Just another day in Chapagaun

Our Nepali home is in Chapagaun, a small village in the district of Lalitpur in the Kathmandu Valley, where we are staying with the Prajapati family.  Ram, the father, is the director of the Primary Health Care and Resource Center (PRHRC), where we are working 6 days a week.  Rupa, the mother, is a scrub nurse in Patan, the closest city.  Both Ram and Rupa work long hours, so it is nice that Ram's mother and father also live in the house to help take care of Samyak (14 yo) and Swoyam (8 yo). We call them Grandma and Grandpa, on our first day Samyak informed me that we didn't need to know their names, as he didn't even know their names.

Our Nepali family

Our Nepali home

Lucky for us, the family has two extra bedrooms, which we have happily inhabited. Morgan and I share a room on the first floor, and Pav is living in luxury upstairs with a room to herself. The house has two bathrooms, which is good when there are 9 people waiting in line to pee in the morning.

Our Nepali brothers, Swoyam and Samyak

A typical day starts with the sounds of the boys wrestling around the house, and dogs barking.  We emerge from the cocoons of our sleeping bags (the temperature gets down in the 30s and 40s at night with no central heat!) and get dressed and ready for the day.  We are greeted each morning by either Grandma or Rupa bearing chiyaa (Nepali tea, which is kind of like Indian Chai--black tea with milk, sugar, and spices).  Morgan and I have taken a particular liking to chiyaa which is good because it's a major part of the Nepali day.  After chiyaa it's time for the national meal of Nepal, dahl bhaat-- curry and rice.  Nepalis eat dahl bhaat for their two major meals of the day, morning and night. It took us Americans, used to coffee and cereal, some time to get used to such a heavy meal in the morning, but we learned to love it. (We also quickly learned how to say in Nepali "a little bit"-- ali ali--, and "full"-- pukhyo!)

After breakfast, we walk to the clinic, which takes about 10 minutes, and if it's a clear day offers an amazing view of the Himalayas.

View on the walk to clinic

Clinic starts with a 9am conference, which is basically check out rounds from the night team, going over any admissions and ER visits overnight. Then we round with the clinic staff and doctor on any inpatients, then it's off to whatever duty we're on that day.  Clinic is usually slowish in the morning and we all stop for a daily chiyaa break around 11:00am.  After tea, the clinic usually picks up a bit, and business is pretty steady until our 2:00pm lunch break. There is a canteen at the clinic where we can buy tea and lunch, but full from our morning daal bhaat, we've taken to each enjoying one of the many granola bars we brought with us from the US.

Chiyaa break!

After lunch, the clinic is pretty dead. A few patients here or there, or some follow up labs, but mostly we just hang around and chat until 4pm when we're set free for the rest of the day.  In an attempt to get in shape for the mighty Bridge Run 10k in March, I decided that we should do daily hikes after clinic. So for most of the week Morgan and I, soon joined by our new Spanish friend Diego, and eventually Pav, made it a daily routine to hike to this temple on top of a huge hill every day after clinic. The hike is pretty chill, until you get to the stairs to the clinic. We'll just blame the altitude for the dyspnea that ensues as we climb to the top. We've been told that it is a fertility temple, and those who visit will become pregnant....I don't know about the other two, but I've got my fingers crossed that this prophecy is not fulfilled because I've walked to that temple damn near everyday...

Taking a break as we climb the temple stairs.
(I'm not sure you can tell from the picture, but I'm extremely out of breath)

After our hike, we are greeted at home by Grandma with...more chiyaa! Then it's time to sit and chat with the boys, read, or, if the power is on, watch Indian television.  Daal bhaat is served around 8pm, afterwards we're usually tired and cold enough to hop back into our sleeping bags, and hit the sack.

Grandma, the chiyaa master

And that's a typical day in Chapagaun