You Three Stand

After 3.5 days in Norway, it was time to actually start our global trip!

…… after a few more days of adventuring.

On Thursday morning, Ramji, Kavya, Sakina and I left for the airport to head to Kathmandu, Nepal, while Teja traveled home to Mumbai for his graduation! Our total flight tally for the trip climbed to 5, and once again we all failed to resist the temptation to watch movies the whole way. Turkish Airlines movie selection gets a 10/10, would recommend to a friend.

On arrival, thankfully, the hardest question we had to ask for gaining entry into the country was "in Nepal your name is Kavya Lahiri. What is it in your country?" After a few rookie mistakes (aka waiting in the line for the “electronic visa” is not at all worth it), the four of us arrived (exhausted) at the hotel around 8 am. Keyword - 4; somehow, we had managed to not inform all of the team at Jhpiego that Teja would not be joining us until Sunday - cue unintentional panic about a missing student. Thankfully, all communication was resolved, and we met up with Jhpiego Nepal in their office that afternoon for a brief meeting.

We received such a warm welcome, and were introduced to everyone in the office, including Sandhya Limbuu, who would be traveling with us on the ground throughout the week, and Chandra Rai, the Jhpiego country director. There, we discussed a few logistics for the week ahead, when we would be finally starting the true crux of our field immersion.

We are so fortunate that Jhpiego Nepal was able to host us for this week. Although our trip was slightly last minute, they planned a wonderful agenda for us, that would allow us to take the most advantage of our limited time on the ground. We will be traveling to Seti Zonal Hospital in Dhangadi, Nepal - right near the Indian border in the western part of the country. Seti Zonal is one of around 20 centers in the country that teach SBA (skilled birth attendants) training, and they will be undergoing a 3-day program to help standardize the curriculum taught in this region - training the trainers. This means that not only will we get to see how training works in Nepal, but also have the ability to talk to a variety of experience trainers, who have a solid grasp of the needs in this area. After that, we will return to Kathmandu to see a national level hospital, Civil Service, and debrief with Dr. Kusum Thapa, the technical advisor at Jhpiego (and the person we have all been told to give our regards to when we visit!) Although tired, we proceeded to ask a lot of questions (likely more than they anticipated) and we were able to learn about the organization of the Nepali health care system, SBA training, and what some of the highest priority topics are in the upcoming revision.

But, in case you were worried that we've been working too hard, the rest of the weekend was left to explore Kathmandu! (So far, I've been the one to write the fun blogs, no complaints.) Immediately after our meeting at Jhpiego, Sandhya walked us to a nearby palace - Patan. We walked through the narrow and busy streets of Kathmandu, taking in everything we could. While all of us have lived abroad/traveled/etc before, this was all of our first times in Nepal, so it was great to explore a new place.

The palace was beautiful, but it was during this exploration that we began to appreciate the impact of the recent earthquake and the aftershocks that are still continuing on this city and country. While the city has made incredible progress in recovery, it is still possible to see the impact echoed everywhere in both the places and the people - the cab driver in the car telling us how he had completely lost his house, the piles of pieces of statues that had fallen, the wooden poles lining the narrow streets seeming to barely hold a building together. It might almost be a cliche now, but it really is true - these people are resilient.

Stilts supporting a building. 

Fallen statue. 

The title of this blog post comes from the most commonly uttered phrase throughout the weekend “You three stand.” Ramji, both with and without his nice DSLR, made a habit of stopping at every step to take photos - of strangers, birds, buildings, etc. He liked to make us model for him at every point. Still waiting for him to go through the thousands of pictures he took, so my modeling career can begin.

Typical street in Thamel. 

After a bit of “rest”/”work”, we traveled to Thamel - the touristy part of Kathmandu. We wanted to try to get as authentic of a taste of Nepal as possible, so wandered back down an alleyway into a place that looked promising. It was a Friday evening and we were the only people in the restaurant, which was concerning, but we got to try the classic Nepali momos - basically dumplings. A+.

Thamel is known for it’s shopping, and the streets were lined with tiny shops selling everything a tourist would want. After some indecisive browsing, all three of us girls decided on one black and one red pair of pants with the classic Nepali striped pattern on there. Ramji was immensely helpful with his Hindi speaking - helping us bargain them down so we each got them for 400 rupees, or about $4. Sadly, upon trying them on last night we realized that a Nepali medium was not the right size for us… and proudly went back to the same store the next day to exchange for an extra large. No shame.

After a long day of travels, we were exhausted, and went to bed very early. But, that meant we could get started the next day early, and met for breakfast at 7 am ready to start the day!

Kathmandu is full of beautiful temples - both Hindu and Buddhist. We started off by traveling to Pashupatinath Temple, a famous Hindu temple along the Bagmati river. Along for its size and beauty, the temple is known for the daily cremations that take place along the river. However, we weren’t able to get very far - only Hindus of South Asian descent are allowed inside the temple. We had thought we would at least be able to head down to the river to see what was rumored to be a beautiful view, but were unable to make it past the security guard. We planned to do our research a bit better and maybe head back at the end of the week;

Next up was Boudha, home to a large Buddhist stupa. We entered, and were able to circle around this beautiful structure. Sadly, here it was very clear the impact of the earthquake - much of the structure was under construction due to rebuilding.

Boudha, under rennovation. 

Large prayer wheel. 

Prayer flags are incredibly photogenic. 

As are prayer wheels. 

View from upstairs. 

Ramji in his natural habitat. 

As the above pictures show, the entire complex was incredibly beautiful and photogenic. But nothing captured our attention so much as the hundreds of pigeons that would swarm around over our heads. I likely wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said we spent an hour there, just taking pictures of birds. Not just any birds. Pigeons. Just. Pigeons.

(I judge but I was right there taking all of the pictures also. Oops).

We enjoyed a beautiful rooftop chai and momos in Boudha, with the most scenic view. We relaxed while we enjoyed the sunshine and realized it wasn’t even noon yet. It’s amazing how much time is in the day when you wake up at 6.

Expert photography.

Chai with a view. 

Next up was a visit to Bhaktapur, an ancient city a little outside of Nepal. Here, we were able to see both ancient buildings, and try some of the street food like pani puri only eat from clean and established restaurants.

Climbing things. 

Observing pottery making from a lovely store owner in Pottery Square. 

Always in need of selfies. 

The city was far more sprawling than we imagined, and we spent hours wandering down back alleys, looking at different shops, sitting and enjoying chai, and taking loooots of pictures.

Unfortunately, that left time for just one last stop - Garden of Dreams near Thamel. Still really not sure what it is, other than that there were lots of couples who sat on benches. But we took this as another excuse to take a lot of pictures (sorry mum, I promise a complete album is coming soon).

Battle of the Canons. 

Dawwwwww

~~artsy

And with that, our short time in Kathmandu was over, and it was off to Dhanghadi! The next morning, we headed off to the airport to be on our way. This is a very picture-heavy post... but one last one for the road - the view of the mountains from our flight. 

I'll admit this is written very retroactively, so can't wait for you to hear about our amazing week in Dhangadhi!