Leaving Kathmandu and flying to Pokhara, we jumped in a jeep and travelled for about 4 hours on a very poor road. Never travelling more than about 20 km/hr, we bounced, and we bounced, and we bounced, eventually arriving in Ghandruk. Two years ago, when we first visited Ghandruk, the road stopped someway short of the village, meaning a two hour walk up to where we needed to be. This time we were greeted at the village gate by about 20 of the locals with their traditional necklaces of Marigolds – a grand token of their appreciation for our work at the clinics.
On our first day, after a few hours spent setting up the clinic, we started to get our first patients through. On day one we saw 16 patients from 11am until 4.30pm. Of the 16 patients, there were 4 adults and 12 children, the youngest of them only 3 years old. After seeing these children, it was obvious that there is rampant decay present amongst the population and lots of urgent work is required in these areas. By the end of the first day I’d completed 5 fillings and 14 extractions along with one cosmetic procedure.
Before I came over here, I received some wonderful donations of teddy bears and jumpers, beanies and knitted goods. These beautiful gifts were given to each of the children after their treatment – a new teddy bear really makes the pain go away. Thank you so much to those folks who provided these wonderful gifts!
We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without a wonderful team. Shelly Voigt is here from Perth and the team from Sanjiwani Public Health Mission Nepal have been a massive help as well. Basal Poudal, Kamala Gurung, Suchita Thapa, Gobinda Kari and Nisha Gurung have been so welcoming and show excellent potential as Dental Assistants.
Keep checking the blog site as there is more to come!