A trip to the Village of Kokhana

The whole Sewa Kendra Clinic family
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From Leah: Monday morning we left for Kokhana, a Leprosarium just outside the city of KTM. We met up with Megan, a girl that is doing an independent trip with Passage Project (www.passageprojects.org) and also volunteering at Sewa Kendra for several days. Megan, Elizabeth and I jumped into the jeep with Dr. Pradhan and her team, and made our way to the beautiful little village. Once at Kokhana, Dr. Pradhan took us all around the compound (after a cup of chia, of course), and explained how everything works here.

The devestating effects of leprosy
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There are roughly 170 people who live at the compound and are affected with Leprosy (I'm going to try and use "affected with Leprosy" rather than "Leprosy patient" in an attempt to seperate the disease from the person). Because of their deformaties and the social stigma surrounding Leprosy, these people choose to take the little government support they're given, as most people living at Kokhana simply have no where else to go. Even if they wanted to return to their homes, their families will not accept them back. They are all given a room, sometimes shared with a spouse or a roomate, and monthly rations of rice, salt, lentils, oil, and a few hundred rupees for gas and vegetables. They recieve about 300 rupees (about 5 dollars) for the whole month. This, even here in Nepal, is simply not enough for fuel alone, as there has been a petrol shortage and prices are rising.

Despite the fact that we were at the medical clinic, the feeling overall was one of joy and comraderie.

Leah helping women bathe in Kokhana
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Other than that, the government does nothing else. Dr. Pradhan comes every week to check up on everyone, make sure they are healthy, and have each person do physical therapy. Her dedicated staff helps to make special shoes and sometimes just with things in their daily life. If they are unwell, Dr. Predhan will take them back to the clinic in the city. Several of the older people have broken their hips and require surgery, or generally some just need more medical treatment than what can be provided in Kokhana. To pay for these surgeries, Dr. Pradhan raises funds on her own.

Leah with Vidhea at the Women in Music festival in Kathmandu
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Despite the fact that we were at the medical clinic, the feeling overall was one of joy and comraderie. We joked around with the nurses, physical therapist, and driver (who is also the "cook" and "tea maker"). All of them have a great sense of humor and were eager to help us with our Nepali (we almost never pronounced things right- which they got such a kick out of.) They patiently explained to us how to do things- me clumsy and slow at cleaning the dead skin around the gaping ulcers on hands and feet, Megan shaving the mens beards and heads (they have no hands to do this with- so they must have help with many things like bathing and shaving and some with dressing and cooking). Elizabeth had her digital camera with her, and immediately she was surrounded with giggling women as she snapped pictures and showed each one their image. They were so excited with her camera- I'm sure none of them have seen their picture, much less one that appeared at the moment of taking it!! Needless to say, Elizabeth was the entertainment for the afternoon and provided much joy to so many people.

The afternoon went quickly, before we knew it we were back in KTM searching out a microbus to take us back home.

Later on in the evening I finally met up with my host sister from last year. Tendol-la lives near Boudha stupa. Her family has a small Tibetan antiques and handicrafts shop thaty they run. We had tea with her and made plans for the rest of the week to hang out. All the "old" friends that I keep bumping into here in KTM always ask me where my other half is. "Where is Loy-la? How come she did not come?" I'm just not the same without my Loy.

Tonight we will meet up with my friends Vidhea, Tina, and Yanik for some dinner and then out to listen to some jazz music. Despite some uneasy tensions rising from the Maoists and the government, life as usual continues. There is a strike planned for the 4-6 of October by the Maoists, there is really no danger though, as they give you plenty of warning! I don't understand everything that is occuring (neither do most Nepalis), but there has been no problems so far. (www.nepalnews.com is a good resource for anyone interested in Nepali current events).

I hope all is well in the USA. If anyone has questions about this trip so far and what I'm doing here- please let me know. email me or Loy, I"d be glad to hear what some of you think.

From Loy: Kokhana is the Leprosarium that Leah and I visited last summer for a day, doing much of the same things she describes here, and most of our pictures from our slide show last December were images from this village. Leah mentioned meeting up with a student from the Passage Project, which is the program that we both travelled with last year, and if anyone is interested in travelling to that part of the world: Nepal, India, Tibet... they are an incredible organization to go through.

I got to talk to Leah on the phone the other day, and she has such wonderful stories about the amazing people that she's worked with. Because, as she mentioned, the money and rations that the government provides are not sufficient, many of the people at Kokhana make handicrafts, which Dr. Predhan in turn sells, giving all of the profit back to the people who are making these wonderful creations. Depending on their deformities, some people are able to paint, some can knit, some make bags, some make cards... but each and every one of those art works emerge with more love and heart in them than anything I've seen at our "Saturday Market" boothes here in Oregon. I think Leah's planning on bringing some of these crafts back with her, to continue raising money for the clinic... So keep that in mind when Christmas shopping! :)