Monday, October 31, 2011

Logistical challenges

The good news is that we're both in Nepal and so is all of our luggage and equipment. The bad news is that Patricia and I have been separated for a day and our stuff is spread over 3 cities and towns. The high point was making it to Kathmandu with our bags and medical gear. The first complication was the Nepali medical society's requirement that all of the physicians leave the airport to go meet with them before allowing to practice in Nepal. This meant that the docs would miss our flight to Pokhara and have to spend the night in Kathmandu. OK so far. I took the medical boxes and my bag and headed for the flight to Pokhara. When I got to Pokhara we found that Buddha Air had left about a third of our bags behind since the plane got full. This of course included all of my stuff. 40 hours of travel and I'm stuck in the same clothes :-(.

This morning several us were up early to head up to Jomsom in the Mustang valley. Weather delayed the flight and of course now Yeti Air decided to leave a few more bags behind so more of us were without luggage. Patricia's flight was delayed so now the earliest she will get to Jomsom will be tomorrow morning and who knows how many of the bags will make it.

We started working at the hospital today (really a small clinic). It's been hard to get much productive work done with so many key people and supplies missing.

On the plus side - Jomsom is right next to Nilgiri I which is a little over 23,000 ft. Wow! I will see if I can get a few pics uploaded.

To be continued....