March 12

We left Kathmandu bright and early in an effort to beat the traffic out of the city. The main road going south is under construction and is shut down every night between 10 pm and 6 am, so the traffic to get into Kathmandu in the morning is very bad. One of the doctors, Suvekshya, joined us for the ride to Sundar Bazaar. We stopped at Dhading Besi on our way to see a few of Medical Mercy Canada’s projects, including a women’s shelter and children’s village for orphans. The children’s village is very impressive—it offers a home to over 60 children.

So, after the bumpy road to Dhading Besi we were on to Sundar Bazaar. We dropped some bags off at the lodge where we were staying and took the next bumpy, dirt road to see the health post and start setting things up. The health post was in good shape, but needed some tables and chairs for the camp. We didn’t have time to unpack the medicine since our driver needed to go back to Kathmandu before the road shut down. By now it was around 5 pm.
The doctors all arrived in a van from Pokhara.  They were happy to meet us and loved the Project for a Village scrub tops we had made for them. After a short meeting to prepare for the health camp the next morning, we all ate dinner together in the very good restaurant in the lodge. Rene and I were given the nicest room, and we even had our own bathroom with a western toilet! It was a long, but very good day.