. He opened a not-for-profit practice in Kabul, Afghanistan were he works a few weeks every year and has an Afghani dentist (interestingly a woman) who works part time.  They saw 1000 patients last year for free. At our clinic,  he screens all the patients and does a treatment plan, then numbs them up if necessary. Dr. Tom chants “this is good” in Nepali as he administers anesthetic to the often frightened children.

 

Dr. Mark is a pediatric dentist from southern California, he is semi retired from a large practice that he started. Like Dr. Tom he will attend the next clinic in Kathmandu and the upcoming one in India. Dr Mark has worked at many humanitarian clinics including some not affiliated with Himalyan Dental Relief (the sponsor of our clinic). Even with his wide range of experience Dr. Mark does no dentistry at the clinic, he is in charge of the volunteers (making sure we have lunch coordinating dinners etc.) and more importantly making sure we have patients to see. He makes phone calls to schools and uses an interpreter to make sure the students arrive when we need them. Even though everything has been arranged in advance there always seems to be some snag to over come.

 

Garth is a paid employee of Himalayan Dental Relief Project, he is probably in his late 20’s and I’m sure does it for the adventure and of course the chance to help others. He is in charge of the functioning of the clinic, procuring supplies, coordinating student volunteers (they act as dental assistants, child wranglers, sterilizers and more. Garth and Dr. Tom live in a small apartment HDRP keeps near the school.

 Dr. Sanjay is a volunteer from New Zealand. He is specializing in doing composites but like everyone will do what needs done. He is of Indian decent and speaks (as you might imagine) with a heavy Kiwi accent.  He joined the project from information he read in a magazine article. It’s surprising how many cultural references we all share, because of the common begging in Kathmandu and Sanjay's India heritage, “Slum Dog Millionaire” is a frequent topic. He carries a bottle of hot sauce and Marmite (like Vegimite sandwich from the song "a land down under".

 Dr. Gary is a dentist from Washington; his home overlooks Puget Sound across from Victoria, Canada. Gary has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Mont Rainier and more. He is in his early sixties, single but with a fairly new girl friend that he seems to be very serious about. He searching for appropriate gifts for his girl friend and female staff.

 April is our youngest volunteer,  she is a hygienist from San Diego, she is married to a career marine officer who has seen two tours in Iraq and is ready to be deployed to Afghanistan. She a pretty blond who draws instant attention in this dark headed country. The minute you meet April you’re friends.

 Then of course there’s Charlie and I. Charlie has been working doing record keeping and sterilization and me…I’m just drillin’ and fillin’.

 That’s our crew, they are all fun to be with, smart and interesting. We’re having a lot of fun.

 

 We are staying at a small guesthouse associated with a Buddhist Monastery it’s about a 10-minute walk from the clinic and from one of world’s largest  Stupas.  Bodhnath stupa is a Buddhist shrine that attracts hundreds of people every day to circumambulate the stupa, spin prayer wheels and meditate. It’s a ritual that combines religious observance with a social event. There are many monks and nuns dressed in colorful red robes.

 

 Our guesthouse has a beautiful garden with a vegetarian  restaurant (the food is quite good). Our room is about 10 feet by 12 feet with a double bed (the mattress is little more than a mat) and a small closet. The bathroom is about 4 by 5 with the shower situated so that the whole room gets wet when you take a shower (no curtain); we lost the toilet paper the first time I took a shower. The power is only on 12 hours a day, in 4 hour stints, on a rotating basis and some businesses have generators they use sparingly, so we’re never really sure when or where we’ll have power. Nepal is in a serious drought (no rain since October) so public water is only available three days a week. Everyone stores water in underground tanks and then pumps it to the top of the building to let gravity provide water pressure. Water has not been a problem for us, except of course that can only drink bottled water.

 

The clinic is set up at a local school, some of the students are full time boarders, some are day timers (they come in the morning for breakfast and stay until after dinner only sleeping at home) and some are more traditional students only attending from morning until late afternoon. We have seen students from other nearby schools as well.   One is called Child Haven and I believe it’s an orphanage.  We also saw children from a government school. All the schools accept students from all over Nepal which  is a very small country only about 150 mile north to south and 300 miles east to west. Most of the children that are boarders are there because they have no parents or no school in their area. The children are mostly from 5 to 15 years old.

We are in Kathmandu. The clinic started today. The kids are great. The work is hard, but rewarding.  Between the 4 dentists and 1 hygienist, we saw 122 patients and did 95 fillings, 8 extractions, and 18 cleanings. We're making a dent and will do more tomorrow. 

Kathmandu is an ancient city with a beautiful medieval feel. The chaotic streets are juxtaposed by the serenity of spinning prayer wheels, red clad monks, gongs and bells. While the metro area contains nearly 2 million people there are virtually no traffic controls, no stoplights, no stop or yield signs, no traffic cops. Officially they use the British method of driving on the left, in reality they drive wherever there is room and with very few sidewalks pedestrians, cars trucks, buses, bikes and motorcycles all vie for the same space. The term “steering with your horn” had to be coined in Kathmandu. But we have seen very few accidents, one of the volunteer dentists here with us is from New Zealand and says it's organized chaos, it's hard to see the organization. More later.

This is view out of the airplane window of the sunrise.  We have been in the air for almost 16 hours and this is the first time  we have seen the sun.  It is 4:30 am Saturday for us  and 4:30 pm Friday in Lincoln.  The flight was not as horrible as I feared it would be.  Charlie and I actually slept a bit.

This is actually a test to see if we can get pictures loaded onto the blog.

TODAY IS THE BEGINNING.  

We are leaving on our trip out of Lincoln today and should get to Kathmandu in about 36 hours.  It is a 17 1/2 hour trip from Los Angeles to Bangkok!!!  

It is a perfect spring day in Lincoln, Nebraska, with many flowering trees in full bloom.  We hate to miss May here but are looking forward to the adventure.