Travel Postcard

Check out the Global Daughter picture in the Seattle Times!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/travel2008583734/

This photo was taken in March 2009 on a trek in the Helumbu Region of Nepal. After 8 days of trekking, I met up with a group of cancer doctors from the sole cancer hospital in Chitwan, Nepal. They were in the village of Kakani administering pap smears, breast examinations and eye check-ups for women in surrounding villages. Women came from miles around on foot to experience this type of women-specific care for the first time.

The old woman in the photo was seated in that same place for hours. She did not get up, even for the free tea, and she did not talk to anyone. The younger girl administering the eye examination, is a nurse pracitioner from the hospital who volunteered her time to come out for the 2-day event.

You can't see in the picture, but a woman from behind had one eye covered to read the letters posted. The women were confused about the exam and couldn't understand the concept of checking vision. It was incredible to witness. After talking at length with the doctors, we ended up dining with them and listening to fascinating medical stories from their work in Nepal.

You can read more about the health camp in our previous post.

Janakpur in Pictures

Janakpur is Global Daughter's home. We started working in this village over a year ago and it is the last place I go before I return to the U.S. This place is full of life, color, history, culture and of course, beautiful women. I visited the Janakpur Arts and Crafts Center, but after thousands of pictures and several days, I thought to share pictures from Janakpur separately. Tourists rarely visit this place (12- hour bus ride from Kathmandu) but I think it is the gem of the country. We all connect to different places differently. The people here are family..I actually have people recognize me from our trip there a year ago! (I am sure the white hair has nothing to do with it!) When I am there, at the workshop or walking down the street with the ox carts and women dressed in the most intense and magical colors, I feel like I got the memo on life.

Cancer Society Nepal- Women's Health Camp

Eye Exams.


Waiting to get a pap smear.




Nothing says Cancer Society health camp like taking a smoke break!



This woman has advanced-stage cataract.


15 of the 75 women tested have mature stage cataract and will soon go blind. This woman's cataract was clearly seen with an old flashlight. I personally looked at both her eyes and what I saw was horrifing. She needs surgery immediately, but can not afford it, of course. A woman in the village- what to do? The main cause of high instances of cataract is smoke fires inside the home. The woman are at the fire cooking and cleaning most of the day.



Lung check-ups for the first time.


Incredible to witness.


Pap smear awareness poster.


Waiting...


Tamang and Llama woman after their tests. Results will be processed and the team will return to plan treatments and arrange care for the women.



Through the generations....


In a two-day health camp sponsored by the national organization, Cancer Society Nepal, eye doctors, gynecologists and cancer specialists visited the surrounding villages of Kakani, Helumbu Region. Women from over 12 villages walked to the Kakani secondary school to get free check-ups and medicine. Conducting eye exams, pap smears, breast examinations, and lung exams, doctors from the only cancer hospital in Chitwan, Nepal, came to the village to create health awareness and diagnose cataract, lung disease and cervical and breast cancer.


This was the first time in this region that pap smears (vaginal examinations) were administered. Women lined up to fill a questionnaire about their health history and their current health concerns. In a small grade 5 classroom, made of stone with a dirt floor, a gynecologist gave each woman a pap smear test and breast examination. The ages of the women ranged from 18-85. None had ever had an exam and most were nervous to step into the room.

It is, of course, suggested that a woman in America get her first cervical examination at the age of 18 or after her first sexual experience. Cervical cancer is the number one diagnosed cancer in the country, with lung cancer and breast cancer second and third, respectively. The chances of getting cervical cancer are very high in the villages due to factors such as, early-age sexual experiences (tied in with early childhood marriage) lack of cleanliness, early-age childbirth, high child/woman rates, and STDs (tied to the lack of condom use). Women cancer patients far exceed men in the country and like all other health care here, cancer treatments are not accessible and very expensive.


We spent the day at the health camp interacting with the women and doctors. Most all of them were illiterate and while answering questions before the tests, many did not even know their names or ages. It was incredible. In the village, age is not important and older women might not know when they were born or how old they were during their first sexual experience or pregnancy. It was an eye-opening experience. As women in America, we are very fortunate to have the facilities and means to stay healthy. Let's remember that....

Trekking in Helumbu

Me with Frank, the wonderboy. He is 6 and has trekked Annapurna Base Camp and was completing his second spin on the Helumbu trek!

Karate session with some boys on the way to school.

Filtering water with cheese cloth.

The things we carry.

'Pharmacy' in the village.

My new friend, Nanu.

Walking 5 miles straight up a ridge to get to school....and playing ball along the way!

Llama girls at a bonfire party in the village.

Blizzard and sunset in the Langtang Himalayan Range.

This woman was at the top of a tree in the middle of no where. How in the world did she even get up there?

The intestines and stomach of a recently sacrificed goat.

View from Tharepati after the blizzard.

Sherpini planting beans.

A 'tree' with pair yellow rain boots makes its way down the path.

After trekking Everest, Annapurna and Langtang, I had one more region of the top 4 to explore, Helumbu. This region is the closest trekking region to Kathmandu and home to Helumbu Sherpas. Differing from the Sherpas in the Everest Region, this group speaks different languages, follows different cultural practices and cultivates different crops. Although all 4 of the main trekking routes offer something special and fantastic, this trek must go down as my favorite. Simply because of the people. The Sherpas, Tamangs and Llamas that live in this region are very friendly, hospitable and extremely hard-working (especially the amazingly strong women, named 'Sherpinis'). Continually I was in awe of the women and girls carrying 50 Kgs sacks of rice, large bundles of leaves and fodder for animals and firewood. Me with my ski poles, fancy trekking boots and first aid kit had nothing on these women, sometimes shoeless in torn clothing with bloody fingers and aged faces.

When we were trekking through the village of Tarkegang, a woman with a basket on her back full of tree branches approached me. She pointed to the athletic tape on my fingers (to prevent blisters from the poles) and then showed me her fingers. They were bloody with blisters, open sores and callouses from cutting through the brush day after day.

I pulled out my first aid kit and taped all her fingers. I gave her the rest of the roll and she was extremely grateful. Yet another inspirational encounter with the women in this country- through there determination and toughness. Her work is done out of necessity. Her livelihood depends on carrying loads to feed her animals (her greatest possession) and tirelessly roaming the hills for resources to keep her and her family alive. It is her blood and her heart that lives in those hills- I just feel blessed to have walked on the same path.

This trek follows through small villages, through small living huts sometimes and traces steep-hill ridges. We did it in 5.5 days, instead of the suggested 8. That meant 6-7 hour days blazing up ridges 800 meters and down 1,600 meters on the same day. It was exhausting, beautiful, and everything a trek should be. On the trail, we were time and again taking care of by people who showed us the way (we had no guide) and let us into there homes to wait out hail storms, blizzards and down-pouring rain. It was a great farewell to Nepal and another examples of why I love this place, its people and its spirit.