Doctors for Nepal: On the road to Manma - From hell to heaven in 2h30hrs, by Christine Bottine, DFN Intern

Trekking through the hazy paddy fields

Tonight, we’re at the bottom of what to us seems to be the top of the world. We’ve been walking for three days now, thrown out of our silver car by a broken lorry, to bite the dust like everyone else in Nepal. And my lungs are suffering. I’ve developed a hearty cough, heaving and wheezing like the locals.

Welcome to shanty town Gite, our home for the night

Pollution, dust and fumes from wood ovens are not a good combination for my weak English lungs. Lalit has said I would survive if I was Nepali; it’s been 4 days now and I’m still on my feet. I do wonder however how long I would last were I Nepali. Everyone here seems to have a scathing, lung scratching, throat straining cough, otherwise called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) and a large majority of people in Nepal over 40 do end up dying from it.

Gite's high street, between sewers, rubbish and side street fires tended by toddlers

But for now, my focus is on Manma that we reach tomorrow. Tonight, we’re staying in Gite, a small shanty bazaar town at the bottom of the valley, stuck between the Karnali and the Seti rivers. In the midst of a cacophony of rickety tin boxes, we were shown to our “hotel”, an old goat shack, with rats for neighbours and toilets….anywhere and everywhere. We have been given a special deal by the landlord. For you, tonight, go anywhere you want he said. Made it sound like an exception but it seems to be the norm in Gite, where sanitation is invisible and the cliff rolling down to the river is a giant slide of a toilet, particularly perilous in the dark.

Anne and Chris' rat infested hobbit hole, mind the loo...

And like poor sanitation is appearing as a recurrent theme, so are hoards of children roaming the streets. In Gite, like in many other towns that we have been through, the presence of young children and even younger looking mothers is overwhelming. Kate has been half joking that we should be carrying out our Family Planning survey as we go along instead of limiting our remit to Kalikot. Even if notions about contraception and family planning do hang somewhere in people’s minds, it is clear that a very large family is the norm, putting enormous pressure on every family’s living conditions.

In Nepal, over 40% of the population is under 15 and growing. Gite is but another illustration of this, with children playing in the gutter, burning rubbish to stay warm and swarming in and out of their derelict tin houses, with their own pants for only latrine. Literally being in the same pants as them for one night has really shone light on our mission; helping men and women understand the importance of family planning to improve their welfare and development.

But there is a long way to go and with every step we take, an apparently overwhelming problem seems to appear. The relevance of our work is increasingly growing on us daily but it is clear that we are tackling a tiny drop in Nepal’s ocean…

So don't forget to donate to Doctors for Nepal, as the need is so great.
http://www.justgiving.com/doctorsfornepal

NEXT: