Tahee Delay!

 "Tahee delay" is "hello" in Tibetan, spelled phonetically. Our past 2 days of clinic have been at Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, and we are currently staying in a Tibetan settlement. A couple of my patients who have been older monks speak only Tibetan, so we get a translator from Tibetan to Hindi, and one of our translators transfers Hindi to English. I'm already a little concerned that things are getting lost through one translator (like my COPD patient, who originally did not smoke, never smoked, only to find out later from a re-interview with a resident who speaks Hindi that he smoked for about 40 years and only quit 4 years ago. The guy was audibly, dramatically wheezing.) The translation is probably the most frustrating part of this experience. I really wish I could speak Hindi. I'm learning a few things (greetings, numbers to direct patients to specific tents, a few simple commands and medical terms), but it's still hard. Having our drivers serve as translators makes sense logistically, but I think it would be helpful for them to receive a little more training in medical translation and in medical English vocabulary. Some of them are AWESOME, but some of them are clearly more new and they sometimes have a hard time, especially with complicated patients.

Well child check with a young monklet. He was fine, except for some tinea capitis, which you can see on his scalp.

Triage tent! At this station Shushma, Stacy, and I took every patient's blood pressure (if an adult), pulse, and temperature (if an infectious-type complaint).

Our clinic set-up, Tents 6 (pediatrics), 7 (usually ob-gyn, but not at the monastery, since it's typically all men except for some villagers who came to the clinic), and 8 (pharmacy). The monastery proper is in the background. The whole place was a huge complex that houses 700 monks and also a Buddhist school.

Posing at the Dzongsar Monastery near Bir.

Also at the monastery: the largest Buddha I have ever seen.

Sunset view at Bir. A beautiful town. Bir is well-known for its production of tea. The tea gardens/fields are beautiful. In this picture, there are wheat fields and Tibetan prayer flags, seen all over town.

Today and tomorrow we have clinic at a village in the hills above Bir. Day 1 went well, and we're set up for Day 2 there tomorrow.