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毫巴。。。大家一定要的花。。我就发吧。。大多数都是iphone上快速打的。。。 语法拼写， 就不要批了。。。哈哈哈
第一片。。
Hi there , I was writing Julian an massive email and
I thought I can forward this to you too, so you know what I am up to. Some of the minor details could be inaccurate. I am trying to keep my story as detailed as I can.
It was a hot day when I arrived. Hot and dusty. I had to line up with a few other tourists to get the tourist visa. While I was lining up, an official looking guy was trying to sell me tours and offer to buy me dinner one night. I politely took his card but never called.
When I arrived, the guy in charge of the clinic, Mark, the paedodontist and our guide Karma picked us up. He gave me a kata. It's a white scarf for the guest. And they dropped us off at the shechen guest house which is part of the shechen monastery. There are mainly foreigners living in the guest house. Some travelers, some are here to study Buddhism, some are here for retreat. Our neighbor is a hollywood producer. There is a vegetarian restaurant in the guest house. they have an extensive menu. Tea, coffee, cakes, pasta, pizza, hash-brown ( healthier than the american version), veg curry, fake meat curry, fried noodles, noodle soup, muesli with yogurt, list goes on. the tibetan monks here do puja morning and night in the temple, it's quite a scene. The monks are very high tech, most of them own a mobile phone, and a few of them own laptops and iPads!!!
My guesthouse is close to boudhanath stupa. It's a sacred place for buddhists. I have been a bit jet lagged and waking up at 4-5 am. I had a few walks around the stupa in the morning, lots of local pilgrims came in the morning and walk clockwise around the stupa and pray. They chant as they walk past, holding their prayer beads. Some of them also leave offerings at the temple such as rice, flowers, oil lamp and money. You can also buy some grains to feed the pigeons. There are millions of them at the stupa. Early morning is the best with minimal tourists and maximum pilgrims. Great atmosphere. On my first day here there was a temang buddists festival on. It was packed, people dancing, lots if vendors selling food and offerings. You have to line up to get on to the stupa, and you have to line up to come down as well.
In Nepal, most Hindu hand buddhists can pray at the same temple, occasionally there are a few Hindu temples that only Hindus are allowed.
Second morning, I woke up super early, and went to the swayambhumath, the monkey temple. I took a taxi, my guide book said always put the metre on or negotiate the price. The taxi driver said 500 rupees, I said metre. When we got there, there was the second part of the temang festival on in swayambhumath, which I didn't know. It was packed, roads were blocked by the army, he had to do a few detours, in the end costing me 700 rupees. I think I will negotiate my price from now on, at least in Kathmandu. The taxi Was hell of the ride. Had to dodge people, incoming cars, hundreds of sleeping dogs on the street, wandering sacred cows, goats... Was feeling a bit motion sickness at the beginning and the dusty air from the window was not helping much. Many locals wear mask walking around the street. I was trying to start a conversation with the driver, but very difficult with limited English. When I got there, there were thousands of people, street vendors, pilgrims coming with their offerings. Priests sitting by the big stairway giving people blessings. Lots of the street food and fruits looked really yummy, but I did not try any not knowing the closest clean toilets are. I was getting really tired walking up the stairs wedged in thousands of people. Suddenly a sadhu popped out, sprinkled some orange flower pedals on my hair and red tika on my forehead and said it will bring me good luck. Then said 200 rupees. Not knowing the market price, and I did not want to cause a stampede, I quickly gave him the money and moved on. later on I found out a photo with sadhu, 50 rupee is plenty. But I did get a tika, some pedals and bleeding, so could be a bargain if the blessing was good. There are a few temples up there and of course monkeys. Very cute.there was a Stupid up there as well. I was pretty much wedged in and went with the flow. People throwing rice and flower pedals everywhere. Women were really very colorful saris. Everyone was chanting. It was a feast of sound and colours. The temple is high up there, you can see part of the Kathmandu valley from there. Unfortunately, can't see much because of the pollution. When I came back, I got a different taxi. This time we agreed on 500 rupees, the ride seems to be quicker due to improved traffic. He had a picture of dalai lama hanging in front and lots of beautiful orange flowers on the dashboard. He comes from a town which is two hours away. And he taught me how to say thank you in Nepalese.
Diesel are very expensive here ( similar prices to Australia, but the local income is much much lower ), and there is a shortage of fuel, people have to line up 4-6 hours, sometimes a whole day to get some. On the way back, I saw hundreds of buses lining up for diesel.
After I come back, I met our guide's wife Sonam. Btw they are both Sherpa people. She is an amazing woman. She started this non profits organization called the small world. She helps local women in the Himalayan region save up small amount of money each year and buy a sewing machine, when their children reach school ages, they can make their school uniforms. Lots of girls miss out school because parents only had enough money for the boys uniform. Lots of girls get sold into slavery or prostitution here or overseas. Sonam is trying to retain more girls in school, and get them educated, improve inequality. She had a 16 month old boy herself, and she is always busy organizing things. She comes to clinic every day to help out as well. Her organization got a Facebook page if you are interested.
