The Trek of Service

Greetings from Patale, Nepal! This is Dan Mazur, member of the June 2007 Hospital Service Trek.

Today we are introducing two of our volunteers Kanad Chakrabarty and Dr. Lisa Mc Clellan that have come to service in this remote community.Kanad and Lisa are her providing the amazing gift of service.

Kanad: Hello, my name is Kanad Chakrabarty and I am writing to you as a member of the Service Trek. I'm from New Jersey & this is my first visit to Nepal. I am on my way to Thailand to teach English and am taking advantage of this opportunity to experience this seldom visited remote and beautiful location.

Lisa: Hello, I am Lisa McClellan. I am a Family Practice doctor in Phoenix,Arizona.

After a two day trek from the mountain outpost of Phaplu our Service Trek, sponsored by www.mounteverestfoundation.org and www.summitclimb.com , we arrived at our destination, the health post at the remote village of Patale on Sunday, the 10th of June.

Our team includes a doctor who has already administered to over 40 patients, some of whom have walked many hours for the rare opportunity to be examined by a doctor. This health post serves as the only source of health care in this region & has a full time staff of two health care workers who are from this village.

Although there are many health issues faced by the local population, we are very pleased to see thatthe local people are healthy and robust for the most part. Dr. Lisa has been getting the word out to the villagers about some basic health issues and has also been helping to train the local health care workers.

We are absolutely overwhelmed by the hospitality of our hosts, who have made us feel incredibly welcome. Last night we were treated to a Sherpa song and dance. This morning we were visited by children from the village school, to which we presented backpacks donated by our friends Maya & Arnold. Our stay has gone by very fast and we will be starting on trek back to Phaplu today to catch our flight to Kathmandu on Friday.

We have some extra baggage due to the generous offerings of dozens of kata (scarves which are a cultural symbol of hospitality.) Our backpacks are decorated with fresh flower garlands made by local Sherpa children and given to us by their moms as a going away present.

We will really miss volunteer, Celia Rogers, a member of our service trek who had slipped on a muddy trail and damaged her shoulder. Her injury did not seem extremely bad, but it was painful to walk, so she jumped on a helicopter yesterday and flew home to England today.

The weather has been pretty rainy, but today the sun came out, in a beautiful way that has lit the gorgeous green wildflower studded hills beneath blue skies. It is quite warm and pleasant and we can hear the hustle and bustle of cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, and families cutting wheat with hand sickles and carrying newly harvested potatoes in baskets and other noises of traditional agriculture in this hilly terraced village, which has no roads, no phones, no running water, no electricity and no technology of any sort.

Today is marvelous, but during the last three days, the weather has been changing by the hour, ranging from sunny to thick fog, mist and rain. The clouds often descend below the hilltops, giving a very mysterious feel to this pristine locale.

Yesterday, we visited a Gompa (Buddhist temple) and were treated to a Puja prayer ceremony performed by four monks. It was a really special and peaceful moment as they lit incense in an ancient painted room with high ceilings and dusty old statues and silk covered prayer books. The four clerics blew trumpets, banged drums and symbols, and chanted away in bass tones, in what they told us was a 400 year old temple.

The temple certainly was ancient looking and musty, with some really antique paintings on the walls. The audience consisted of a few local gentlemen in baseball caps that looked like they had just returned from an expedition to Everest, 12 little children who were transfixed by the monks blowing on their horns, and one older woman who said she was 57, but we guessed 80.

We have been eating a lot of local food, dal bhat, served with cups of tea and some of us have sampled some of the local homemade beverage known as chang. Our cook, Lakpa, has been creative and made french toast, french fries, and may come out any moment now from the guest house kitchen with flaming crème brule.

Alcoholism is a problem in the village, as many of the people are unaware of the health risks. We believe a future public health education program in the village could include information about the effects of alcohol, tuberculosis, hand washing and sanitation, and basic female health. The local health care workers are aware of these needs. In general, these people are very healthy; they just have not had the opportunity of learning habits of public health that we in our developed regions take for granted.

Traveling is a challenge in this area, which is very remote and the trails are not really that great. It is the stunning beauty of region and the incredibly kind and friendly people have made coming here more than worthwhile. We sometimes wish it was not a twenty five hour walk to the nearest crude airstrip, especially in case of the necessity of emergency evacuation, but then we are constantly reminded of the beauty and simplicity of the remoteness of the village. We know that if the airstrip was closer, this village would be quite a bit more developed.

It’s always that conundrum that faces us in these service treks. The beauty of nature and the balanced existence of local villagers in their natural surroundings, and contrasting tradeoff with the lack of comforts, poor health, minimal education, the overall inconvenience and lack of civilization that rural life creates. How does one resolve this dilemma between modern economic development and pristine old methods of subsistence farming?

We are at 1900 meters (6000 ft) and the terrain here is rather hilly. There is no snow or ice here. This is a low elevation trek in these gorgeous foothills near Everest, where snow rarely falls, perhaps one day in a year.

We passed through some dense Rhododendron & Hemlock forests (among other kinds of widely varying vegetation) on our walk in. These are extensive forests and many of the trees are quite large and ancient. some would say this is "old growth", a present surprise in Asia, which is supposedly being destroyed by development. Not here yet.

We encourage the villagers to preserve their forest resources and not cut trees unless absolutely necessary. For example, when cutting firewood, they take the dead and downed fuel woods first, rather than cutting large live trees for firewood, which is the lowest form of wood used.

Today, we were shown the local school on Sunday. It consists of three classrooms & serves over 70 students from grades 1 through 5. There are three teachers on staff and students travel here daily from as far away as an hour walk to attend classes daily. The local school board is seriously considering the possibility of extending an invitation to volunteers to teach English here for several weeks to several months.

Teaching volunteers will trek in with a guide & have their own bedroom in the home of a villager. If you would like to become involved in our new school programm, would like to volunteer or know someone who does, please send us an email or check back on our website for more details in the near future!

Thanks for following our service trek!

Yours Sincerely,

Dan Mazur and all of us at summitclimb.com