Journey


"Rehabilitation on the Roof of the World" project finale 02/03/2011

Today in the afternoon we are meeting at Poznań Ławica airport where from we will set off to carry out our project! Tomorrow at dawn we are landing in New Delhi, where we will do the three-day stop before reaching our destination – Kathmandu. Keep your fingers crossed!

Keep tracking the blog, first report from the centre of events soon ;)



Incedrible India    04/03/2011
 
India greeted us with the rain ... But today the weather was sunny and beautiful. Despite long preparation for the travel Indian world surprised us with its colors, smells and sounds ... its oriental character.
Even a taxi-ride from the airport  with "Indian ambassador" with huge chaos in the streets (six cars on the four lanes) and noise (continuous use of the horn) has given us a lot of emotion.
We stopped in a Tibetan Colony -Majnu Ka Tilla-where we ate momo dumplings, and tomorrow we will celebrate the Tibetan New Year 2138 - "happy new Losar! ;)
We travel in New Delhi by taxi, modern metro but most fun makes us crazy rickshaw ride, which are driven by strong Indian people.
As Indian world is alien to us, we are something very special for them too. Our group raised lot of interest among the natives. Eye-catching lighter complexion, identical T-shirts, but most of all people pay attention to Karoline and her wheelchair, because such equipment is very rare here.  
Unfortunately, the streets in the city are kind of obstacle course for her. We attache her wheelchair onto the roof of the car while taxi drive, but a nice surprise is the adaptation for the disabled people in tourist facilities.


Delhi surprised us with the views of sacred cows marching through the streets, elephants, parrots, instead of Polish sparrows and monkeys walking in the sidewalks. So far, we were able to see the symbols of the Indian Capital- Red Fort, Raj Ghat and Gator India, Lotus temple, and tomorrow we're going on a trip to Agra, the capital of love to see the Taj Mahal.  

Next posts coming soon...
Incredible Agra  03/05/2011

We thought that nothing is going to surprise us here but ...

Besides elephants, monkeys, stray dogs, pigs, rats and parrots in Agra we met also camels and dancing cobras.

Souvenirs street vendors turned out to be even more impudent than those in New Delhi, however they were very  effective, because everyone bought beautiful, hand-made gifts ;)

In Delhi, personal check at the entrance to the metro or monuments was not as accurate as before the gates of the Taj Mahal. Not only they told us to leave electronic equipment (laptop, walkie-talkies and even a flashlight headlamp!) and food, a problem were even our T-shirts with logos of sponsors.

From the very beginning we have been shocked how people drive India roads but during yesterday's five-hour trip in the eight seater taxi, our driver was  watching a good sensational Bollywood film on his mobile phone :D








All this happened during one trip to the biggest of the love monuments- the beautiful marble Taj Mahal.
While in India you absolutely have to see it!  This is one of the seven wonders of the world and after what we saw it fully deserves the name.

You are kind of celebrity here!  06/03/2011

We spent our last day in Delhi exploring the old part of the city-Old Delhi. It is a place with unique atmosphere, but we got tired with the buzz, mess and a crowd of people around. To break from this and to experience a moment of calm we went to the Sikh Temple Gurudwara Sisgajn, where a lovely man in a turban not only showed us how the Sikhs pray but also we could see the temple literally from the kitchen. Everyone enters the temple barefoot. For us Europeans it was a real challenge-skin disinfectants went in movement :) On one of markets we  found a medical book stores, in whom there were many familiar items as: "Anatomy of Gray"and Wilks "Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation ".

 
At the end we visited the Jama Masjid - India's largest mosque. Wishing we had to go visit the defeat of the Carolina dozens stairs. For the same mosque, not being able to drive in with the wheelchair but Adam and Matthew stood at the height of the task and brought Karoline inside. Walking with her in their arms raised interest among the people-in one minute a considerable crowd surrounded us, from every sidepeople took pictures of us and looked at us insistently. Unable to free himself from the people we asked why they are doing this. 

They said : You are kind of celebrity here!



NAMASTE!  07/03/2011

It was not easy for us to leave India, but finally we arrived in Nepal. Before boarding the plane our passports were monitored 10 times and the guard told Karolina to get out of her wheelchair  in order to do personal examinestemmed from the fact that in the Indian airport only older people tend to be delivered to the aircraft wheelchair. During the flight we had a beautiful view on the Himalayas along with the world's highest mountain-Mount Everest. 

Nepal greeted us with green, calm and clean streets comparing to India. We ate lunch in a Newari restaurant sitting cross-legged on cushions at low tables.

