January 2005 Medical Outreach to Nepal

    Our first destination is always a visit to the two children’s homes to visit with all the wonderful children. The following morning we prepared for our domestic flight to the city of Nepalganj in west Nepal. Three groups of Kamaiya people were arranged to come to our medical camp over three days.
    The first day was the first time working in a foreign country for many of the team members. We had a tremendous day as we evaluated and treated over 600 people! Fun and games with the local children continued throughout the day.
After an exhausting first day we returned to our hotel (about an hour away) and had a great dinner and a time evaluating the days events. Then unexpectedly, we received a phone call came from a local community leader. He told us that there would most likely be military activity in the area where we had been working. He told us that the Army would be searching for rebels and that we should not hold our medical outreach at that location. A large number of the Kamaiya people would be coming in the morning desperately seeking medical care and help. Do we disappoint them? Each of us had peace about going on as planned and the team agreed to continue the next day. That evening it rained like a monsoon and we awoke to a thick fog in the morning. We traveled out to the medical camp site only to find hundreds waiting with their registration slips in hand! It was a huge day even as the fog covered us all day. There turned out to be no military problems. We continued all day with the camp having a blast with the kids. The medical team treated over 650 people! For our third day of work we arranged with a hospital about 15 km’s away to hold our medical camp at their location bringing all the Kamaiya to that location by bus.
After flying back to Kathmandu we spent three days with the all the kids at the Homes. We even took all the kids and staff to the local zoo! Some of the team members stayed back at the homes doing some much needed carpentry work and painting.
Our next and final three days we spent in a the town of Bhaktapur, east of Kathmandu. A small Assemblies of God church opened their doors to us and we set up our medical clinic right there in their church building. We had a tremendous trip in spite of difficulties with the weather, difficult travel and political uncertainties!