Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Brett Greenky

The place , Kathmandu, is hard to describe. The city is a giant village that spurge up with absolutely no governmental guidance or control. No one has any money and all the peasants are simply trying to make a living enough to eat. Cows are sacred so they wander aimlessly all over the city . There is no traffic laws or light so the streets are total entropy. Stray street dogs wander eating anything that is dropped. Small children sit everywhere with the cutest faces and they accept candy from our team with expressions of disbelief and gratitude simultaneously. The pollution is mind boggling. Car have no emission controls and garbage is thrown literally everywhere. Much of it is burning so nearly half the population walks around with cloth make shift surgical masks. When someone dies their family assembles at the polluted but sacred river in the middle of the city. On the banks, the body is cremated and usually partially burned. Next the street dogs nibble on the semi charred  remains and a family member can be seen whaling off with a severed body part. Next the remains are shoved with a giant pizza like spatula into the river which doubles as a sewer.
   We finished the last cases at the hospital today and the patients are all doing quite well. We did the most joints of any previous Nepal Operation Walk mission and we are all very proud of that.  The "Team from Syracuse" is made up of total stars who all brought their A game to the most challenging venue one could imagine. I think the guidance team from LA was blown away by the cohesiveness of our team in every position from instrument tech to surgeon. I feel we brought the Olympic contenders from Syracuse to compete on the worst running track in the world and we set a record. I am very proud of the effort of all of us! What a life changing experience to use the skills we have all honed to do something completely selfless in a totally random and foreign land.  I suspect there are few if any team members who would not jump at the chance to participate on our next adventure!

    Brett
Sent from my iPad

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like an unbelievable experience. You should all be very proud as I'm sure you are. Have a safe trip home.

    Mike Link

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