More exciting than Perth...

So I know I’ve been super slack with the blogging, but up until today I didn’t really think anything had happened that was worth posting about. But then I realised that perhaps I’ve just become too complacent here, and there are a few incidents that are actually worth mentioning…

For the last week of October I left Nepal for Singapore and a life of relative luxury! It was such a culture shock at the airport to hop in a taxi with air-con and a meter, no traffic on the road (it was 11pm on a Sunday) and a driver who spoke perfect English. I made the most of my week of hot showers, air conditioning (despite the carbon-footprint guilt!), cocktails, and, of course, being with my family and Luke. Not much else to report though, we spent most of the trip sleeping/lazing/drinking/shopping.

The waterfall into our amazing hotel pool...

Joy of joys, the lagoon pool...

General silliness outside Candylicious on Sentosa! Dadda the cool dude...

In my element...

Han-dawg also in her element...

Mumma looking extra smily...

Luke wondering what he has gotten himself into coming on holidays with my family.

I had flown Thai Airways via Bangkok to Singapore. On the Friday of our holiday the flooding in Bangkok had become so severe there that they had closed down the domestic airport, and I was starting to think that I’d be left alone and stranded in Singapore airport (nothing to complain about really, I can deal with massages and free movies!). However, on Saturday morning I went to check whether the flood defences had held, and hoorah, they had. So Bangkok International Airport was still kicking on, and we all celebrated.

Alas, sitting at lunch with our cocktails, Luke got the message regarding his QANTAS flight home that night: CANCELLED. Of course, Mum, Dad and Hannah were also flying with QANTAS, and ended up stranded as well. So in the end I was the only one who went back to work on Monday. Poor Luke missed his flight to Newman, meaning that he had to drive up for his swing, so you can imagine how dark he was at QANTAS… I don’t think Mum and Dad minded the extra day of holiday, though I hear it was a stressful dash to the airport when they did get a flight, and that Dad ran out of clean underwear so had to wash some in the sink and iron them dry…

I couldn’t help but laugh at the contrast between the Mercedes taxi which had dropped me at Singapore airport, and the one that I jumped into in Kathmandu. Not only would the boot not stay shut (particularly an issue when the car is a hatchback), it also had no inner door handles, and questionable windows (I don’t think they actually rolled up, but at least this meant that I knew I wasn’t being *tricked* into getting into a car with no inner door handles!)

I spent the week in Kathmandu with Amanda, going to meetings with various NGOs and enjoying the delicious Western food in Thamel. One of the highlights of the week was that we had been invited to an ‘Aussie Dinner’ at the Australian Ambassador’s residence on Friday night. So we spruiked ourselves up (as much as was possible) and headed to the compound.

We met heaps of great people, and my favourite moment was early in the night when a conversation went like this:

DB: So who do you work for?

Guy: The UN

DB: Oh cool, what do you do there?

Guy: I run it

DB: Oh….

I also found it interesting the even amongst all of these ‘important’ people, there was still a lot of drinking and swearing going on. My second favourite moment of the night was when somebody of quite high standing told me ‘I have to behave the rest of the time, so tonight I’m getting shitfaced!’ Didn’t I feel like the prude carefully counting my drinks!!

The following day was my birthday, and it started out great with breakfast on the roof of our guest house, a frappe in Thamel and a refloxology foot massage. For lunch Amanda and I met at the Garden of Dreams. By this point I had a bit of a stomach ache, and Amanda showed me her swollen hand which she had hurt by accidentally punching a table in a shop that morning. Anywho, we downed our sorrows in AMAZING steak and Heinekin, and enjoyed the relative serenity of the Garden of Dreams compared to the madness on the other side of the high walls.

We then set off to see The Lion King in 3D in one of the English cinemas (though we were determined to go even if it was in Nepali or Hindi). By the end of the film Amanda’s hand was looking worryingly swollen, purple, and shiny. So we decided a trip to the hospital was in order.

Amanda listening carefully to the doctor's instructions (sorry about the rotation, computer is being a pain)

The hospital was private and super efficient, except that we had to keep moving ourselves between ED, x-ray and the registrar counter (luckily Amanda hadn’t injured her leg). There were no broken bones, hurrah! The Doctor was convinced however that Amanda had punched someone, and it took quite a lot of persuading to get him to believe that, yes, these two Aussie girls are just clumsy fools!

By the time we had left the hospital and bought some dinner, I was feeling quite unwell, and thus started two days of the Nepali version of Bali Belly/Delhi Belly/Montezuma’s Revenge. Not fun, and it meant that I had to delay my trip back to Bharatpur.

