Banepa Business

A photo of me to prove I'm still alive!

I’m spending the days until mid-November in a little town called Banepa, about 20 kilometers outside of Kathmandu. Banepa is beautiful; it’s still in the Kathmandu valley, but away from a large part of the noise and air pollution and close to lots of neat places to see, as is illustrated in posts to come. I’m volunteering at the Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children, or HRDC for short. The hospital is well funded and treats many cases from osteomylitis (infection of the bone) to spinal TB (TB isn’t just for the lungs! Who knew?) to clubfoot and other deformities from birth. Surgery days are on Tuesday and Wednesday; outpatients are received on Monday, Thursday and Friday, and appointments are made to treat them in the near future. It’s a learning hospital and since it’s funded by charities, cases are seen from every caste, even if the family can’t necessarily pay. Some of the kids are there long term, especially the children who come in to be treated for clubfoot later in their lives when the bone has already completely developed. I spend my days helping cast kids’ legs and feet to correct clubfoot and AMC, playing with the kids in the ward, teaching English, spending some time in the Pathology Lab testing swabs and blood and hemoglobin levels, and learning not only Nepali, but about everything there is to learn about the medicine practiced at the hospital. It’s a great place to be. The day also includes two breaks for tea, plus lunch, which is pretty sweet; I sometimes feel a little guilty because it seems like I‘m on vacation, but I try to remember that I‘m making life easier for the kids here, because for most of them the day would be ever so boring without someone to interact with. Plus, I’m learning more than I’d ever get to back in the US about this kind of medicine without studying it at uni. More on my adventures to follow.