Last Day in Pokhara and the Journey Back To Kathmundu

I woke up at the ripe hour of 4:30 to go to Sarangkot mountain. I shot out of bed excited to start the day with a sunrise. Then saw the time and fell back asleep for fifteen minutes. I was eventually shaken awake by Ian and shuttled off to the mountain. When we arrived at the peak of the mountain, the sun had just appeared on the horizon. It was mesmerizing.

Other people clearly like the spot as well. We even saw a wedding!

After seeing the sunrise, we went back to the hotel and took a small nap before we had a Skype call with Dr. Sanghvi. Patience, Ian, and I relayed to him what we have seen so far in our trip. The sterile area of the OT being tainted by people not using their face masks. The difference in laparoscopic equipment from cheap O.M. Surgical to expensive Stryker. How cholecystectomies where done open or MIS simply based on whether a certain doctor was there at a certain time. How the training was done fully through observation, or with a cardboard box to learn depth perception, or using animals for practice. Dr. Sanghvi nodded along to the information and challenged us to go further into technology, maintenance, procedure, and training. We had a lot to look at in the second week. After that we decided to tour Pokhara. We started with Davis Fall a beautiful waterfall with a dark history.

While the wording was a little off( as well as the random switch from Davis to Devis in every poster), it moved me nonetheless. We then went to Begnas Lake a much calmer source of water. After the experience gained by our first venture on a lake, we decided to row ourselves. Which proved aimless at first, but everyone quickly got the hang of it

After an hour of rowing, we were exhausted and ready to head back to the hotel. The next day we drove back to Kathmundu on the way we stopped for chai. We were serenaded with beautiful Nepalese hymns while ordering drinks.

We continued to Manakamana Temple a sacred religious spot located at the top of a mountain. I waited in line to circle the temple while the rest of the team hiked around the mountain. 

The temple was very interesting; it is said to grant the wish of any person who circles it. Many people brought goats and chickens to sacrifice as well. They would offer the blood to god then eat the animals, presumably, to add another blessing. After I went around the temple, the team got back together and took the cable car down to the base.

After this excursion, we continued on the road until we got to Kathmundu. Pokhara was a great city, and it was very fortuitous we were able to see it. Seeing the Female Community Health Volunteers, GMC, and Western Regional was extremely interesting and helpful. However, I was happy to go back to KMC and see a greater variety of laparoscopy procedures than what the previous hospitals had to offer.