Wednesday, 26 September

Wednesday, Sept 26.  This is a late posting about activities. 

We had quite a day; after breakfast we headed to the Kathmandu Model Hospital, where our Nepali daughter Saraswoti works.  It is a private hospital and consequently most likely a step or two up in quality from the government-run ones.  Saraswoti had gotten there 30 minutes ahead of us to get permission for us (David and Marty T and Harry and Marty S) to have a tour, and quite a tour it was. We saw everything from the check-in area where, folks get a ticket for whatever department they need to visit to the various medical wards, ER, and more.

Saeaswoti proudly introduced us to her co-workers in each department, all of whom have fairly decent English skills because their training is in English.  Marty (T) also noticed a doctor at a computer writing up notes in English.

The hospital was clean, although the equipment was sometimes rusted and out of date.  There were a few private rooms, called cabins, on two floors, although the large majority of beds are in wards.  As in many parts of the world, patients' families bring meals. We were allowed to take photos nearly everywhere we went, which was in the emergency room, medical wards, PT, and so on.  Marty and Harry had many questions which Saraswoti addressed.

After our tour we then went to lunch, having a great pizza at Fire and Ice followed by ice cream and for Saraswoti her very first Chocolate mousse!  

We also visited the Nepal National Museum, which is on the other side of the river near Swayambhunath- (Monkey Temple).  This is a little cared-for museum that has some wonderful exhibits.  Unfortunately, there are some treasures which should be in climate controlled display cases but are unprotected and their certain decay is therefore guaranteed. The natural history building has a series of very large portraits of Nepali kings that are most interesting.  Those are intermingled with an extensive collections of weapons including punch-daggers, which are shorter bladed with a handle perpendicular to the blade and extensions that would most likely support the wrist.

All-in-all it was a great day with many new things seen.