To the Himalayas!

(just a reminder: these posts are copies of entries from my paper journal, written Summer 2006)

Up early again. Too early. Have a nice warm bath. Well, actually, it’s more like wiping my face with a damp cloth, dipped in a bucket of warm water. Refreshing, and a nice relief after waiting in line for the “shower tent” listening to someone puke and then clean themselves up afterwards. It’s a sunny morning and we’ve got another gourmet breakfast thanks to Anooj’s culinary prowess. It’s pancakes! I fell a little homesick without the maple syrup, but I’ve got some authentic chai to keep me toasty.

We walk to the Tangste PHC. It’s quite well equipped with a dispensary, dental suite, gyne room, x-ray machine, and more. Today I’m posted in the pharmacy with another student and our Indian pharmacy expert. It’s pretty slow and we manage to take the time to explain dosing to the patients in our best version of the local dialect – which is terrible. The pharmacist is also a palm reader. He tells me about myself and my life, promising:

- life long happiness
- intelligence and wisdom
- I should be careful when driving
- I’ll have two children and ’some’ relationships
- strong influence will bring me success
- I can do any career within Medicine but probably not Surgery. Wait, it’s probably okay too.
- I’ve had a troubled childhood

Well, it’s pretty complementary and hopefully accurate. The last point is totally off the mark, but I think he assumed it because I had a wild colour of hair and an eyebrow piercing.

I started to gt sick with hunger. Patients still trickle in. The last one doesn’t have a ’script but a baby with a gash on his nose needs our attention. My whiz kid partner, with her inner-city ER experience cleans him up with saline and neosporin.

Finally we  walk back for lunch and it is good. Back too soon to the clinic to finish up the day. We wait around impatienty for the last few prescriptions and we’ve already packed away many of the boxes.

Back to the tents. A nap cures my headache and revitalizes me for a cricket rematch. We lose horribly, but I am happy to have had a go at pitching and that I managed to score two runs. One our our suave lab technicians from Shimla wants a chat. I think he’s in love with all the Western girls around him and wants to impress us. He comes to look at my camera and I show him pictures from all the museums in London, much to his delight. All the children gather around and are trying to get a good view of the tiny 1″ LCD screen. “Dinner!”

Garlic naan, mushroom and pea coconut curry, and spring rolls. The kitchen masterminds have really outdone themselves again. Here, I thought I’d lose weight from the tough work and hiking in the Himalayas – no, certainly not with this lush diet and no one letting us lift a finger at camp. The only exercise I can get in is an evening hike, some cricket, or hauling boxes at the clinic.

The group that had gone earlier that day to treat the nomads showed us pictures of the settlement. There were fresh goats-heads hung under a bridge and a rare horse amongst the photos. The clinical work didn’t sound much different than that in Tangste, so I’m no longer jealous that I didn’t win a spot in the lottery to go.

Our head honcho delivers a talk about Leprosy. For an illness that is very well managed on the global scale, there are still some unexplained events. Despite controlling most cases and the low communicability of the bacteria, new cases keep popping up. Could it be a zoonosis? No one knows.

To the fire. Everyone throws on sticks and builds it into a huge, warm blaze. I drink from a cup being passed around the circle; it’s an awful Indian rum which proves later to be an excellent sleep aid. My tent-mate was already asleep but I stayed up singing cheezy Canadian camp songs, Disney tunes, hits from the 80s, and learning a few new melodies from the American contingent. Baby Got Back  (by the funniest teammate on the trip) and Bohemian Rhapsody were the highlights. Two of the students from Queens were former camp councillors and naturally awesome singers. A guest from one of the recent Anthropology trips pitched in her soulful voice. The music is a relief after being without my iPod for many days now. I wonder if the altitude-induced crash of its hard drive will be fatal. Only once we descend, will I know.

Teeth brushed, bladder emptied, it is bed time.