May 2010 - Field Trip

First Field Trip with INF’s Partnership For Rehabilitation (PFR)
Last week 18th May, I again was on the road with INF. This is new work which has been talked about for a long time. Now 15 months after arriving I did my 1st trip. I’m glad I hadn’t gone sooner as I had to do all my work and liaising in Neplai! I travelled with Krishna from PFR, he’d his work cut out for him looking after the foreign lady! I followed him around like a child.
We travelled to Beshishar, which is on the trekking trail and very pleasant, the morning we left we had good views of Lamjung Himalyan range. We linked up with a Local Partner Organisation (LPO) where there are 2 CBR workers and they are based in a church. The 1st patient, who had a stammer, his mother refused to believe I was actually speaking Neplai, which was quite comical. There were also many children with ear problems and I’m afraid after my advice there are probably a few Neplais who are very confused about the gospel message. The words for ‘sin’ and ‘pus’ in Nepali being very similar. So I did tell some patients that if SIN comes (from their ear), they must go immediately to the hospital!
One of the CBR workers is not receiving a salary, just living expenses which the church gives to her. The other starts work at 5a.m. every day, so that she can combine her church and CBR work. I was very inspired by their dedication.
On the Friday we travelled to a village Ghachowk. It was 2 hours by local bus and then we had to walk 1 hour by foot up a mountain side which had no path. It was mid day, and I was hot and completely knackered. Only the fact that I’ve turned 40 and therefore by definition am a fully fledged adult prevented me from sitting down and having a temper tantrum! Again many people attended. One family came and the child had a repaired cleft lip and palate. After assessing the child the father asked if I could assess his wife as her speech was also unclear. I was thinking she’s really too old to change her speech now, but was going through the motions of assessing. Well her speech had the characteristics of the speech of someone with a cleft palate. So I had a look inside her mouth, and sure enough it looks like she has a submucous cleft. My advice was she should attend hospital and she may benefit from surgery. It’s amazing to think this had never been identified or treated sooner!
Going to villages for me, was extremely tiring and I hate being away from the family, but there is such need The reality for many people is that they cannot afford the cost to travel or the time away from work in the fields to travel for 1-2 days to attend for therapy! I’m hoping that by going I will help to develop the CBR workers skills in assessing and providing a level of basic therapy to these children, so that they will have an opportunity to reach their full potential.