Tourist Stuff

Apologies for the sputtering supply of blog posts! We have been traveling through the "hill" region of Nepal, although even being from Utah, I would classify them as sizeable mountains. Obvously nothing compares to the majesty of mount Everest, but navigating the terrain has been no small task. Props to the hired drivers for getting us around alive! More on that to follow...

First, I thought I would post a couple of follow-up pictures to Jenny's magnificent post.
This is me on top of pulpit rock. Call me lame, but I find this picture representative of our task on these global health trips. It is difficult to clearly see what will best help the people we are meeting in each country. We have done our best to prepare interview guides and prototype demonstrations for every level of whatever healtcare system might exist, but the fact is that we don't know. We have certainly had to learn how to adjust our thinking to be in the shoes of the nurses, midwives, doctors, and administrators in an attempt to find ways to appropriately help with the problems they have - problems which most of us have never and will never experience. We should be thankful every day for the luxuries we enjoy. Alright, enough.

 Here is Mr. Keenahan loving a sandwhich on the edge of pulpit rock. Except for the full mouth, I think it is facebook cover photo worthy.

 Ok, the next pictures are after our arrival in Nepal. This is the group sitting outside of Kathmandu Guest House, our hotel in Thamel, Nepal.

 There are images and sculptures of gods and other culturally significant things everywhere. If you aren't careful, you might step on something in the middle of the street or sidewalk.

 Here we are eating at a nepalese restaurant. Vegetable and "buff" buffalo momos were definitely the food of choice, along with some rice and nan bread. Yummy!

 Sorry for the rotated picture here. I'll fix it later. Just an example of what the streets of Kathmandu look like, with little taxis (all 5 of us pack into them regularly), tons of electrical wires, religious sites, pollution, little shops selling the same things, and people everywhere.

 This is Durbar square, one of the historical (think 7th/8th century) sites scattered around Kathmandu. They charge Americans (and South Africans) exhorbitantly for a chance to see the buildings, and basically let anybody else in free. A couple dollars was worth it though.

 I am standing in front of a depiction of a god (can't remember the name) in it's "terrible" form. Apparently people reaffirm their loyalty to the government (which is constantly changing) at this site.

 For some more touristy fun, we booked a flight to see Mount Everest on saturday (see the pics of the mountain in Jenny's post). We should have listened to the advice that monsoon season is not a good time to do this because everything is covered in clouds, but we couldn't miss the opportunity so we threw down our benjamins and got ready to go. The hotel told us to meet them at 5:45 am in the lobby for a ride to the airport, so naturally they called our room at 5 am and asked if we were ready to go. No. And no again at 5:30. After getting a healthy dose of morning exhaust we arrived at the airport, so excited that we made it through "security".

 Our joy wouldn't last, however, because our flight was delayed for almost an hour. At least there was wifi at the airport. This is Jenny and Julia's grumpy face about the flight delay (South Africans call it "sourpuss face").

 Everything turned out ok, and we got our official certificates that we had laid eyes on everest. It is difficult to describe how big everest is. As a meager attempt, we had to rise above 3 layers of cloud cover in order to see the peak. I don't know if that helps, but it sounds radical to me.

 Local plant life.

 The next few pictures are at the monkey temple. We had to climb an unholy amount of steps (with a foreigner toll booth stop in the middle) to get to the top, but the view of Kathmandu was worth it. This is only a small section of the city.

 The monkeys were the best part of the monkey temple, along with the skillful architecture ;)...

 Cool masks, bro.

 Somebody threw this ice cream at the monkey, who quickly forgave and enjoyed the treat. It's one of my favorite photos so far.

...right after this one. How can you beat a baby monkey crawling on a railing? Can't.





Some of the local sales tactics were just as cute. Most Nepalese that we have met are actually pretty good with their english. It has made us feel a little better about sticking out so much.

 We couldn't pass up this opportunity to take a picture with the kids sitting on the statues at another historical site. The Nepalese people are so beautiful and the kids are the best.

 We were very lucky to get a couple of days to see around Kathmandu before our work started on Sunday. We briefly visited the teaching hospital before preparing for the trip out to Dailekh district in western Nepal. That's the next post (don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the reference to the drive to Dailekh that I mentioned earlier. That will be included in the next one as well. Get ready...)