Are we in Pokhara yet?

Today was by far one of the most interesting days we've had in Kathmandu. We woke up at 8am, had breakfast at the hotel and headed to the Jhpiego office to get some group work done before leaving for Pokhara. At 11am, we wondered through the streets of Patan until we found a nice Indian fast food restaurant named after the Annapurna mountains. The Annapurna restaurant (which I highly recommend) served the cheapest and tastiest food we have had so far, and I'm pretty sure that Ian would recommend the delicious chili momo's which he kept raving about.

My aloo paratha at the Annapurna restaurant. Only 95 cents of deliciousness!

At 1.30pm we hopped into two taxis and headed over to the local airport, where we boarded our Buddha airways flight to Pokhara.

 Dr. Kusum entertaining the team as we waited for our flight at the airport 

About 20 minutes into the 25 minute flight, our pilot announced that the plane would be returning to Kathmandu due to heavy rains in Pokhara.  Pokhara which is second city of Nepal has a population of over 300,000 inhabitants and is located approximately 200 km west of Kathmandu. Three out of the ten highest mountains in the world; Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu are within 30 miles of the city, therefore during the monsoon season, there is very poor visibility for airplanes to land.

View of Pokhara from the plane

Once we got back to Kathmandu, we waited at the airport until 6pm, however the rains never cleared out in Pokhara, so we were forced to go back to our guest house.

Yes, there are monkeys (and pigeons) in the Kathmandu local airport!

On the other hand, Aaron made new friends with a group of Chinese women on the flight who spoke very little English; they ended up spending the night at Kathmandu guest, in hopes that they will be able to catch the next flight to Pokhara for their vacation.

Our night ended with a peaceful candlelight dinner at the Rum Doodle restaurant in Kathmandu; the place where everyone who conquers Mt. Everest is welcome to eat for free for the rest of their lives!

Although the day didn't turn out the way we planned, we got to experience some of the challenges people in Nepal have to deal with, and therefore learned to appreciate the flexibility that the Jpiego staff must have to plan programming and change plans quickly if need be.


Based on our experiences thus far, here are a few things we need to consider when designing for a country like Nepal:

• Electricity supply, or rather the lack of it
• What is the source of power, and what means do people resort to during power cuts?
• The weather
• How would a sick patient be transported for an emergency procedure during bad weather?
• Cultural barriers
• What are the social norms, and how can we design something that will not pose a cultural threat?
• How willing are people to adapt to changing circumstances?