On Monday, armed with my plastic vomit bag (thanks for the life lesson Contiki!), I hopped on the bus back to Bharatpur, and was pleasantly surprised that it was truly luxurious compared to most other buses I’ve been on here- my seat wasn’t broken and there was somewhere to put my bag! Hurrah! Unfortunately, the group of American guys sitting behind me didn’t think so, and whinged about the bus and Nepal in general for the whole five hours, forcing me to crank up my iPod to avoid telling them to HTFU if they wanted to come to a developing country for a holiday.

Even worse was at our breakfast stop, when the couple next to me went off at the waiter because their cornflakes were ‘too stale’. The waiter insisted that they had come fresh from the packet, and I tried to explain to them that in Nepal, half the time the food is already stale before it’s opened, regardless of the use-by date. Alas, they just gave me an angry look and kept making a fuss until another packet of slightly-less stale cornflakes was opened. I’m guessing they had only been in Nepal for a couple of days, weren’t they in for a shock when they got to their hotel in Chitwan which probably didn’t have hot water or proper bedding! Pick your battles guys.

I was absolutely stoked to get home to my apartment in Bharatpur, especially with a super affectionate Kahloo who had decided that he would sleep at my door every night. The problem with this being that every night I get up to go to the loo and forget he’s there, trip over and wake him up. I’m not sure who is more stupid in this scenario- me for not remembering he’s there or him for continuing to let me step on him. He’s also taken to jumping on my bed when I’m doing stuff around the apartment, which I’m sure he’d get in A LOT of trouble from his family for doing!

Guarding my door

Being a big sook!

By Thursday I had settled back into work and was getting excited about the community WSP workshops that I’ll be helping facilitate in a few weeks. I waltzed into my office at 9am ready to start another work day. I noticed that the cleaner had knocked over the power board next to my desk, so I reached down to flip it over.

Unfortunately I forgot that one of the sockets on the power board is broken, so has no plastic cover, and is exposed metal. I also didn’t think about the fact that the power was still switched on at the wall. So, on turning the board over I managed to stick two fingers INTO the socket.

An hour later and still shaking and nauseous, I sheepishly told my colleagues what had happened and was taken to the Emergency Department of Bharatpur Public Hospital…

Emergency Department, Bharatpur Hospital

I’m glad that I was well enough to have my senses about me, because it would have been a very scary experience otherwise. Five or six people were standing over me on the bed (I’d been forced to lie down) talking rapidly to each other in Nepali, such that I couldn’t tell whether it was positive or negative. They took my blood pressure and pulse, made a few gestures of ‘boom boom’ to their chests (my heart was pounding strongly?), and told Ambika and Kopila (my colleagues) to take me home. But then I had an exam from another doctor who said that the nausea and shaking were probably just general shock, but that I should have an ECG and blood tests just to be sure.

So I ended up spending four hours at the hospital; what an experience. I don’t think the nurses who did my ECG knew what they were doing, and Ambika ended up helping them out. I had my blood taken (with a clean needle, before anyone freaks out!) in the foyer of the lab building. I saw a girl with a leg cast up to her hip being taken home on the back of a motorcycle. I visited Ambika’s cousin’s colleague who had been admitted to a ward with suspected malaria. And I watched and listened sadly as multiple women of all ages were brought into ED having tried to poison themselves.

This day was not the highlight of my time here, but it was certainly eye-opening. The fact that half of the admissions to the ED were female suicide attempts (and most of the others sick children) really reminded me of the hidden side to this beautiful country, of the high rates of domestic violence and the stigma of women as second class citizens.

On a brighter note, my ECG and blood tests came back fine, and I was sent home to bed. I endured lots of questions the following day from work colleagues, which ranged from concerned to openly bemused at my stupidity. They did change my power board straight away though, and I’m considering holding some Think Safe SAM workshops for the office- though I'm the one who probablt needs to learn how to Spot the Hazard, Assess the Risk and Make the Changes...

On Sunday morning, it turned out to work in my favour that Kahloo was sleeping outside my door- a mixture of his barking and my bed shaking woke me up to realise we were experiencing an earthquake. Eeeek! However, luckily it was minor in Bharatpur, and didn’t seem to do damage elsewhere in the country, so we can continue to lay in wait for ‘the big one’ that is predicted to topple Kathmandu- a horrible thought.

This morning I woke up late and rushed to work without looking in the mirror. I couldn’t open my eyes properly and assumed I was still half asleep when I got in. However, Ambika pointed out that my face was swollen, and on inspection in the work toilets, I have a mosquito bite on my eyelid which is stopping me from opening my left eye. Aww man.

You can call me Disaster Zone Dani. Don’t come too close, it might rub off on you.