It was another busy day. I was up early and wearing my only longsleeve T-shirt – – go OSU Beavers!
At school, I watched Anil treat this 15-year-old, with assistance from a pediatric dentist.
We had a departmental staff lunch/staff meeting today. The meeting was entirely in Nepali, so I don't know what they said. But regardless of the language, it seemed like every office/department/staff meeting I've ever been in. Some people want to talk a lot. Others don't want to talk at all. Some want to complain. Others want to joke and laugh. We had momos from the Tik Tok Burger House. I ate there a week or two ago. Today I had steamed veg momo. Others had chili momo, fried momo, steamed chicken momo, or steamed buff momo. There were lots of momos! Everyone else puts the spicy orange-colored (curry?) sauce over their momos – – but I don't. I could only manage to eat maybe 4 of the 10 momos in my container. Surprisingly, none of these people like veg momo! So the rest were discarded. I'm very cautious about how much I eat – – and what I eat. These were good, but still I'm careful.
Our office space in the department is kind of a fishbowl within the clinic. But it allows us to observe what's going on. Here Anil is watching third-year dental students doing pre-clinical projects. They don't do these in a pre-clinical lab, they do them here in the clinic. I don't think the lab is set up for high-speed handpieces. Interestingly, in the US very few dental chairs come with cuspidors anymore, but here they are ubiquitous. They come in handy for draining the water spray as the students are drilling on their extracted teeth.
Dr. Kafle was out sick today, so he arranged for me to get an after-work ride to Kathmandu with other faculty. Here I am as a passenger with Drs. Pratibha, Rashna and Suja. These women are oral pathologist, pediatric dentist and orthodontist. They have an interesting carpool system. First we drove the orthodontist's car to her house, and then after she left, the 3 of us remaining continued on in the oral pathologist's car. At her house, she departed and then I rode with the pediatric dentist in her car towards the Kumari Inn guesthouse.
I watched the sun set along the river that flows through the huge Hindu temple in Kathmandu. This is the river that they burn all the bodies and dump the ashes into…
My ride could not deliver me all the way to the Kumari Inn. For the last few blocks, up the dirt hill, the street was closed due to tarring/oiling for dust control. Without any alternative, I carried my suitcase and walked through the oil up the hill to the Inn. At the Inn, I took my shoes off at the front door. They were totally messed up with oil/tar. I'm not sure if I'll be able to even wear them tomorrow (or ever again), but I'll deal with that tomorrow. I didn't pack a second pair of shoes, so I may end up shoe-shopping tomorrow. Meanwhile I was given a pair of flip-flops to wear around the Inn. This photo is dark, because it was after sunset. Here I am looking down from the Kumari Inn balcony at the newly tarred street/road. And then looking up, I saw the nearly full moon.
I was served a tasty soup supper, along with an interesting dessert treat. This orange-colored dessert is made like a funnel cake at the Texas State Fair, whereby a sweet batter is squeezed into frying-hot oil creating this semi-crispy delight. I have walked past these curiosities frying at numerous street-side establishments and have wondered what they were and how they would taste. I selected this smallish specimen. It tasted like honey and potato chip dust mixed together with just a hint of butter.
Tomorrow I expect to be relocating to the crosstown outer suburb, Lalitpur, where I will be attending the Nepal Dental Association's annual meeting (NepDent 2023) Friday through Sunday. I'll be staying at a hotel near the convention center for Friday and Saturday nights.
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