Deepa playing tug-of-war

Week 6 Dhulikhel.

This week has been fairly hectic.  I spent Monday, Wednesday and Thursday filming a documentary about Physiotherapy in Nepal with Nepal TV.  The team here have been working on scripts and ideas for months and we only had the 3 days to film it all.

Deepa and the cutest baby ever

Monday I was at the Paediatric Cerebral Palsy Centre in Kathmandu.  A really well set up centre with some great staff and amazing kids.  I am still amazed at how well the kids adapt to their situation even after working in paeds in the UK.  They are happy and as active as they can be.  The highlight if this visit was playing tug-of-war with one boy who thought the whole experience was hilarious, and spending time with another boy who was working at putting rings on a stick – small activity, but big achievement for him.  The cameraman came alone, so I was sound assistant for the day – I got really good at holding the microphone for interviews!

The afternoon was spent at the National football training ground with 6 members of a local team.  This section was for sports therapy.  So was mainly shots of players training.  We had a fake injury scene played out – surprisingly the player acted this out extremely well – typical footballer!

Tuesday was a rest day from filming, purposely planned in case the first day had gone disastrously wrong. 

Students in the library

Wheelchair basketball at SIRC

Wednesday we were filming again.  This time we were at the Spinal Injury Centre in Banepa.  Again a really well equipped centre.  WE filmed so gym based therapy and then a wheelchair basketball game played on the roof.  On the way back to Dhulikhel, we filmed my chocolate shop owner and his son walking with the mountains in the background and then the afternoon was spent back at Dhulikhel hospital filming the education section with the existing students acting out various scenes.

Thursday we filmed orthopaedics in the morning and the very important respiratory section in the afternoon – tricky to do where there were no ventilated patients on ICU that day – typical. 


Gautam and guru doing yoga

Filming on ICU with Sumana and Sachit

NICU

Filming in the hospital was a bit of a nightmare as the patient parties (visitors and family) are too inquisitive and nothing is private so trying to do crowd control was a nightmare.  We also squeezed in the owner of the restaurant here above the guesthouse, and his buddy doing Yoga on the hospital roof for the fitness section, and a few final shots in Neonatal intensive care.  A really packed schedule and literally finished with seconds to spare before the final bus for the cameraman back to Kathmandu!  The editing now begins and I really hope it is ready for me to see before I leave.  We are planning to do a big screening for everyone involved.

Min our caretaker arrived back from China on this day as well.  He had a fabulous trip and was so excited about all his new experiences, first time in  a plane, first time out of Nepal, first time seeing his brother in 3 years – not a trip he will forget in a hurry.

CAKE

Friday was a day to celebrate finishing the filming – any excuse for cake, just like any physio department in the UK.  We also celebrated winning a grant of $15,000 from Elsevier the publishers to improve the computer facilities in the library and also the access to journals.  Michele did the majority of the work on this and he successfully won 1 of 4 grants from a competition of 600 applications.  Friday night was film night in the guesthouse aka, it’s warmer if we all sit in one room together! 

Saturday was a lazy start and then into Kathmandu for a lunch and a catch up with Jim before he heads back to the UK for Christmas, and then shopping for souvenirs to take home (sorry Ian all bigger than a 10p piece!)  I met up with Noga, Adam, Alon Doudi (the medical clown) and friends for a wander and tea before they went home to celebrate Chanukah.  Incidentally this sounds like a great festival as it involves lovely candle light and lots of Doughnuts…..mmmmm cake…….

Alon and I then met up with Jonas and Charlotte for dinner in the White House Kitchen.  This was Jonas’s last supper as he flies to India for 12 days tomorrow before heading back to Germany.  The food was fabulous as expected this is becoming a regular haunt.

The not very thrilliing immigration office!

Sunday was a quick breakfast with Jonas, sad goodbyes and then straight to the Immigration office as today was to be spent extending my Nepal visa.  Actually not as painful a process as I had been dreading.  I bumped into a lovely Australian girl called Annie who was the only person ahead of me in the queue at 9am (only 18 bless her, and first big trip away from home!) After submitting our applications and paying the cash, we shared a cab back into durbar square to kill the 3 hours it took for them to be processed.  Here I bought a small stool (small but how do I get in home??) this is so traditional here and I paid 300nrs (2.10p) I then carried it around strapped to my backpack all afternoon.  We also headed to bangle alley (boys switch off now) shop upon shop of sparkly colourful bangles accessory heaven.  12 glass bangles for 40nrs (25p) top! A quick banana lassi for lunch and then back to the immigration office for collection. 

Here is the surprise of the day.  We could collect any time after 2pm which in Nepali time usually means 3 or 4.  However we got there at 1.30pm and we had our passports complete with new visas in our hands by 1.45!!! Amazing!!

A quick cuppa and piece of cake in a very local café 35nrs (20p) and I took the bus back to Dhulikhel in time to catch the hot water for a shower (just need to wait 4 hours so I can dry my hair now).  Min is cooking Pizza tonight which he steams to cook as there is no oven – strange but ingenious.

Can still see my breath in my room roll on electricity.

Another great week will they never end………………….