Drawing a crowd. . .
Judy and Helen are now in the village of Kathai, where CDRS has a clinic. As a traveling medical act, they have been attracting large audiences. In the remote clinics they are visiting, more people than they can see in one day gather to see them. Most come to be examined, but there are also those who come to do the examining. The arrival of two western women in this part of the world is apparently a significant event and not to be missed. A considerable percentage of the disease and illnesses they are seeing are preventable, due to a lack of basic things like iodine, calcium and folic acid.
Things got a bit dramatic in Riyat, the last village. A young woman was brought to the clinic to give birth to her child. In the initial confusion Judy and Helen thought it was a premature delivery. The mother was carried in strapped upon her bed, and things seemed rather urgent. The baby, a girl, was born in the middle of the night. As it turned out there were some complications and Judy had to travel with the new baby and mum back down the road to Chikar. Helen said they were picking up more Urdu words as things progressed and learned how to say ‘push it down’. . . The phone line was fading in and out at that point and the translation was lost.
This just in from commenter Tasneem:
"In urdu,the Pakistani national language(we have more than five regional languages...and about a hundred or more of dialects in the same!!) the term for encouraging the woman to 'push down' at the time of delivery would be 'ZOR LAGAO'!! 'Zor' meaning 'exerting power', or pushing down hard, in this instance!!". Thank you Tasneem.
Kathai is at about 2130 m, or 7000 ft, there are pine forests and fruit trees. Helen and Judy have been able to stay in the International Rescue Committee house. Somewhere along the way they managed to give the locals a shock and a laugh by jumping into the river for a bit of a swim, fully clothed of course. They have been making good use of the solar shower they brought with them as hot water plumbing is one of the things they are doing without.
That’s all for now, hopefully there will be some photos coming along soon.
Judy and Helen are now in the village of Kathai, where CDRS has a clinic. As a traveling medical act, they have been attracting large audiences. In the remote clinics they are visiting, more people than they can see in one day gather to see them. Most come to be examined, but there are also those who come to do the examining. The arrival of two western women in this part of the world is apparently a significant event and not to be missed. A considerable percentage of the disease and illnesses they are seeing are preventable, due to a lack of basic things like iodine, calcium and folic acid.
Things got a bit dramatic in Riyat, the last village. A young woman was brought to the clinic to give birth to her child. In the initial confusion Judy and Helen thought it was a premature delivery. The mother was carried in strapped upon her bed, and things seemed rather urgent. The baby, a girl, was born in the middle of the night. As it turned out there were some complications and Judy had to travel with the new baby and mum back down the road to Chikar. Helen said they were picking up more Urdu words as things progressed and learned how to say ‘push it down’. . . The phone line was fading in and out at that point and the translation was lost.
This just in from commenter Tasneem:
"In urdu,the Pakistani national language(we have more than five regional languages...and about a hundred or more of dialects in the same!!) the term for encouraging the woman to 'push down' at the time of delivery would be 'ZOR LAGAO'!! 'Zor' meaning 'exerting power', or pushing down hard, in this instance!!". Thank you Tasneem.
Kathai is at about 2130 m, or 7000 ft, there are pine forests and fruit trees. Helen and Judy have been able to stay in the International Rescue Committee house. Somewhere along the way they managed to give the locals a shock and a laugh by jumping into the river for a bit of a swim, fully clothed of course. They have been making good use of the solar shower they brought with them as hot water plumbing is one of the things they are doing without.
That’s all for now, hopefully there will be some photos coming along soon.