We stopped at a beautiful hotel on Thamel where we could not resist the charms of colors and little shops - shoppingspree grabbed us fully!

In the afternoon we met the president of Physioterapist Society of Nepal and he greeted us warmly. He was glad that ourproject  succeed and that we will be able to cooperate.He suggested a plan for implementation of the practices in severaldifferent hospitals. We will begin soon.



Weekend on the Roof of the World  03/13/2011

We made it! We climbed to the height 3800m.n.p.m. Our trek began with a trip by plane to Jomsom, whenc we went to the mountains. Carolina overcame route on the horse, and we had to attache the stroller to our backpacks. While walking we were schocked by the enormity of the mountains and beautiful views. Along the way we met the most characteristicanimals of the region - yaks, which are for the local people the major food source, wool, and a mean of transport. We hadourselves a chance to taste the  yak cheese and  meat, and buy warm gloves and hats made of yaks wool.






We spent the first night in a small hotel on the heights 2800m.npm in the charming village- Kagbeni. The local life is no different from that of the towns located below. After a cold night, we went again on our way. Our goal was at Muktinath (3800m.npm), for which led a long and steep road. The route was very demanding. With increasing altitude we breathe more and more difficult. Effort, however, compensated us incredible views of the Himalayas.  
There was Karolina waiting for us in front of the hotel in Muktinath. She beated the route with a jeep.

 

After a short rest we decided to climb a little higher to visit one of the most important Hindu temples, where every year many pilgrims come to bathe in the clear waters flowing out of the 108 carved cow heads. Whereas Buddhists come here in order to pay tribute in the temple, where over the stream of water the eternal,
natural gas-powered flame is burning, thereby creating an extraordinary unity of water, air and fire.
We spent evenings sitting at the tables, under which are placed glowing coals to warm frozen guests. After 6pm electricity is switched off and light give only small candles. The return trip was far easier than climbing. We get to Jomsom in a short time from where we departed to Pokhara.
Pokhara like a boomerang 14/03/2011

While waiting for the return bus to Kathmandu we spent one night in Pokhara - a quiet town located at beautiful Phewa Lake. It was the perfect place to rest after trekking. In the morning we went on to the Sarangkot mountain to admire at sunrise the beautiful view of the city along with the surrounding mountains. Among the peaks stand out Machhapuchhre - fish tail mountain completely inaccessible to climbers, because according to beliefs of
the local people, it is the winter seat of the Shiva god.
After we began day so nice we went boating on the Phewa lake. Nepalese again turn out to be very friendly and nice.Boatman took care of Karolina, facilitate the entrance to her, and it helped us with the wheelchair. It was an amazingcontrast - after how we were frozen in the jackets and polars in the mountains, now we could sunbathe on the water.
Pokhara unlike to Kathmandu has not yet been overrun by motorbikes, taxis and cars. That made a walk along the streets  not so noisy and  tiring. You can spend a really nice day there. Being in this city you must visit "Boomerang" restaurant-garden, situated on the shore of of the lake. There can not only eat well, cool off with cold drinks, but also rest and relax in hammocks and sun loungers. Among the greenery and quiet music will feel bliss.

When we went to Kathmandu in the afternoon but everyone of us wants to return to Pokhara in the future.

Hospitals in Kathmandu  16/03/2011


So far, we have become familiar with the work of Nepali physiotherapists in two hospitals.

In the first one - Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, we were guided by Prayoush Neupane. It is a state university hospital with a separate rehabilitation department. Rehabilitation is carried out in ambulatory system and beside patients beds at different departments.

The equipment of room in which takes place simultaneously kinesitherapy and physiotherapy only slightly differs from the clinical centers in Poznan.

Both the hospital corridors and wards has a typical "Asian chaos". For a European it's hard to find in this dither, but the Nepalese get along this perfectly. We had an oportunity to get to know the functioning of the rehabilitation and the methods used by the Nepalese physiotherapists. They showed us the equipment they use in the process of rehabilitation, and talked about the most common clinical cases occurring in the department.




We also learned how physioherapists education looks like in Nepal.  The ability to complete masters study is the closest in India. As in Poland therapists supplement their knowledge and learn new techniques during private courses. We participated also in doctors visit on orthopedic ward at which we met the head of department.





Next hospital that we visited was a private clinic B&B Hospital.


 

There waited for us Binay K.C. , who showed us the hospital. We were able to gather information from patients, and have become familiar with their illness histories. Mostly get there people after traffic accidents and they havebedsiderehabilitation, but the hospital is also involved in ambulatory patients. We've also meet our Nepalese peers who had student practice in B&B Hospital. They told us about the education system so that we can compare the methods of rehabilitation taught in India to those that we learn ourselves while at school. Same time, our tutor Marian Majchrzycki PhD shared his skills in the field of manual therapy when working with patients.




