Plaque acknowledging donors of new pediatric ward.
Bright, cheery quilts from Montview Quilters brighten hallways and wards.
Medical Director Mark Zimmerman interacts with some of his smaller patients.
Sister Rosemary and Fran on hospital rooftop with view of sprawling Katmandu.
We all received tikas and mallas at the start of the clinic dedication.
Bikas (left) is the ideal man for the clinic, Sajani translates while Bill "says his opinion" for those gathered.
We are given seats of honor, but the audience is teaming with activity from the village.
Callan and Fran, with help from the principal, check vision.
Bill appears to have a new calling as he and Madhav check blood pressure and pulse


Dr. John checks our youngest patient of the day. We heard later he (child) had never seen "white" folks before and was scared to death!

Everyone brush with me. Lindy and Lynn work on health and hygiene education.

School next door to clinic - hopeful future project.

Teaching J & K House kids to play "lids."

Teaching J & K House kids to play Uno.

The "drop-in" shelter run by Saathi provides an evening hot meal, safe, dry home to overnight and educational and vocational support.

First experience teaching toothbrushing.

They got it! (Only brush the ones you want to keep!)

Montview's Horn-Boothby Clinic; dedicated during a three-day health fair with local school children.

First, I must share a few chuckles that I've had about traffic here. When walking around Katmandu I truly feel like a road warrior. One certainly doesn't "stroll" through this city. Even as a pedestrian one must proceed with confidence and purpose winding through taxis, three wheelers and motor bikes. Each excursion out the front door is high adventure!

"Share the Road" and "Right of Way" also take on a whole new meaning in this country. There seems to be an unwritten rule that anyone daring enough to face you off head on should be respected enough not to collide with them. Vehicular traffic here moves a little like the crowd entering Coors field for a big baseball game. The road is packed, cars are moving both directions, no one makes eye contact, but everyone takes responsibility not to level anyone either. The vehicle that can inch their bumper into the dominant position gets the right of way. It might also be likened to ski lift lines that used to snake, with opportunists cutting the line at each switchback. The worst part is that this game often seems to put my window right at the level of bus and truck exhaust pipes. Breathe deep!

I met John Singleton at the airport yesterday. The bad news is that his personal bag did not arrive (but the group one did, go figure). The good news is that it caught up with him on today's flight. While waiting for him and elderly British climber was met by a dozen sherpas decked out in suits and all offering katas and mallas. (Would love to know who he was.) John and I are going to dinner tonight before he leaves in the morning for trekking.

Penny and friends were due back from trekking today but did not show up. I suspect that they were having a great time and needed more time to get to Khumjung - but I'll be happy to see them and know everything is okay. June Craven just called and was evacuated from Chukkung today, by helicopter, and is coming to stay with me tonight. Apparently she was blacking out and no one knows why. They said she had to have someone to stay with or go to the hospital. I'm glad I was available.

We left early this morning for HRDC but decided to make a side trip to Patan Hospital to get help with quilt framing. WE weren't sure if we should have the HRDC quilts framed in Katmandu and figure out transportation - or see how they were done at Patan and get them framed in Banepa. It was our very good fortune that Sister Rosemary took everything into her capable hands. She'll get them framed and will help with a truck to transport them to HRDC. What a relief for me. Interestingly, she had another quilt to add to the pile, apparently one had been "borrowed" during the framing process two years ago and just made its way back. I thought it was wonderful to think that it was needed, used and returned (clean)!

We took the "sky chair" (sling swing) to HRDC along with the Tic-Tac-Toe parts and scooter casters. I felt very guilty being the one to share the swing for its trial run. What a huge hit with both staff and patient families. At first some of the kids were quite intimidated. But, we left it hanging and when we returned they seem to have gotten over their fear. We have someone working on duplicating it with some modifications for Nepali materials. We'll see how this progresses. . . we thought of having some made for Patan Hospital as well, once we have a good local prototype. (Sajani wants one, too!)

The meat of our work today was sorting out some of the design details of the structure we'll build this trip. And, everyone is quite excited about the idea of having part now and additions in the future. We re-measured the courtyard and calculated the size of each planned component so that we were sure we leave enough room for our future additions. Then we sat down, eight of us around a table and talked about design details. An engineer would not have been too impressed with how we figured out the slope of the slide, among other things, but I thought we exhibited creative ingenuity. At one point I realized, however, that there was no way that eight of us would be able to get through all the details of designing our structure. Suggesting we needed some more experienced help, Krishna, the facilities manager, agreed to draw plans from which the local metal fabricator can work. I realize now, that a major portion of what needs to be done is design - and that if the design is good, the installation should be very straight forward - primarily setting posts. Time will tell how this all plays out!! It would be wonderful if we could do construction in the morning and spend time with the patients and their families in the afternoon. I would love to hear some of their stories.

Aruna shared one story of a young girl from Jumla who lived with her father and stepmother. She wasn't getting enough to eat (Stepchildren are worse off the Cinderella, generally, in Nepal) so climbed an apple tree to pick fruit to eat. She fell from the tree and injured both legs. By the time she made it to HRDC there was concern that one leg might have to be amputated. Fortunately she has recovered. Aruna is looking for a sponsor so that she can go to boarding school and get an education in lieu of returning to a family where she is a servant outcast.

We had lunch at the guest house where our group will stay in Banepa, it is quite pleasant. But, for those of you that thought it sounded very cushy (which is probably is compared with camping) most of the showers are cold water and the beds are like rocks. So, worktrip folks, consider bringing a Thermarest (Callan, will you bring one for me?)

I had a visit today from Mahabir who is from a village in the Kaligandaki Valley. I brought three wireless network ports to him for a project he is facilitating; he is trying to connect the four high schools in the area by wireless network. In addition to general communication he is hoping to be able to use the connection for distance learning so that he can better use the resources of specialty teachers. If everything works VERY well they will be able to make a connection with Pokhara from the Poon Hill Ridge to receive email communications without traveling the 30 miles into town! Mahabir went to college in Nebraska and has several professors there that assist him in getting computer parts and supplies (they had sent me the equipment to bring). I was amazed when Mahabir explained that they don't send computer, just have the components carried over and he assembles them in a wood box. Then, all he has to purchase is the monitors. He has figured all this out on his own - and did NOT major in computer technology in college. I was impressed. He is certainly a man with vision making a huge difference in his village. They have even arranged two homes that house twelve and are available to volunteers who come to teach, plant trees, provide medical care, etc.

Yesterday I went for tea with Sajani at Pramada Shah's. Pramada is married to the King's nephew. It was quite enlightening listening to her talk about the political situation in the country, among other things. Pramada is very outspoken and quite intelligent. Once again I was reminded that we cannot ever judge what is happening in another country through our American eyes. I hesitate to go into detail. I can say that what she and Sajani told me of the Maoists was fascinating and a more than a bit scary. They are incredibly organized, well funded, have foreign military training and can be unscrupulous. This is a force to behold - and some of the rumors of the "movement" being spread across Asia may not be false. Please know that I am speaking in a conceptual context. Although there is certainly tension here in Katmandu, I have not felt any threat - and life goes on for most people, business as usual. At present the greatest threat is to remote areas that the Maoists are taking under their control, as well as infrastructure, police, military and government targets. There have been recent ambushes along the highways, including Sindupolchowk - so we will not, for this reason, be going to Barhabise this trip.

Look for the Montview Global Mission 2002: Letters from Nepal booklet coming in January!

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