Welcome to December!

We started the day with a discussion of the appropriate technique for using a gingival margin trimmer hand instrument.

You can tell that lunch is one of the highlights of my day. Today at the canteen I had vegetable chow mein noodles. It is great food for $0.85! They were just spicy enough and not too spicy. The warm sunshine feels sooooo good!

My colleagues got a BIG lunch. 

If you look in the background behind my colleagues, you can see see a cook peeling garlic for a future meal -- lots of garlic! 

The Nepali Army guys were eating lunch too. They ate big plates of food. I learned that Nepal has an "all volunteer army," just like the US. Women can also serve in the Nepal Army. The Army's building of a helicopter landing pad for the hospital is progressing. It is amazing to watch how it is entirely done by hand.

Next week is a festival for the dental students. Today I received my invitation.

At 3:00PM I returned to my room to get ready to go to Kathmandu. I had the bathroom light on and then it went out. I checked the bulb and it seemed ok. Only then did I realize that it was a power outage. This is the second power outage I've experienced in Nepal. Soon thereafter, Dr Kafle picked me up for our drive to Kathmandu. This is the great view from the pickup spot atop the hospital hilltop.

I saw this sunset from a traffic jam on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

In Kathmandu, Dr Kaflke had to get to his "moonlighting" orthodontic practice ASAP, so he dropped me off at the Kathmandu Marriott. From there, I took a Pathao rideshare to the Kumari Inn guesthouse. If guests visit Kathmandu with me, we will stay at this Marriott. Pathao is not as fancy as Uber or Lyft in the US, but it got me to where I needed to be.

This is the view from the backseat of my tiny Pathao rideshare. I wish I could communicate better with the driver. My ride cost $5 US.

At the Kumari Inn, I got resettled and enjoyed a warm bowl of pumpkin soup. The soup at this place is quite delicious, and feels satisfying on a chilly night. For being pumpkin, it does not taste like American pumpkin pie. It's not sweet. There are chunks of a squash-like vegetable in there with a consistency similar to potato. The bread is just like US whole wheat bread, but I think it has some garlic oil rubbed on it.

With a few activities scheduled, it looks like I will be here in KTM until Wednesday morning. 

Good night!