Arrival in Tansen

After three days in Kathmandu, I have finally arrived in Tansen, where I will spend the next two months working at the Tansen Mission Hospital. The trip from Kathmandu was made in the Tansen Hospital bus or "Buck" (so named because it serves as bus for passengers and truck for supplies), which makes a weekly roundtrip journey between Kathmandu and Tansen. The entire trip took approximately 10 hours, including one stop for repairs and several stops to negotiate our way through roadblocks.

Shortly after starting out, we received a phone call from the medical director of Tansen Hospital informing us of reports of blockades along the main Nepali highway. Demonstrations of political and economic discontent continue to plague the country, especially in rural areas. Our bus driver was not at all daunted by the prospect of blockades. Fortunately, he was quite good at talking our way through these obstacles by insisting that we were carrying important supplies that had to make it to the hospital that day. In fact, we were carrying rabies vaccine for a boy in Tansen who had been bitten by a rabid dog. So in the end, the roadblocks didn't slow us up at all.

However, we did stop for an hour or so to make repair to the bus. This gave me a chance to talk to one of our Nepali passengers, Sumi, a young Hindu woman who lives in Tansen but is studying health education in Kathmandu. She taught me some Nepali phrases (What is your name? My name is Pam...) and shared her Ramen noodles with me. She lives close to the hospital, so hopefully I will see her often.

Travel to Tansen

The rest of the trip was uneventful, save for the oppressive heat during the middle portion of the trip. The road took us through some of the lower areas of Nepal near the Indian border. Closer to Tansen, the terrain is more mountainous with stunning views of lush hillsides, terraced rice paddies, and Monsoon-swollen rivers (see photo album). The best treat of all was to get a glimpse of Himalayan peaks rising out of the clouds behind Tansen's green hills. What a glorious welcome!