Wheelchair field trip

Today we took a couple of wheelchair patients to the bazaar so they could get used to navigating Nepali streets and potholes in their chairs. It was myself, Sita (also a wheelchair user, who works as a peer counselor at the hospital), two patients and their carers (each patient who cannot care for themselves must have a relative or friend come to the hospital to do basic care for them). It was quite sunny and hot today, so we had borrowed a bunch of distinctive sun hats from the OT department. If I thought that I got a lot of attention on a daily basis as a foreigner walking down the street, I soon realized it was nothing to the attention given to a foreigner and three wheelchair users wearing funny hats.

We got to the bazaar in time for it to cloud over, and we managed to find a shop that was big enough and accessible enough that we could all get under cover just before the skies opened. We bought the patients bottles of pop while we waited, and discovered that one of the patients had never drunk pop before! He is from a remote mountain village, but even the other Nepali's were surprised he had never had pop. He very much enjoyed his first orange Fanta (we thought we'd work him in easily, and not start with Coke), although he sputtered a bit as the fizzy pop went up his nose.

The rain showed no signs of abating, so we called in the hospital vehicle to come pick us up. Nice to have a plan B to cope with rapid weather changes. And all in all, a very fun outing.