And for the second time in as many days, you turned me away at the gates of your Indian Embassy. Please kind folks, all I want to do is submit myself to your VISA process, but your hours of operation are making Marty exceedingly frustrated!! It's definitely a special trip from my house on the fringes of Kathmandu into the craziness of the heart of the city where your compound is located, and despite my best attempts to conform to the hours of your consular service, I have been grossly unsuccessful. Apparently your embassy does not issue new VISAs on Sunday (when everybody else in the city is open for business). Who knew? Aarrgh.
On a similar note...
It's difficult to describe just how disparate the days can be here. You can have the absolute worst day imaginable, and the following day the world is full of rainbows and smiling faces. For example, last week I had a day where the only thing I successfully accomplished was taking the laundry I had hand-washed off the clothesline (and even then, the house dog, Lucky, had chewed a hole in my underwear). And then yesterday, the clouds parted to reveal a beautiful, blue afternoon sky as I made new friends with the landless, migrant community down by the river. The juxtaposition of extremes is confusing and draining. But hey, that's Nepal.
The organization I am volunteering with is preparing to receive a group of 15 from the United states in a few days time - which is by far the largest group the organization has ever entertained. Apparently the American crew is coming for the same reasons as myself; that is, to get a sense of the state of health of the average Nepali and to try to do something to raise quality of life. I'm sure the new recruits will be shocked to see just how poor the state of health is here in Nepal - from the subclinical on up to the most blatant case of leprosy, there is a lifetimes worth of work here for the ambitious healthcare provider.
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