Yesterday morning Josh and I left Chisang Clinic for the final time. Time seems to have moved very strangely during the five weeks we were there - at times the days felt very long when there was little happening but equally at the end of each week the time seemed to have slipped by quite quickly.
Nepali goodbyes are not quite like English goodbyes, there is much less emotion and hanging around. This may partly be because they are more used to long seperations than people in England. As far as I am aware the girls only see their families once or twice a year, despite some of them living within a couple of hours of the clinic.
It was, however, very sad to leave. It may have been a bit of a shaky start but the girls were absolutely wonderful, crazy but wonderful. Debendra had told us the girls were a lively lot which, to start with, didn't really show. However, once we got to know them the girls proved this statement to be incredibly accurate and they were the polar opposite of dull - even if we didn't always understand exactly what was going on!
Admittedly it would have been nice to see a few more patients but seeing how the healthcare system works in a totally different setting is an important part of an elective and Chisang Clinic proved to have many differences to what I have experienced at home.
The first obvious difference is the huge reduction in choice of medications. At home there are multiple antibiotics and seemingly hundreds of anti-hypertensives to choose from. Here the choice was a lot less which, I have to admit, makes it easier for someone who's pharmacology needs some work!
Another very apparent difference for me was the lack of privacy for the patients. At home you would never expect to give your medical history in front of anyone except the healthcare peofessional and your family. Here, the history was told in front of whoever happened to be in the clinic at the time. I think this reflects the cultural differences as much as the medical ones as there is less privacy here, mostly out of necessity. Houses are smaller and there are many people to a room so you are not going to have the luxury of mich privacy. However, I did wonder whether people are put off from visiting Chisang because of this but it is impossible to tell without knowing the community better and being able to speak directly to the villagers.
Many of the patients at the clinic were the same worried parents that you find in any GP surgery in England who want to ensure the cough or temperature their child has is not serious. The vast majority are not and just need reassurance and some calpol. This is where Chisang can really make a difference as it is a not-for-peodit organisation and so do not charge examination fees or make a profit on medication. This allows these parents to be able to afford to get medical advice for something that they may be very worried about, even if it is not life threatening. Even though a lot of the cases may not be very challenging it can make a huge difference in this community and the girls do a fantastic job.
Whilst living in Chisang I saw a whole new side of Nepal that was very different to my time in Gorkha. In large part because we were living in a Nepali's house and so we had no choice but to fully immerse ourselves in the culture, which was brilliant. I am going to miss the girls a lot and it's a very odd and also very sad to know that, after living with someone for five weeks, we will probably never see them again.
Nepali goodbyes are not quite like English goodbyes, there is much less emotion and hanging around. This may partly be because they are more used to long seperations than people in England. As far as I am aware the girls only see their families once or twice a year, despite some of them living within a couple of hours of the clinic.
It was, however, very sad to leave. It may have been a bit of a shaky start but the girls were absolutely wonderful, crazy but wonderful. Debendra had told us the girls were a lively lot which, to start with, didn't really show. However, once we got to know them the girls proved this statement to be incredibly accurate and they were the polar opposite of dull - even if we didn't always understand exactly what was going on!
Admittedly it would have been nice to see a few more patients but seeing how the healthcare system works in a totally different setting is an important part of an elective and Chisang Clinic proved to have many differences to what I have experienced at home.
The first obvious difference is the huge reduction in choice of medications. At home there are multiple antibiotics and seemingly hundreds of anti-hypertensives to choose from. Here the choice was a lot less which, I have to admit, makes it easier for someone who's pharmacology needs some work!
Another very apparent difference for me was the lack of privacy for the patients. At home you would never expect to give your medical history in front of anyone except the healthcare peofessional and your family. Here, the history was told in front of whoever happened to be in the clinic at the time. I think this reflects the cultural differences as much as the medical ones as there is less privacy here, mostly out of necessity. Houses are smaller and there are many people to a room so you are not going to have the luxury of mich privacy. However, I did wonder whether people are put off from visiting Chisang because of this but it is impossible to tell without knowing the community better and being able to speak directly to the villagers.
Many of the patients at the clinic were the same worried parents that you find in any GP surgery in England who want to ensure the cough or temperature their child has is not serious. The vast majority are not and just need reassurance and some calpol. This is where Chisang can really make a difference as it is a not-for-peodit organisation and so do not charge examination fees or make a profit on medication. This allows these parents to be able to afford to get medical advice for something that they may be very worried about, even if it is not life threatening. Even though a lot of the cases may not be very challenging it can make a huge difference in this community and the girls do a fantastic job.
Whilst living in Chisang I saw a whole new side of Nepal that was very different to my time in Gorkha. In large part because we were living in a Nepali's house and so we had no choice but to fully immerse ourselves in the culture, which was brilliant. I am going to miss the girls a lot and it's a very odd and also very sad to know that, after living with someone for five weeks, we will probably never see them again.
No comments:
Post a Comment