Culture Shock: Part II – The inevitable

At some point you start to notice differences, whether slowly or all at once, after or simultaneously with the good parts—it is inevitable. Even slight differences eventually create a rift between you and your host country, making you realize just how far you are from home.

One of my good friends asked me, “So what ISN’T in Nepal that we have in the U.S.?”

The answer is complicated. The short version: nothing. If you look in the right place, you can pretty much find everything here that you would in the states. It’s just …different.

• Sometimes, it’s not that Nepal doesn’t have something, but that people don’t know how to use it and instead revert back to old ways. I have seen refrigerators sitting around unplugged, and laundry machines gathering dust while girls vigorously scrub and hand wash their entire extended family’s clothes. Most houses don’t have microwaves (?!) even if they are readily available in stores. It’s somewhat amusing to see bathrooms fitted with bathtubs but then another shower/faucet set on the wall outside of the tub. I have not once seen any of those tubs put to good use. Everyone showers in the bathroom, outside of the tub, just out there in the open, no curtains, getting everything wet… it just does not make sense to me. I guess everyone tends to get stuck in their old ways, including myself. Like Lily Aldrin, I hate things being moist, even the word itself bothers me. I hate squishy wet flipflops/shoes. I hate wet clothes that cling to you. I hate slipping on wet floors. I hate moist walls and countertops. I hate mold. I hate the idea of not having toilet paper. Everything should be neat, clean, and DRY. Unfortunately, since it is rainy season that is never the case inside or out. So far everyday it has rained (on my parade ha ha)

• Other times, it is the case that standards are not enforced. Only now is quality control starting to come into place. Every night on the news, another atrocious crime of integrity is shown. Most times it is food related.  Grocers injecting produce with chemicals to make more money. Bakers and pastry makers use old rotting materials to make treats. Milk swirled with bits of melted plastic to make it look whiter and creamier, delicious right?

My first few days at Kanti Children’s Hospital were a real eye-opener. As a government funded hospital in a third world country where the government changes every six months, they do the best they can. However, for me, it was a drastic change from working in one of the best hospitals in the U.S. (Yay Mass General!) to this… After a 2-3 hour extensive lecture on the history of/lack of funding and stories of what efforts were trying to be made, we begun the tour. I literally felt nauseous, not from seeing any gory procedures, but from seeing (and smelling) the state of the hospital. The halls reeked of urine and were lined with overflowing troughs of garbage. People stared as we passed by, occasionally spitting on the floor (inside). I asked to use the restroom, they let me use the super special locked up staff toilet. There was no running water in neither the toilet nor the faucet, but the entire floor was sopping wet. I don’t think my stomach could have handled stumbling upon regular patient toilets. You’re lucky if you find a clean flushing toilet, extremely lucky if there’s toilet paper, most are literally holes in the ground. After meticulously sanitizing my hands with the alcohol sanitizer I brought from home, we continued the tour. In the NICU, the water in the faucets comes out brown. The OPD clinic was swarming with flustered parents and sick children, often 3-4 families crammed into a tiny cubicle. There is no such thing as patient privacy or confidentiality. It’s a race to shove your child’s chart into the doctor’s hands first as he’s finishing up with another patient.

                                     

Prescriptions don’t exist here. You can get almost anything over the counter. Pharmacists dole out medical advice and strong drugs without ever having to study medicine. Working in the health care field, this was a huge shock to me. The doctors at Kanti frequently yell at parents for giving their children adult drugs or inappropriate doses. I look up drugs before taking anything because half of them are not FDA approved for use in the US/Europe, usually for good reason.

the pollution, no exaggeration.

Outside near main roads, the pollution is horrendous. It is hard to breathe without a mask, even for locals. There are supposedly car inspections, but throw in some money and your car will pass no matter how disastrous it is to the environment (and our respiratory systems). Not only car fumes, but dirt and dust in general rule the air. A few days ago, I saw an old woman sweeping dirt off of dirt path which really only makes sense in baseball.

• The last scenario: they have it, just not enough. There are frequent electricity and water shortages. Most people have large water tanks that they fill up when water is available. In certain areas, they only get a little water for one hour a week, and even that isn’t clean water. It is not enough to last a family for a whole week of cooking, drinking, and bathing. I’m staying with family in Lazimpat, which is both near a river and lot of big hotels so luckily we usually have clean running water. With all the waterborne diseases, finding safe potable water is a must. Tap water generally isn’t safe to drink. Bottled mineral water isn’t always trustworthy either. My family filters the water, sets it out in the sun for 7 or 8 hrs (Solar water Disinfection), and filters it again before it is ready to drink.

Electricity shortages, called load shedding, are more frequent in the dry winter where the hydropower plants cannot meet demand. So far it’s only been for a few hours a day, a few days a week, but later on it can be up to 16 or 17hrs per day every day. My family has generators so it has not been a problem thus far but I remember that the last time I was in Nepal we used candles every time there was an electricity shortage.

There’s a lot more to be said about differences and challenges to overcome, too much for one post. Language, family & culture will have their own dedicated posts coming soon.