Touring Patan

For those of you who are interested, Patan is a small town that buds right up against Kathmandu, Nepal.

Phone

This morning I received a message from Toby that I need to get some yoga mats for sleeping purposes, so naturally I just added that to the list of ointment for the mosquito bites (don't get me started), and a phone that actually likes the Nepalese SIM card I bought yesterday. By the way, purchasing a sim card here is nothing short of a process I would liken to going to the BMV. You have to have a photo to attach to the form, which is similar to a passport photo. Then they need your passport information and your length of stay. FINALLY, they need my husband's full name and his grandfather's full name--whether they are alive or not. I thought Sarita was joking until she pointed to it on the form. Soooo....after running that drill, I have a SIM card that my American phone (that probably has Chinese parts) does not want to read. Luckily, a new phone here is a matter of a few American dollars.

Sarita's (I think I finally got that spelling right) brother took me all through the town of Patan and to get my phone this morning. It was about a 2 hour excursion on foot, but it was very beneficial to see the existing infrastructure and what was already underway for relief and recovery after the two earthquakes. Of course I had to stop and take pictures of the various temples we encountered along the way.

During that tour I spotted a shop selling fruit. I guess the word "banana" must be universal because Sarita's brother doesn't know a lot of English, but he knew what I meant when I said I wanted a banana. (Ha!) By the time it was all said and done, I had 12 bananas and I only paid 100 Rubles, which is literally pocket change in U.S. currency. I now have breakfast for the next few days if I do not return back to my room at Sanu House.

Damage

As you can see in some of the pictures below, there are a lot of crumbled dwellings--sadly this is just a glimpse and does not do the full extent of the damage justice. I also hope to post some videos later.

As we toured Patan, there were many locals out working to do manual cleanup. It gave me goosebumps to see these people doing much of the same labor I remember seeing depicted in photographs of the 9/11/2001 aftermath in New York City. I say this as an observation only, and not to liken the impact of this natural disaster to a terrorist attack. They are two totally different scenarios and I respect them both individually.

I just received an email from one of the physicains (Amit) that I am to meet up with later this afternoon. I will be walking to Patan Hospital to meet him so that we can discuss plans for the rest of the week. I also need to get those yoga mats to another one of the physicians I will encounter later on my journey.