In both hospitals, physiotherapists were very involved in our project, completed the questionnaires which are the basis of our research and are willing to continue cooperation.
Another day, another hospital.




Kathmandu Medical College is a teaching hospital. We could seen its magnitude from the very beggining. Team of physiotherapists and president of the Nepal Society of Physiotherapy waited for us at rehabilitation ward. They filled in our questionnaires and we started to work with patients. Everyone had the opportunity to share their knowledge and skills during training under the watchful eye of local physiotherapists. We practiced with patientswith various diseases including painful shoulder, rotator cuff injury, sciatica, epicondyle fracture of the humerus.Most cases treated here make up orthopedic conditions. Techniques used at the rehabilitation departement are very similar to those used in Poznan wards (both kinesiotherapy and physical agents). And for tomorrow, we were invited to Dhulikhel Kathmandu University Hospital.  

And after practice ...
Every afternoon, after the practice we visit interesting places and beautiful monuments of the capital of Nepal. We've already visited three of the most important temples in Kathmandu.

SWAJAMBHUNATH - is the oldest, over 2.5 thousand years old stupa. At the stupa dome
eyes of Buddah are  looking in all four directions at the pilgrims. After defeating the 300 stairs we walked around the stupa and turned prayer mills.







Boudhanath-is the largest stupa in Nepal. The area around the stupa in constantly full of life:both pilgrims and touristsdome turning the prayer mills, as in Swajambhunath. We ate dinner on the roof of one of the buildings surrounding stupa while enjoying the beautiful panorama of the city.
 

 

Pashupatinath temple- a Hindu temple where the funerals are held. Also tourists visiting this place can participate in these ceremonies. Bodies are burned at wooden pilles in this a ritual rite. This place seemed to us a very dark yet very interesting.

 


Yet the biggest adventure survived Carolina. She flew over the biggest mountains in the world and admired the bird's eye view-on rough Himalayas with the world's highest peak-Mount Everest. So far, she knew Himalayas only from pictures, but in the reality they are not able to pay none photographs. Experience is so amazing that she couldn't stop the tears.These views will be forever in her memory.


Dhulikhel Hospital



At the invitation of the President of the Nepal Society of Physiotherapy we went to Dhulikhel Hospital Kathmandu University, located one hour drive from our hotel. There is a beautiful view of the low Himalayas around the hospital. Beside specialized wards, there is a very complex department of physiotherapy. It was the most modern physiotherapy centers from all that we have visited. In theneighborhood  there is a university campus. It is the first school in Nepalwhere you can study physiotherapy. Learning takes place in the four and a half year system and ends with a bachelor degree.







We met many lecturers and students, and even the hospital director, who hosted us very nicely and invited to lunch.


All Nepalese are open and very hospitable. They are interested in our country and its culture, and a wish to continue the work with our association. We also would be happy to come back here :)








Happy Holi! :) 
Yesterday we celebrated with Nepalese welcome of the spring -Holi festival. Our picture has got even to the local newspaper.
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Holi+being+celebrated+in+Terai&NewsID=280712

Home sweet home ...


We finished the furthest, most interesting- the best trip of our lives! We came back home richer in new experiences and full of fantastic memories. We met quite a different, colorful world. Its culture fascinated and surprised us. We regretted taht we have to leave Nepal. However, we are happy because we managed to fully realize theassumptions of our project. Not only we had a practice and conducted research, but also established a collaboration with local hospitals and we hope that it will result in the future. Maybe we can go back to Nepal :)


We would like to thank all physiotherapists in Nepal, 
for their time and kindness they've shown. We could not realize this project without you.


The project "Rehabilitation of the roof of the world" could not proceed without the support of the authorities of our university. We would like to thank
Rector of University of Medical Sciences in Poznan  prof. dr hab. Jackowi Wysockiemu and Dean of students affairs prof. dr hab. Michałowi Musielakowi.


Big thanks go also to our sponsors without whom our research in such a remote country would not be possible!



We also thank everyone who supported us, looked in on our blog (and were patient, as we had a problem with theInternet:)) and kept their fingers crossed for us! We promise the next few days post beautiful pictures from the trip in ourgallery!


Although we are now back it's not all over. We intend to write scientific publications from research carried out by us, so we still have some work:)


We- the students- would like to give special thank to our tutor- Marian Majchrzycki PhD for his commitment in theorganization and realization of the project.
 
Thanks to him we had a chance to experience this great adventure!