Pediatricians in KTM

Health care is a much bigger concern for us now than it had been the first time we took jobs internationally.  We raved about Taiwan's health care, and while I wouldn't rave about Nepal's, we have found what we need to stay healthy, and in particular keeping Tegan healthy.  We've had Tegan (now 16 months old) in for a few trips to the doctor in Kathmandu now, including a well-check, routine childhood immunizations, an emergency visit after a fall and a "she seems sick and we're new parents so we'll take her just to make sure" visit.  Jeremiah and I have also been for regular vaccinations.  As I mentioned in my dentist post, CIWEC is the clinic in town that we and many other expats go to.  We've gone with appointments and without and have always been seen very quickly.  Right now there are two doctors that we've preferred, Dr. Will and a woman expat who I have forgotten her name.  Both were wonderful with Tegan, though both are GPs I believe.  For her well-check we saw the pediatrician Dr. Kishore who was also friendly and gave us good information to think about for vaccinations.  The clinic is clean and everyone takes the utmost care with keeping things sterile.  Overall we've been quite happy with it all.

Today in Kathmandu

We started the day with a stroll to work alongside this:

And ended the day patiently waiting for our strawberries to soak in iodine:

Heavy load

This is a common sight in Nepal, folks carrying ridiculously heavy items with their heads.  Gives me a headache just looking at them!

Celebrating cultural events for countries we've never been to

One of the great things about international teaching is that you are surrounded by a group of people who have lived all over the world, quite literally.  With them they bring history, cultures, food and stories (oh the stories) and it is in our travelling nature to share these amazing experiences with one another.  All too often we start our sentences with "When I was in...".

Today a group of women came together for Comadres - described as a day where "women gather with their best friends and partners-in-crime to acknowledge their common struggles and celebrate their shared victories, drink, dance, and generally remind themselves of how great it is that, despite everything else, they have each other."  What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and I am thankful to the women who have participated first hand who brought this celebration with them to Kathmandu (and thanks to Jeremiah who encouraged me to go after I gave a non-committal "eh" to going).

Shrove Tuesday

Growing up I lived in the same town as my grandparents and every Shrove Tuesday my grandma would invite us over for pancakes. Later, after I'd moved away, she would send emails reminding us it was coming up. Now that I'm so far ahead in time zones if she sends an email it's already too late. But this year our friend reminded us so today we had breakfast for dinner, and Tegan celebrated her first Shrove Tuesday.

Powdered sugar and orange juice for Jeremiah, peanut butter and syrup for me, plain for Tegan

Celebrating Chinese New Year

After celebrating Chinese New Year for the last 3 years, we wanted to do something for the occasion even though it's not celebrated here (though Tibetan New Year is I guess, next year we'll look into that).  

We started our day at Namo Buddha with mountains and "xīn nián kuài lè" (happy new year). Not a bad place to start your day!

When we got back home we did some stuff around the house that reminded us of Taiwan.  We had our New Years posters up, including the one from the year of the rabbit when Tegan was born.  We looked at some books we have in Chinese (this one is from Mo Willem's series Elephant and Piggy) and the book I made Tegan about being born and living in Taiwan.  We listened to a children's New Year song on YouTube and finally ended the day with a red envelope (I had to make out of Nepali paper because I forgot to bring them from the states with me, but the red fish paper was fitting I thought).

It all wasn't quite the same, and we missed amazing meals we've had with friends in the past (and I'm afraid to admit I in particular have been missing the cheesey 7-11 New Year characters and gimmicks - Hello Kitty anyone??) but we had a wonderful day none-the-less.

Happy year of the snake everyone!

Bringing some color to the world

It's been rainy and grey this week and yesterday on a walk to grab dinner with friends Tegan was the only spot of color around.  And she shared it with enthusiasm!

 

Temple on the hill

On a hike to Namo Buddha we walked through a large temple and I took a few pictures of the details.  It's hard for me to take in a whole temple at once, but snippets like this are easier to digest and appreciate.

Kathmandu zoo

Tegan's playgroup goes to the zoo once a week.  Awhile back we decided we should check it out too; while not as bad as I was expecting, it's nothing to write home about.  So why blog it then?  Because these birds were amazing and big (and I might add, not fenced in as we found out when they walked straight for us).

1905 farmers market

Our weekends have been shaping up nicely.  Since we have an in house alarm that rarely lets us sleep past 6:30, we are up and ready to make the most of our days off.  Saturday mornings we've been going to the restaurant 1905 for breakfast and the farmers market.  We stock up on cheeses, breads, meat and fresh fruit/veggies while running into half our co-workers and students' parents (I've never ran into so many people I know while out than we do in Kathmandu).  It's great people watching too - with folks who have been here forever to the tourist fresh off the plane, it's an odd assortment of people who seem connected by the common need for good, fresh food.