18 out of well... more than 24!

Greetings from beautiful Surkhet - a Hills district in Mid-Western Nepal. Many interviews have been done - out in beautiful green communities with difficult roads to master and uncertain foods! Yesterday, I even passed by a Maoist emcampment - a place where the fighting Maoist have been placed to do... well... nothing... but they get a compensation and they don't take up their arms. It was weird to be in a community with people walking around in Maoist gear! How a country can change in 4 years!

Interviews - well we've been doing about three a day - some feel good, some feel bad, some feel useless. Sometimes, I wonder whether I will be able to deal with all the material collected in Nepali! Headaches are a daily challenge and being misunderstood is a frequent frustration. Today, Indu is off outside of Surkhet, while I'm doing some alone - at least three. Two are already done and they went ok. (YEAH!) Every night, I'm frantically typing up the interview notes... I have a one day lag which I will catch up on today...

As soon as I arrived in Surkhet, I called Shirley and we almost ran to meet each other in the middle of the bazar. She spent lots of time with me in Ghorahi, I went to see her in England when she turned 50, and she is the OBS surgeon that travels all over Nepal making women smile with healthy babies and healthy uteruses... (or lack thereof - the removal of a 'fallen' uterus is a common procedure - I won't go into the details!).. We chatted a bit and we have plans for a sunset seat and dinner tomorrow night.

The plan for the next few days is as follows - another interview or two today - notes writing and editing - tomorrow, another 3 interviews and then the car and my colleague head back to Nepalgunj. I will stay for a bit to finish off the notes and then head back on my own to Nepalgunj. After at least another 3 interviews there, I will visit some NFHP field work and then head to GHORAHI! Unfortunately, it won't be all fun and games - before Clayton meets me, I need to write a paper for U of T, and finish all my notes while listening to over 18 hours of interviews.

Beware: mushiness ahead!

Albeit being in the west is a needed break from Kathmandu, having Clayton sicky and not within arms length is hard. Yesterday, after jumping off the land-rover feeling somewhat nauseated and exhausted, I went to the nearby phone shop and called Clayton. A little booth with a window was my simil-privacy... I was at my wits end and wanted to cuddle up to Clayton and have a good cry - well, all the people in the shop could see me talk to Clayton and since I was visible, everyone stared... the WHOLE time... I tried to turn and make myself less visible... but then the observers reshuffled to get a better view... ARGH! After 20 minutes, it was just too much. A Carlsberg beer was quickly ordered and I drank it ALONE on the roof of the hotel! I miss my love and I'm counting the days. At least, with the pace of our interviews, I'm starting to sleep even without him... insomnia followed me around at first... but now I can't have the luxury of insomnia!