Next day, more people arrived. My roommate, clarissa from new Mexico ( dentist ), Katherine an Chinese girl from uk ( dentist ). Jess from washington state (hygienist ), Kristen from Atlanta (hygienist), Doug from Ohio (paedodontist) , Wes from Canada (professional fishman) , antja from Germany ( lawyer), mihela (hygienist) and cristian ( non dental) from California and mark from California (paedodontist).
At dinner, Mark told us the story of his friend who used to volunteer in Nepal. This is the first year he work here without him. He got killed by Taliban along other 5-6 ( maybe 9) eye doctors last year near Kabul. they were traveling on this mini van,they told their security guard that they should be fine, so the security guy left. They picked up a hitch hiker and later on they got ambushed by talibans. They got prosecuted one by one because they found bibles on the car. The van driver got to live to tell the tale because he was reciting Koran all the way through. Pretty crazy.
Later that day, We went to the pashpatinath to see cremations and had more photos with the sadhus. I only paid 50 rupees this time and they were happy. We were taken to durbar square and we went to the patan museum. there were lots of amazing wood carvings around the temples, and interesting statues in the museum. We went to the Shree Mangal Dvip school. It is founded by thrangu rinpoche for himalayan children. (www.himalayanchildren.org,www.smdhimalayankidspage.org ). The school is fully funded by foreigners. Kids age range between 4 and 20 live and study here. Some are orphans, some are from Himalayan regions which takes days to walk to ( yes, no bus or flight). They have boys and girls dorms. Mixed ages in one dorm, the older ones take care of the younger ones like big brother and sisters. And in play yard they all play together. Most of our dental assistants are year 10-12 students. They speak very good English and they are great at their job.
My first assistant is Wangchuk, he is a Tibetan monk. He goes to medical school to study general medicine during the day and comes back to stay at the school at night.he also goes back to his own monastery to study dhama. He has been a monk and living at this school since he was seven. His home is five days trek away. He didn't go home for nearly 11 years, and he went back for two weeks last year. His home is next to the Tibetan border, stunning views. His older brother and sister are illiterate and are married with kids, they are farmers and keep yaks at home. His three younger siblings are at school. One of them is a nun, I think she is 13-14 years old, not sure. Wangchuk's mother died 7 years ago when she was 39 years old. He was not told until a few months later because his family didn't want him to get distracted during exam time. He went back later to investigate the death of his mother. He think it's some form of hepatitis because she had jaundice when she died. They didn't have doctors where they live, they only have priests from local monastery.
Another assistant I had was called Tashi Dolma, she is 18 years old. She has four sisters in the school as well. She is studying very hard in her final year, hoping to get a scholarship in canada in September. She is a very good assistant and makes work a bit easier. Her hometown is one day walk from wangchuk's place, and she goes home every 1-2 years.
Pema is 16 years old, she just started learning dental assisting, she was not familiar with many instruments but she is a fast learner. She has 5-6 siblings as well and one of her sister is studying in Canada right now on scholarship. She lived in the same village as Tashi.
These three kids were just part of the school volunteer assistants. The clinic runs 2-3 times a year, and 6 days each. There are 20 kids working. What happens is different schools bring kids in on different day, the first few assistants will show them how to brush properly and hand out a toothbrush. Then they will go to the first dentist for a quick check up. Then if they need fillings, they will be numbed up straight away and send to the bench to wait for his/her turn, their check up instrument and notes will be lining up on a dentist's bench, if they need clean, it will be on a hygienist bench. It's very efficient, we see 100-170 patients a day, on average we do 80-100 fillings a day between 3 dentists. The patients are very good with injections in general. A few nuns spoked a bit.
At this moment, there is a big ten day puja going on at school as well. From 6 am to 6 pm. The monks and nuns are praying for the world peace. It's interesting to hear people chanting, playing music instruments and drums while drilling teeth.
After three days of clinic, we went sightseeing for a day as well. Then we went to bhakatapur, and saw lots of wood carvings and more temples. After that we did a bit shopping in thamel. It's a crazy tourist place with lots of shops.
The food and drinks have been very good. I love the curry, Tibetan noodle soup and momos. Had a couple of everest beer as well. Banana lassi is beautiful. I haven't been sick at all, I guess I have a strong Chinese stomach.
We only have electricity 8 hours a day. It's not very convenient but enough for charging phones and cameras. There is free wifi where we stay as well. It's not very stable, and it's really hard to write a long email as well. But once I started this morning, I couldn't stop. Tonight we are going to a dance/dinner, I am wearing my new green/red Salwar kameez. Tomorrow is the last day of clinic, and we will have dinner with our assistants tomorrow night.
Anna is coming on 29th, and then we are going trekking to the everest base camp. I will try to keep you updated. Sorry about any grammar or spelling mistakes. I am typing this up very very quickly.
Love
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再参加活动:邪恶之美——<白夜行> (2011-8-14) DarkDragon 
发表于 2011-6-26 19:18
发表于 2011-6-26 19:48
