tough, young men were chosen for the trip to the small village of galem in syangja, nepal.
tough and young because the journey was arduous, and men because the journey was arduous (this sexist bias was the department of community medicine's doing, not mine).
challenge #1 : getting up early in the morning, before the usual time, to leave the college by 7.30am.
challenge #2 : having a quick breakfast before leaving and packing something for the trip, which could last the whole day!
challenge #3 : surviving the winding roads up and down the hills. sitting all cramped up in the tiny back seats of mahindra for 2 hours with a bad bout of nausea.
challenge #4 : trekking up the path, extremely narrow at some parts for an hour plus.

prashanna standing for the picture at a turn on our trekking path to galem village, where a medical camp was organised.

a particularly picturesque spot on the way. a lot of pics were taken here.

we reached the village school all sweaty and sticky. but the pleasant welcome was quite unexpected.
dr. milan is in the picture, an MO from the ER.

all the children were lined up patiently waiting for our arrival. we had a team of 6 doctors from manipal (including 3 interns, and 3 doctors) and a group of people working for GONESA (which is an NGO) who arranged and sponsored the trip.

the garland welcome :)

maoist? :P

how cute is that ?! :) its been so long since i saw kids lining up like in kindergarten!!

an amazingly beautiful setting for the school but very inaccessible !

the path looked like this, a brilliant red colour.
overall, it seemed more of a formality than actually helping out the people. because half the guys who went were not interested, and were reluctant in the first place. i was disappointed because i couldnt take much part myself in the examining and clerking the patients as i was unable to express myself in the nepali language well enough to get through to the patients. so i simply joined team with another guy and watched him do the work, meanwhile trying to check a few kids myself.
the lunch we had was pretty good though. was worried that i ate too much and might have to go poop sometime on the way . lucky enough it didnt happen.
the main time spent was the journey! 3-4 hours one way! we reached home by 7.30pm! 12 hours out! and there was no telephone network!!
but it was lovely to see the villagers all happy and pleased to see us visit! we got nice tokens of appreciation (a hand woven bag) in the end.
the only thing i missed was my earphones, which due to the hurry i forgot to pack. if only i had those the journey would have been really enjoyable.