Images from an Eye Hospital

Since I know you're all dying to know about the underwear situation, I'll tell you now so that you can read the rest of the post in peace -- he is still missing his baggage. Which means he is still operating with one set of underwear. And somehow he is okay with it. Kuddos to him! And so disgusting...

Tyler is halfway done in Lahan and is loving the experience. Here are some highlights:

He got to spend a day in the pediatric unit. About the experience, he said, "Spent part of of the day in pediatrics and the optical department. I got a little emotional with some of the little ones initially." Since Tyler is not usually an emotional person, I had to ask him to define "emotional." His reply: "Just felt a swelling of emotion and care for them and how difficult it must be for them, especially when they are facing partial blindness so young."

The Hospital

Lahan, Nepal

Mosquitoes love him! Here's to not getting malaria!

 Other items of note:

*His bed is as stiff as a board, but he is sleeping surprisingly well

*He has a little URI (upper respiratory infection)

*There are two lizards living his room. I have asked for pictures, but they scamper off when he attempts to capture proof that they exist. On his day off I texted him and asked him what he was doing. He said he was hanging out in his room with his friends the lizards. He needs his wife back.

*He says that it's not polluted where he is, but in Kathmandu it was.

*He's had a little diarrhea, but not the expected torrential storm we were prepared for (TMI??)

*There are blackouts, but the hospital has a backup generator which comes on fairly quickly.

*Food Update: He says it's still good, but repetitive. There is always rice, sometimes tortillas. Often potatoes and broccoli and beans. Sometimes meat. He ate a couple of pieces of chicken at one meal, but besides that has still steered away from it. He is missing fruit. For breakfast it is whatever they make -- usually toast and a hard boiled egg

*It rained a TON one day. It's been fairly warm. Mid to upper 70s. But he says that if anything, he's been a little chilled, never hot (lucky for his underwear, he points out...)

*The past few nights have been karaoke. About the unforgettable experience, he writes, "Some woman picks up a mic with really loud speakers and sings and talks for most of the night. And when I say loud, I mean reverberating across the whole hospital campus. It is coming from outside the campus but it sounds like it could be just a few doors down. Dr. Hennig (the  German doctor) even brought it up at the morning staff meeting. He said he couldn't block it out no matter how hard he tried. I woke up at 3am the other day it was still going." (We were able to Face Time for a second the other day before the internet proved too exasperating, and I could hear it. Bizarre.)

*He plans to try to attend church in Kathmandu on Saturday if he makes it on time. There is a small branch that meets there, but it is nothing official. So he is trying to hunt down the information to locate them. He emailed the guy from "Meet the Mormons" to ask about it. He's the branch president.

*He spent part of his day off watching the cricket World Cup. At the time I was texting him, India was playing South Africa. He had the guys he was watching it with explain how cricket worked. The rest of his day was spent showering, shaving, cleaning his room, reading up on Nepal's history with the Mormon church, and eating Thai Chicken with the Hennigs at their apartment. The Hennigs told him the story of what brought them to Nepal. Dr. Hennig has a father and grandfather who were ophthalmologists and traveling was in their blood. Dr. Hennig went to Pakistan near the end of his residency and worked for three months with an American doctor who basically did what they have done in Nepal -- lived and worked at a hospital he set up for over 30 years. For part of the time in Nepal, Dr. Hennig did administrative work for the NGO that sponsored the hospital (CBM or Christian Blindness Mission).

*I asked him about his feelings of doing medical work internationally so far. He said he was loving it. "It's fun to interact with the doctors and assistants. Dr. Hennig gave a lecture the last three nights that was basically about sustainable development of an eye hospital and meeting the needs of the people in the area." He is trying to think of how to be internationally involved himself in the future, but struggles to see a direct need for cardiologists. He is stressing out a little bit now about what to do with his career! Oh the drama...

To be continued...Namaste.