Earthquakes, Nepal, and Hospital Care
Earthquakes, Nepal, and Hospital Care
Each unit has a water purifier mounted on the wall, which plays a twinkly tune when water is flowing through it. There is only one water pitcher, which is shared by all the staff, refilled from the purifier (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Refilling the shared water pitcher from the water purification device. Image courtesy of Joe Niemczura
There are no paper cups. All the Nepalis are experts at drinking straight from the pitcher without actually touching their lips to it. If a person's lips touch the pitcher, they break the rules of caste. The first 10 times I tried this, I spilled water all over my scrub shirt.
Brahmins will only eat food prepared by other Brahmins. In the hospital neighborhood, there are more than a dozen small hotels, and each has a kitchen. These hotels cater to the families of patients, because many travel great distances to get to Mission Hospital. The family will stay in a nearby hotel appropriate to their caste, and they rely on the hotel staff to make rice and lentil soup, the daily staple of all Nepalis. At 10:00 AM and again at 6:00 PM, there is a parade of families bringing dal bhaat to patients on covered stainless steel plates.
The hospital does not provide food for the adult patients, unless they need a supplement, in which case they get sarbotham pitto (a special fortified porridge fed to patients at risk for malnutrition). This is made from grains with some vitamins added, and the staff would cook it over an open gas flame every morning. The smell of porridge now makes me think of mornings at the hospital, a sort of olfactory hallucination.
When I ate at the canteen at the school of nursing, I enjoyed looking through the window to see the dozen or so goats owned by the school. The kitchen staff each takes a turn at watching the goats, and every now and again a goat ends up in the curry as the main ingredient.
There is a hotel-wallah at each hotel—a sort of "fixer" person. Patients who come from a small village need one of these fixer men to help them. These men accompany the family members to the hospital and sometimes help the chaplains or the doctors with various tasks. The hotel neighborhood near the hospital was given the name "Shantytown" many years ago, but then the Nepalis adopted the same name, because shanti means "peace" in Nepali (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Shantytown neighborhood near the hospital. Image courtesy of Joe Niemczura
More Things We Take for Granted in US Hospitals
Water Sanitation
Each unit has a water purifier mounted on the wall, which plays a twinkly tune when water is flowing through it. There is only one water pitcher, which is shared by all the staff, refilled from the purifier (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Refilling the shared water pitcher from the water purification device. Image courtesy of Joe Niemczura
There are no paper cups. All the Nepalis are experts at drinking straight from the pitcher without actually touching their lips to it. If a person's lips touch the pitcher, they break the rules of caste. The first 10 times I tried this, I spilled water all over my scrub shirt.
Hospital Food
Brahmins will only eat food prepared by other Brahmins. In the hospital neighborhood, there are more than a dozen small hotels, and each has a kitchen. These hotels cater to the families of patients, because many travel great distances to get to Mission Hospital. The family will stay in a nearby hotel appropriate to their caste, and they rely on the hotel staff to make rice and lentil soup, the daily staple of all Nepalis. At 10:00 AM and again at 6:00 PM, there is a parade of families bringing dal bhaat to patients on covered stainless steel plates.
The hospital does not provide food for the adult patients, unless they need a supplement, in which case they get sarbotham pitto (a special fortified porridge fed to patients at risk for malnutrition). This is made from grains with some vitamins added, and the staff would cook it over an open gas flame every morning. The smell of porridge now makes me think of mornings at the hospital, a sort of olfactory hallucination.
When I ate at the canteen at the school of nursing, I enjoyed looking through the window to see the dozen or so goats owned by the school. The kitchen staff each takes a turn at watching the goats, and every now and again a goat ends up in the curry as the main ingredient.
Shantytown
There is a hotel-wallah at each hotel—a sort of "fixer" person. Patients who come from a small village need one of these fixer men to help them. These men accompany the family members to the hospital and sometimes help the chaplains or the doctors with various tasks. The hotel neighborhood near the hospital was given the name "Shantytown" many years ago, but then the Nepalis adopted the same name, because shanti means "peace" in Nepali (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Shantytown neighborhood near the hospital. Image courtesy of Joe Niemczura