It's been a crazy couple of weeks. It seems strange now to be sitting in a fancy, air-conditioned transit lounge in the Delhi airport with time on my hands. We have a 10 hour lay-over in Delhi, and were directed here by one of the staff – once we got to the lounge we wondered if we were really supposed to be here, but they let us in, and I'm trying to hide my myself and my somewhat scruffy travel clothes behind my computer. It's a nice place to sit, even if I do feel out of place with the white coated service staff and all.
I'm on my way to Bangalore for a 2 week course on the 3-wheel chairs for rural use that we've been prescribing at the hospital. I'm travelling with Manoj, the head of the OT department, he'll take a course on prescribing the chairs, I'll take a course in assembling them. Which is a bit odd, because we are both already doing those things. However, we technically shouldn't be, as these wheelchairs are normally not sold to an institution until they have done the training. We got in the back door, learning from a hospital in Kathmandu, but taking these courses will make us an official centre for providing them to this part of Nepal. Because we have already prescribed and assembled these chairs, we are going armed with some very specific questions based on things we've observed, or not been able to figure out ourselves. I think it should be interesting to see what we get out these two weeks.
I was quite reluctant to go to India for 2 weeks in June. One reason was the heat – a concern that was lessened by the fact Bangalore is at 1000m, so won't be quite so hot. I was also intrigued to hear it is a very modern Indian city (the guide book says you can tell because there are few cows roaming the streets), and is the IT capital of India, as well apparently having one of the best selection of pubs in India, a left-over from it being one of the main British centres back in empire days. Hearing this I was more sold on the place I was going to.
However, I was still reluctant because June is the month many of the ex-pats are leaving Pokhara. I didn't want to go when there were still people around. My going away certainly made things busier for me in the last few weeks, but perhaps in some ways it's nice for me to leave too, rather than just being left behind. Still, 7 more ex-pats will leave while I'm gone, and the remaining ones will leave within a week of me getting back at the end of June. It's a big upheaval, I am hoping this 2 weeks in Bangalore will provide a bit of a break from it all, and I'll come back feeling energized.
Dr. Iain's farewell program at the hospital went well. He and Fiona were garlanded up (the Nepali's commented that it looked like they were getting married again) and there were lots of speeches and good food. I thought I had prepared myself for their departure - I had psyched myself up to loosing another integral part of my community here in Pokhara. What I hadn't anticipated was how heavily the responsibility that was shifted onto me at their departure would weigh. Fiona's job had been to look after the ex-pat community in Pokhara – housing, community events, sorting out problems, etc. As of her departure, that is now my job. Over the summer, when there are hardly any of ex-pats in town, this will not require too much effort. But this month, there are lots of logistical details to be worked out, as everyone leaves. So in the last week, I organized and hosted the monthly ex-pat church service, sorted out housing for a couple of visiting ex-pats, and then Friday, sat in the hospital all morning with one ex-pat who needed medical attention. Yikes. At several points this week I felt rather overwhelmed by it all – until now Fiona looked after me, now I'm looking after everyone else.
This is my first time in India, and I'm looking forward to the experience, even if it's only a small part of it. It will be nice break, in some ways, to not speak Nepali for a couple of weeks, although I'm nervous about losing ground on my language acquisition. Knowing Nepali will help some in India, as it is not so different from Hindi, and the script is the same. It should be a nice break to be somewhere new for a bit, in any case. In the mean time, I'm using this time in the airport to catch up on one of my long overdue blogs...read on!
1 comment:
One of the hardest parts of being a part of an international/expat community is the turnover, for sure. At the international Anglican church I went to in Tokyo, there was a 33% turnover rate every year. Hang in there! You are doing good work.
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