Arrived and ready to work

Volunteering in any of the developing countries Open Heart International works in is always challenging. Nepal is no exception. However, none of us anticipated just getting here this year would prove so difficult. The Turkish Airlines mishap at Kathmandu Airport just three days before we were due to arrive threw all our plans out the window! We had team members travelling via several different routes and airlines.

After all the choas the team finally arrived to a quiet airport. Other team members arriving from Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur later on arrived into chaos as the little airport tried to cope with the backlog of flights.Thankfully the majority of the team arrived close to schedule, and we are now only awaiting one more team member to arrive.

We are here a little earlier this year in comparison to previous years. It is quite cold, but lovely sunny days so far. An added advantage of being here earlier is that the Himalayas are putting on a magnificent show for us and the view from out hotel is quite spectacular.

We are now into our second day of assessments and surgery. Already the stories I am hearing from the women coming to us for help are tugging at my heartstrings. There was one tiny little lady yesterday who had been a widow for some time. She is seventy, and bent over whenever she walks, and you could just tell she had had a hard life. Several had a history of uterine prolapse for 30 or more years. Others had many pregnancies but with few living children. There will be many more stories to listen to before we finish here…