Reini writes: Lhasa is definitely busier this year (more and more people moving here from mainland china and the new train from mainland has increased tourism). Maybe my patience for cities has gotten weaker too since we live in the peaceful mountains. It always takes a bit of time to figure out why I am here (half-way aroundtheworld!) and what is the best use of my time here. In the first day, I realize the 800 things I could do and need to be done- a lifetime of work really- which of course makes me terribly overwhelmed and my 2 weeks here laughable. Then slowly, priorities become clearer and we figure out what needs to be done and set to it. In my last trips here, I've been here a month, so there's a slow 2weeks of figuring this all out. But since this trip is just over 2 weeks, so it's all compressed into 1-2 days. A little stressful. I'm here with my dear friend Eve . It's been great having her here. It's her first trip to Tibet and she's getting oriented to One HEART. Usually there are lots of other team members here, but this time it's just the 2 of us. So it's calm and we can be productive - but less festive and fun! Those tough first days got better by the end of the week. We've been working quite long days, but they've been rewarding. We've been heading out to the county where we've been working for 5 years to meet with the alumni of our midwife training program.
Our goal is through focus groups and interviews to do a 5-yr analysis of where we are and what we need to work on. The interviews have gone well (except too long, we forgot how it takes 2-3times as long with translation, so we've been modifying as we go to not be too long)and we learned a lot. mostly,the doctors are very impressive and knowledgable and it's been inspirational to talk to them. The have such extraordinary challenges in their work - no medicines, limited transportation, villagers with poor health education. And they all work for peanuts - the equivalent of $4-60 per month in income. amazing. It's been great working with our staff too. We have 5 phenomenal Tibetans who are trilingual and have all worked with us for over 18 months now, one over 3 years. They are bright, motivated Lhasa-dwelling people, but have amazing compassion and commitment to their rural, much less fortunate countryfolk. It's a rewarding part of being here to work with them and support and teach them. They do the important stuff.In the midst of all this, Eve taught an ultrasound seminar at the menzikhanghospital (the traditional tibetan hospital). They had 2 patients lined up and 3 more appeared and eve did a great job teaching. We didn't have any early pregnancy patients so I volunteered and got to look at our little sprout. The little bean looked great 4.4cm now, moving around, good heartbeat, Now, we've been working all day this saturday... at least it's been raining. Tomorrow, I'll try to insist that we take the whole day off. and then Chris arrives on Monday (yippee!). We have another busy week next week and then take off next weekend! chris and I will head to Thailand to rest on the beach, ah. eve's going to bali! so, don't feel too badly about ourscheduleshere!
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