Gender issues and infected toes

Hi again! Well I've an interesting couple of days settling into the clinic, and Nepal living. I went down to the KAT centre again on Friday, and spent the morning doing the vet checks with Bidur - the main vet. The cases were mainly cleaning mange and maggot wounds, as well as the post op checks. You would not believe the size of the spay wounds on their flanks - they're less than an inch long! Before doing the vet checks, I had been into the vet clinic, where they do all the surgery, but Bidur had immediately come in and asked me to come and help him with vet checks. I didn't think much of it at the time, but after we had finished checking all the dogs, I asked if it was ok if I went back into surgery to see how they do the flank bitch spays. I was then told that they wanted to ease me in slowly, and they didnt want me even watching surgeries for the first 10-14 days, and would prefer if I just helped feed the dogs and help with post op checks. In that I'm only working in the clinic for a month, this didn't seem like a great plan to me - as I really wanted (and had told that I would be!) hands on.

Jan, the founder and director of the clinic arrived then, for a photo shoot, with Mango, the clinic dog, for her upcoming appearance in Yes! magazine! She came to meet me and we went for a chat - at which point Bidur came in with my Nepal veterinary council registration papers for her to sign. I felt this was a good point to bring up my unwillingness to pay $150 for my Nepali license if I would not even be able to watch surgery. Jan was horrified that Bidur had not allowed me into surgery, and a huge row began between the two of them. It was lunch time, and we were sat in the staff room eating our Dahl-baht (lentil soup and rice - the staple food in Nepal). More and more people came into the room, and I have never felt so uncomfortable in my life! We all sat moving our food around our plates awkwardly whilst Jan laid into Bidur, asking him if he was on a power trip, if he felt threatened by me as a western vet, and eventually, if it was because I am a woman. This was in fact the case, and it came out that Tristan, a second year vet student from Australia had been watching surgeries all week! Bidur came up with a number of excuses so as not to admit that it was a gender issue, but Jan was having none of it. It turned out that this is not the first time that a female vet has been refused into surgery, when male vets and students have been allowed in, with no questions asked. I am all for accepting cultural attitudes and local gender roles and but having paid over $1000 for my flight, I wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic at this point.

I managed to escape eventually, with Jan teling Bidur he needed to go away and have a think about it. Laura, one of the researchers saw that I felt pretty uncomfortable with it all, and we went off for a banana lassi until things had calmed down. In my rush to get out of the room, I stubbed my toe quite hard on a step - but it didn't seem too bad at the time. Laura and I got on really well, and chatted for a while before heading back to the centre, where we found the vets had both left.

Without any vets on site, we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and I filled Laura and James in on the UK chart music, as they feel so out of touch having been away for 18 months! After work, they invited me back to theirs for dinner, via a Kiwi couple's house near them. Marianne (a dutch vet student) and Tristan came along, and we all set off to Koppan, where they live, high up in the hills. It was a couple of bus rides away - the buses were reminiscent of the daladalas and matatus in Africa - crammed full to bursting with bus boys hanging out of the open doors shouting their destination and banging loudly on the side of the bus. We got off the second bus and popped into the supermarket before setting off up to the village where Laura and James live. By this point, I was limping from my stubbed toe, which had formed a large blood blister and got worse throughout the day. The walk started off fairly gently, but after about ten minutes, we were wading through paddy fields full of leeches - in my Birkenstocks! The next section of the walk was debatably worse - not in the water, but instead a balancing act along the narrow brick ledges in between the fields! After a very steep climb and a few more hills and fields to cross, all now barefoot, we arrived at Kate and Doug, the kiwi couples' house. They have the most incredible house up in the hills, with amazing views of fields, mountains and beautiful monasteries. They are setting up their own small centre for street dogs at the back of their house and took us down to show us the progress on the kennels they are building. They invited us in for a drink, which became a couple of drinks, which became more than a few drinks, and hours later, we stumbled out to stagger down the lane to Laura and James'.

The next morning, we all headed back out, to go to the hindu temple at Pashupati, the biggest Hindu crematorium in Nepal. As we were strolling down the lane towards the bus stop, I, again, stubbed my toe on the ground, and the blood blister burst - spilling blood everywhere. It looked an absolute mess, and was really painful now, but I bandaged it up with a wet wipe and a hair bobble and we got on our way. The temple was somewhat disappointing - partly as I only made it halfway round before I gave up and headed back with my bad toe, and partly because it just didn't seem that spectacular. We saw the burning ghats and the outside of the temple, but didn't seem to be much special. We all then headed into Thamel for the most amazing chinese meal, and then Laura, James and I spent the rest of the evening in a bar, putting the world to rights!

When I eventually got home, well in need of a good night's sleep, I peeled my 'bandage' off my toe to reveal a large green infected wound - lovely! It is now Sunday morning, and I am soon off to find a pharmacy to find something to clean my toe with - monsoon season in Nepal is definitely not the time or place to have an infected toe!

Tomorrow I am heading back to the centre, hopefully to go and watch some surgery, despite being female! I will let you know my progress!