Bhaktapur and Hospitals

After the usual continental hotel breakfast, we took a taxi to Bhaktapur, an ancient city filled with beautiful architecture and intricate pottery. It was the capitol of Nepal during the 15th century and is now a cultural gem. We were impressed as soon as we arrived. The entire city was constructed with wood, brick, and metal. Unlike the bright streamers and colorful store fronts which popped eclectically throughout Thamel, Bhaktapur had a more tame color palette. The roads were paved and swept, the drivers were calmer, and there were no intriguing advertisements for canned noodles and "rockingly strong" beer. Where Thamel was a living and chaotic city, Bhaktapur was ancient and subdued. We greatly enjoyed the change of pace. We climbed up one of the many, tall, well maintained temples in Durbar Square, giving us a great view of the mountains.
And gave Patience a great view of the the rest of us.
While we were making our rounds through the temples, many people asked us why were there. We told them we were engineers and were then given a lengthy historical lesson on the origin of the temples. Everyone there swelled with pride when speaking about their city.  Even to this day, the temples are well-maintained by the natives who live there.  I saw a shining example when one woman was slicing off the moss from the steps of one of the buildings. Her only tool was a small carving knife and there seemed to be an endless amount of moss. It was a job that would take days to complete. I was astounded by the painstaking effort of the people to keep the ancient city alive. After sight seeing we ate lunch on a rooftop restaurant.

We took our biggest risk of the trip when we ordered a mixed fruit lassi which contains fresh fruit, milk, and yogurt. Thankfully, nothing has happened. As we left the restaurant, a group of young boys with painted faces, gathered around Patience. They were mesmerized by her hair. One child asked her if he could touch it. Patience agreed and all the children gently stroked her braids. After this formality the children told us that they were getting ready for the festival tomorrow, which would involve a lot of stick dancing, music, and food. We started work tomorrow and could not see the festival.
We left Durbar Square as other children started noticing Patience's hair and tried surrounding us once more.  We quickly got lost in the streets. Serendipitously, we came across the Human Organ Transplant Center. Though our work was to start the next day, we decided to check out this medical facility. After telling a hospital worker that we were engineers, he showed us their current and well-maintained dialysis room which had eight beds. He also told us that 20 kidney transplants had been done there in the two years the facility was open. The Bir hospital in Kathmundu is a more well established transplant location and has done 108 transplants. The worker told us that there is no facility for liver, pancreas, bone marrow, heart or lung transplantation in the country. Our first look at the healthcare system was very conflicting and surprising. Though the facilities were clean and the the dialysis machines were current, many life-saving transplants were not being done. It reminded me of that woman who was cutting away the moss in Bhaktapur. These were dedicated people who got used to the lack of resources. They were overwhelmed with jobs that they were not equipped for and did what they could to keep everything afloat. There was nothing innovative. We left the hospital and took taxis back to the hotel. We were ready to get to work.
http://hotc.org.np/