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| Emotional farewell from TG |
The day had finally arrived. I was asked to meet the Work
the World project coordinator in the
confined hotel lobby of the Sacred
Valley Inn in Kathmandu. It was about noon and I was upstairs packing up and
bracing myself for a dressing down. Gavin was out for the count, lying facedown
on the bed, shoes still on. I was on my own with this one and I headed for the
stairs. As I walked in I was met by a clutter of luggage and potted plants.
Beyond the busy desk all wearing the same blue t-shirt and huddled quietly in
the corner sat three or four dental outreachers daring not to speak. Ironic
considering the hotel staff had a busy night quieting the troops. I was greeted
by a smiling man named Prajwel. He quickly introduced himself and informed me that
the cars were en route and to be ready. I agreed and stood there while he
continued to smile. Unsure as to what to do next I turned to the onlooking
hotel staff at the desk. Bad move. They stared me down and I faltered. I tried
to smile my way through an apologetic quip about the noise the previous night
but I had already handed them the baton. I stood there for several minutes
nodding in acceptance and absorbing the disgruntlement. I watched as the
smiling Prajwel disengaged himself from the situation and slipped out the door
smiling his good byes at the girls in blue. I went back upstairs to find Gavin
showered and packed with a nivea shine on his face. Lets go he said. So we
went.
We packed ourselves into two white Toyotas. Bags were either
put on the roof or wedged between our legs. We drove for hours. It was hot as
anything. When we got there we were shown our new accommodation and given a
glass of diluted orange. The girls stayed in a lodge, elevated, dry, airy and
cool. The boys were given a tent pitched out the back where it rained. The camp
was up a mountain called Dhading opposite other mountains all called Nalange
but differentiated by number. Outside we came across a road sign that looked
like it said
“No Langers”! As a Corkman I was beginning to admire the
broad sense of humour of this rural Neplaese community. It was only after a few
days of screening that I realised this was infact a signpost for a neighbouring
community across the valley called Nalange-5.
The first day was spent assembling a dental clinic at St
Mary’s medical center run by Korean nuns and funded by german and dutch charity
organisations. How Germany or the Netherlands ever came across this remote cluster
of villages at the foot of the Himalyas was beyond me! We were greeted by the
many helpers and translators of the nearby communities and a ceremony began
with the handing out of floral neckchains before we were given blessings with
symbolic red powder anointed on our heads.
The work began the next day and despite the monsoon rains
the local people came thick and fast. We alternated between the screening room
and the treatment room and by the end of the second day we were ably discussing
the nuances of extracting teeth. A few days in and the treatment grinded to a
halt. There had been a strike in one of the villages and nobody came. Prajwel
called a meeting that night after dinner in the camp. We were going to awaken
earlier the next day to trek to a school several miles away to set up an
emergency clinic. At 6am we stocked up on a breakfast of pancakes, curried
kidney beans and lentils before setting off across the vast hillside that could
be mistaken for middle earth. After a busy morning and late lunch we finished
the day tired and sweaty with a long trek home still ahead. Two of the young
translaters approached me and asked me if I like to run? It wasn’t a wind up.
They tightened their sandals and took off. It must be 6 miles I thought. And at
this altitude? Madness….but I would be back in under an hour. So I went for it.
I caught up with them and they skipped around me pointing the way and laughing
everytime we undercut the journey with a shortcut unknown to the rest of the
group. The air was non existant. I walked the last half mile absolutely
drenched in sweat. Worth it.
The next day the strike was over and we resumed working at
St Marys. We crowded out the rooms but worked
like a machine. Calls for materials were met with rigorous mixing of mercury
and amalgam with pestles and mortar. Clear strips were effectively used as
matrix bands. With no slow handpiece caries removal relied heavily on natural
light, headlamps, the use of an inverted cone bur and a thoroughness with the
spoon excavator. Patients were quiet and respectful and generally opted against
the use of LA for restorations. To our amazement few complained with pain
during use of the handpiece. Rampant caries was rife among both young and old.
Clearnaces of permanent and deciduous dentitions were not uncommon within the
community, which had an admirable overriding tolerance for chronic oral
discomfort. We met villagers who had never brushed in their entire lives. Amazingly
on occassion such enormous lack of oral hygiene awareness was inversely
proportional to treatment required.
One night at the camp we awoke to noisy commotion from the
fields nearby. A wild leopard had
abducted a lamb and killed it. The farmer’s family mourned the loss and while
much was made of the financial implications it couldn’t go unnoticed that we
were all of a sudden in the company of wild leopards as we slept. Lucy
didn’t like it one bit when after dinner I told her there was a wild leopard
behind her.
In the evenings we would play boardgames that involved the
interaction of the whole group. Gavin introduced these boardgames to us and
just as the local shop sold us cold drinks that weren’t cold these boardgames
had no boards. Gavin dished out the instructions handing us pieces of paper
with celebrities’ names on them and the game would go on all night!
After 2 weeks it was time to leave and we said our goodbyes
and packed up. We headed for a lake district in a place called Pokhara to wind
down the trip. The rain stopped and we took a boat out on the lake. The sun
came out and for 2 days we thought we had found paradise. Then it started
lashing again and we went home!
