Starting Week 3 in Tansen

We have suddenly found ourselves flashed forward into the year 2066 and it's only the 7th month in Nepal! Having now settled ourselves into our little "flat" we're getting slightly more accustomed to life in Tansen.

Tansen is a beautiful town situated at the top of a mountain. To the north, we wake up every morning with the sun rising over the Dhaulagiri-Annapurna-Manaslu Himalayan Ranges towering in the distance! There are lots of mountains, trees and greenery (as it's just after the monsoon season). The goats, buffaloes and chickens roam freely around the streets eating whatever they please, while people keep their vegetable gardens in tip top condition. The roads are full of noise and people as they haggle to buy their wares and supplies from tiny little stores!

Both Matt and I have been fairly unwell, with unsettled stomachs and the rest. We've had to take a couple of days off at the hospital but after medication and a whole lot of bananas and yoghurt we're on the mend. Matt thankfully has regained his full appetite, though I am still feeling the small after effects of the bug.

It's been an interesting time since we've arrived. I've enjoyed my time in the dental department. The care they provide here is first class, where they do lots of root canal to conserve and preserve people's teeth. Even the chairs are newer than the ones that I work with in the ADH! It's amazing the money and equipment that gets donated and then gets put to such good use. I have had a hard time reconciling the constant reuse of what usually is single use items back home, but it makes sense to here, where equipment is so expensive that cleaning and sterilizing these things is a better use of them. The language barrier is what I feel most keenly. Back home I can find out subtly what my patients backgrounds are to help tailor make my treatment work for them… Here I constantly feel like I'm just drilling and filling holes in teeth and hoping my limited Nepali is helping form some sort of bond with my patient.

We'll hopefully let you all know more about what we experience daily in the coming days and Matt will let you know about his time in the hospital. We can't believe that there's only 3 weeks left til we start our journey back home!