Monday, September 20, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Sept 2010 - Bambi Village
On the first friday of september I accompanied the 'Frontliners' outreach team and a visiting Church from Malayisa to a village a couple hours travel from Pokhara. The frontliners have been working in this village for some time and have established a church and built a new primary school from support by the visiting Malaysian church.
The trip involved crossing a river to the village, with it being monsoon season there was quite a flow, all a little unsettling for the visiting party.
Dinesh here in the checked shirt playing the drums visits the village faithfully every friday and leads the church worship.
The visiting team take the opportunity to inspect the new school premises, the headmaster is indeed very proud to show off his new school facility.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Aug 2010 - Sristi Update
Learning To Listen
3:30p.m. exactly on Monday 23rd August my telephone rang. The display told me ‘Sristi’s mum calling’. Sristi had been booked to have her cochlear implant operation that morning. She and her family had been on my mind all day, we had prayed as a family for them that morning and the children had prayed for Sristi at their school assembly. “Operation bhayo, saphal bhayo,” told me the operation was over and had been successful. This was followed by many, many thank-yous from a mother who is delighted that her little girl has been given the chance to hear.
I wanted to cry and laugh and these emotions were followed by my own many, many thank-yous to God, because He enabled it all to happen. When my parents and I first began thinking about how we could help Sristi, the money needed seemed too daunting. But we trusted God that if it was His will he would work everything together. I cannot thank enough everyone who has supported this project by organising fundraising events, giving money and praying, both from the West and here in Nepal. Sristi’s own church raised a considerable amount of money. God indeed has provided.
Living in Nepal that all the planning worked out is a miracle in itself. Things happen slowly here and rarely happen the way we have planned them. Before the operation there were many things we had to arrange. This included 2 trips to Kathmandu, organising vaccinations and of course purchasing the implant from the company. Considering that a good journey from Pokhara to Kathmandu takes 7 hours, on a very narrow, winding road, it’s not a journey you want to take too often! Then we had difficulty checking which vaccinations Sristi had previously received and then we had to co-ordinate the vaccinations needed with, when they where available. The weeks before the operation date, numerous phone calls were made to the implant company to ensure the implant would arrive. It eventually arrived on the Friday before the op, too close to the final date for my nerves.
Sristi’s situation has also been a great witness to the Christian message to the non-christian’s in my work place and also in the wider community. My colleagues have observed with wonder how others are prepared to give to help someone else. They have also been extremely supportive. Namrata, the speech therapy assistant has joined with Sristi’s mum and I in prayer as we have prayed together before each major pre-op investigation. Sristi’s mum was invited to speak in her church.She spoke of how she believed this was God’s plan for her daughter’s life and thanked him that her daughter was being given this opportunity to hear. Her church’s fellowship groups have been praying regularly.
However this is only the beginning of Sristi’s story. Five weeks after the operation Sristi’s implant will be switched on, giving her useful hearing for the first time. In the first year this family will travel to Kathmandu every 6 weeks to have the implant adjusted. Sristi will attend for weekly speech and language therapy, when she will be taught how to listen to and understand all the new sounds and words she can hear. For her it will be like learning a second language.
3:30p.m. exactly on Monday 23rd August my telephone rang. The display told me ‘Sristi’s mum calling’. Sristi had been booked to have her cochlear implant operation that morning. She and her family had been on my mind all day, we had prayed as a family for them that morning and the children had prayed for Sristi at their school assembly. “Operation bhayo, saphal bhayo,” told me the operation was over and had been successful. This was followed by many, many thank-yous from a mother who is delighted that her little girl has been given the chance to hear.
I wanted to cry and laugh and these emotions were followed by my own many, many thank-yous to God, because He enabled it all to happen. When my parents and I first began thinking about how we could help Sristi, the money needed seemed too daunting. But we trusted God that if it was His will he would work everything together. I cannot thank enough everyone who has supported this project by organising fundraising events, giving money and praying, both from the West and here in Nepal. Sristi’s own church raised a considerable amount of money. God indeed has provided.
Living in Nepal that all the planning worked out is a miracle in itself. Things happen slowly here and rarely happen the way we have planned them. Before the operation there were many things we had to arrange. This included 2 trips to Kathmandu, organising vaccinations and of course purchasing the implant from the company. Considering that a good journey from Pokhara to Kathmandu takes 7 hours, on a very narrow, winding road, it’s not a journey you want to take too often! Then we had difficulty checking which vaccinations Sristi had previously received and then we had to co-ordinate the vaccinations needed with, when they where available. The weeks before the operation date, numerous phone calls were made to the implant company to ensure the implant would arrive. It eventually arrived on the Friday before the op, too close to the final date for my nerves.
Sristi’s situation has also been a great witness to the Christian message to the non-christian’s in my work place and also in the wider community. My colleagues have observed with wonder how others are prepared to give to help someone else. They have also been extremely supportive. Namrata, the speech therapy assistant has joined with Sristi’s mum and I in prayer as we have prayed together before each major pre-op investigation. Sristi’s mum was invited to speak in her church.She spoke of how she believed this was God’s plan for her daughter’s life and thanked him that her daughter was being given this opportunity to hear. Her church’s fellowship groups have been praying regularly.
However this is only the beginning of Sristi’s story. Five weeks after the operation Sristi’s implant will be switched on, giving her useful hearing for the first time. In the first year this family will travel to Kathmandu every 6 weeks to have the implant adjusted. Sristi will attend for weekly speech and language therapy, when she will be taught how to listen to and understand all the new sounds and words she can hear. For her it will be like learning a second language.
Monday, August 23, 2010
August 2010 yet another birthday party !
on the 14th of August Anna and Patrick celebrated their 11 birthday. With changes at school over summer 2 of anna's friend have moved to Kathmandu for school. Never the less a good pool party was enjoyed with their other school friends and several of our Nepali friends (several of them it was their first time in a swimming pool!
June 2010 Gourkha
Gorkha, June 2010
In June I travelled to Gorkha district with PFR. I travelled with a Christian lady Bimala, who previously I didn’t know well, but she killed me with kindness and by the end of the trip we were sharing a bed!
Initally we stayed in a village, Arughat, about 6 hours from Pokhara. Oh how I don’t do wild life and creepie crawlies. The ‘shower’ room had a wasp’s nest and spiders too numerous to count! Each morning we had a bat curled up on the pillow on the spare bed.
19 
patients turned up at the clinic! In the west for an initial assessment day the maximum seen would be 6. We did our best to give advice and provide therapy activities which the families could take with them and use at home.
After Arughat we took a 3 hour bus ride and climbed 2 hours up the mountain to an area called Thumi. Here I stayed with a Nepali family, who were so welcoming and friendly. To reach the toilet I had to negotiate a step ladder and a filed planted with corn.
The first morning we left at 6 to do a home visit where Bimala had to carry out an assessment to make adaptations to a home for a man who had received a wheelchair through Green Pastures Hospital. Living in a room in this house was a young mother of 20, with her 3 year old daughter and 11 year old brother. Their parents had both died of aids, and her husband had left her for another lady and was now living in Kathmandu, but gave her no support. As she had to do manual labour to earn money, often her brother could not go to school as he had to look after the child. This girl had tears in her eyes as she told me their story. We are trying to get them support from INF’s Partnership for Rehabilitation
Another 1 hour walk up the mountain took us to the health post. This day 11 patients attended, all of them had complicated speech and language difficulties. It was lovely to meet one little boy with cerebral palsy that I had met at Green Pastures hospital the previous year. At that time he had been very ill and thin and I had given advice on helping him to feed. He now looked well and healthy. We’re hoping the family will return to GP hospital for more treatment. Many of the patients who attended had walked either up or down the mountainside for 2-3 hours, to reach the clinic.
The night before I returned to Pokhara it rained the whole night, which hadn’t helped the road. The road resembled a ploughed field and I lost count of the number of times the bus had to be dug out! It took 12 hours to return to Pokhara!!
Although I returned exhausted the trip for me was great. To be in such remote locations, living and sharing closely with Nepalis, many who are extremely poor, was rewarding. Although I can only offer limited speech therapy support, at least I was able to offer something. And I hope I am starting to increase awareness that children with learning disability can benefit and develop if helped. I plan to travel again to this area in December. When the roads will be good and hard!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)