Back Again

Hi loyal blog readers! Sorry for the lag in posting. We've moved back to Kathmandu and transitioned to a new government hospital, and we're still processing our experiences from our two days there. The reality of the constraints of our setting has become very clear over the past few days, and we've had more important things on our minds than writing witty blog posts. 

That said, we did want to share a few updates from last Sunday and Monday. During those two days, we visited Birat Medical College and Koshi Zonal Hospital, flew past Everest, and checked into Kathmandu Guest House. If all of that sounds strangely familiar, it's because we've done it all before on this trip. The big new news from those two days was the arrival of the rest of our team! We're very excited to have our whole team in-country, now that Melody and Jackie are in Kathmandu. 

On Sunday, we went back to Birat Medical College in the morning and Koshi Zonal Hospital in the afternoon. It was helpful for answering more of the "Oh, I can't believe we forgot to ask that!" questions we had from the previous visits. Each hospital gave us some key insights. Wes was able to talk to administrators at BMC who shed some light on how purchasing works for private hospitals, which will help us develop a plan for how this device would be marketed and sold to facilities. At Koshi Zonal, we saw how nurses responded to a pulse oximeter and oxygen regulator that stopped working, which is important for us as we consider how to design reliable technology that healthcare workers can maintain over time.

We departed from Biratnagar the following morning to fly back to Kathmandu. We were lucky to snag seats on the right side of the plane this time, so we once again had a lovely view of the Himalayas from the window. You know you're getting spoiled by global travel when seeing Everest isn't all that exciting because you just saw it a few days earlier...

We checked back into Kathmandu Guest House and decided to play some cards in the courtyard while waiting for the rest of our team to arrive. We expected them to arrive about an hour after us, but because this is Nepal, an hour turned into three hours, giving us time to take this very classy photo. 

Thankfully, the rest of our team, plus Mihika and Kimber from the Labor Trainer team, soon arrived to rescue Wes from losing too terribly. Their travel saga is quite the story, but in short, involved their first flight being delayed and then rescheduled with three hour's notice to get to the airport in DC, plus the entire Abu Dhabi airport shutting down, plus several hours waiting around at the Kathmandu airport. We're just glad to have everyone here now, and are excited to explore more of this exciting and colorful city together.