Geko's, graft's, ghaa-yee and good hospitality

It's only been two days here in Butwal so the team have got through about 10 operations including Cleft lips, palates and post burn contractures.

Accompanied by the occasional gecko chilling out under the theatre a/c, I was handed the knife several times to take the skin graft for a variety of post burn contractures. Without going into detail, I have to say it's a strangely satisfying experience releasing scarred skin (a little like those of you who ever let pvc glue dry on your skin at primary school and then took pleasure in peeling it off)!

In the afternoon the scrub nurse came up to me and said "curd, curd!". Without explaining that I was in fact from the UK and not the middle east, I followed her to the lunch room and discovered small pots of fresh yoghurt for us all to snack on. Having tried to avoid dairy products for most of my stay so far, I thought I'd give this a go. It was called ghaa-yee (probably not how you spell it) and was both tasty and refreshing in the 40°c heat. A day later and I've neither turned yellow nor developed any d&v: good ghaa-yee.

Today we finished early in the afternoon so I took a walk to the top of Hilltop Park. The heat is bearable if there is wind, and at the top of Hilltop Park there is plenty. There were also plenty of locals going for their afternoon walk surprised to see a white foreigner trailing all the way to the top. Pretty much everyone I walked past called out "where are you from?". In Kathmandu this is the beginning of a conversation that leads to either buying a small violin like instrument or taking a taxi ride, but out here they genuinely wanted to know.

Two traditionally dressed elderly nepali women walked past me at one point just as I had decided that my feet were in need of some exfoliating - I had decided to walk most of the sandy path without sandals. I'm pretty sure our nepali conversation went along the lines of:

Women: "did you walk all the way to the top without shoes?!"
Me: "yes?"
Women: "is it not sore?"
Me: "good, good" (while gesturing towards my feet in a kind of 'its-good-for-my-feet-to-see-the-light-of-day type way)

Anyway, I really hope that's what they were saying...