Hair straightening and other activities

For ages now, Sita has been pestering me to get my hair straightened, since I'd never done it before, and she (and everyone) was curious how it would look. Yesterday was a holiday, and thus a perfect time to finally try it out. A friend of Sita's came with a straightening iron, and she went to work – for nearly an hour. (I'm pretty sure she hadn't accounted for how long it would take to straighten my hair when she charged me less than $2 for the service.) At the end of it all, I was well and truly transformed. It's really strange, I still catch myself being surprised at a mirror. Universally, the Nepalis think it look great, and the ex-pats are not so sure – which is how I feel as well. It looks nicer than I expected, but still, I consider my curls somewhat irrepressible, and almost a part of my personality, and I'm not sure what to think of straight hair for me. It'll be gone when I next wash my hair, and it was a fun thing to try.

We went on a couple more home visits last week – just to some patients in the local area, so it was a day trip. We visited two wheelchair bound patients – one who is still in hospital, and her family is re-building her house to make it accessible (Sita is discussing the ramp that they will build, and we're having lunch below), and another who we visited in my first home visit last February (left). She was doing much better than before, all sores had healed, and she was taking care of herself and her house (cooking, cleaning, laundry) very well. I was touched to see she was still wearing the socks I had given her last year, and pleased to see how well she was getting on. I did have to make some more repairs on her wheelchair, however, which at two years is really worn out, wheeling around on the Nepali roads.

Our last visit was to a patient with an incomplete spinal cord injury, meaning she had some paralysis and muscle weakness, but could walk with crutches, and had feeling in her legs. Incomplete SCI patients can often do very well, and I expected to see her up and about, able to do most things. Instead, she was in bed, where she spends most of her day, and does not help her family with housework or cooking. It was such a contrast to the first two patients who are completely paralyzed from the waist down, yet who seem to have so much more initiative and willingness to do what needs to be done to get on with life. It was quite disappointing, but I suppose a reality, that some people give up and let their disability get the better of them, and others soldier on, despite all barriers. We hope to send a counsellor or social worker to go to talk with her, and hopefully this will help her willingness to move ahead.

Sunday was World Leprosy Day, so we had a big program at the hospital. Everyone was brought outside into the sun, and after the speeches, games were played, and there was singing and dancing. It was a great event.

On a completely different note, my friend Richard (fiancée to Chantell, my house mate for three months) attempted to capture the chaos of driving and cycling here in Pokhara. He worked at the INF office at the other end of town, and one day he attached his camera to his bike helmet, and recorded his 25min cycle ride home. He's posted this video, sped up so that it takes under 8mins. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, I recommend checking out the 3min mark, where he cycles through Chipledhunga (the main shopping area, where someone stops traffic doing a 3 point turn in the middle of the road) and at 6:10mins where he goes through Prithibi Chowk (a main intersection/roundabout) and crosses the main bridge over the Seti river. Both of those demonstrate well the chaos that reigns on Nepali streets. It always amazes me how everyone more or less manages to get where they are going!

Richard has also posted some more pictures of their time here in Pokhara, and I recommend his albums, if you want to see more of life here, and in the villages around.