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Thursday
16th of Nov. - Sunday 19th of Nov. 2006
" Physiotherapist in Action - like I always wanted......!"
"Let's go to Temisgam!" Yeah, yipieh - finally we had the chance
and we were ready for take off on Thursday the 16th of November. Before
we left Dolker and I had to make some preparations for the trip like....
- Buying and packing some warm clothes, sturdy shoes, cognitive games, colouring
books and books to read for the children we were going to visit for their
physiotreatments;
- We had to phone up our guest house in Temisgam to find out if they are
running their business in winter also and if they have space for us
- We informed ourselves about the schedule of our bus to Temisgam and had
to visit the bus station for that;
- And of course, we needed to pack our clothes, lunch, sleeping bag and
everything else what we thought we would need for a 4-day-trip into the
country life.
Ok- it was done! So we headed toward the old bus station in Leh - by walking
- and tried to find our Bus in between all those many busses. After we located
it we made sure that we could sit right in the front next to the entrance,
because that was the only place I could fit in with my long, long German
legs. Thankfully we were early in time, because the bus driver changed the
departure time suddenly to 30 minutes earlier and so we started our 4-hour-journey
at 11 a.m. through amazing and breath-taking mountain scenery of the Himalayas
and villages. We drove through a scenery, which was predominated with mostly
shades of brown - starting with bright brown over dark brown to ochre, caramel
and sand - and then, behind a curve, HE showed up! The Indus.
The Indus
The village Temisgam
And then we could see already the Namra Guest House, placed on the bottom
of a mountain. The owners, so I was told by Dolker, are relatives to the
royal family of India, so they get called in the village just as "the
Royal Family".
(a little footnote as information: cost for 4 hours drive with a bus, 2people
= 140rp one way= 2,60 EUR, costs for 3nights/2people in guest house plus
breakfast and dinner = 1200rp = 23 EUR. Just for comparison: a packet of
275 gramm Kellogs Muesli in Ladakh = 110 rp)
Our 1st day was filled with getting used to the place and resting. The next
morning and the day after we had to walk 1 1/2 hours along the valley to
the next village called "Tia", where our 4 patients were living.
Tia has a beautiful, interesting town scenery, built up on a hill, house
by house. Here we had to visit 2 girls on that one day. Their names were
Stanyin Yangdol, they were both 10 years old and they were just distinguishing
from each other through their diagnosis in our reports. It was nice to walk
along, because we could percieve so much of our surroundings and we also
had time to prepare ourselves for what was expecting us. And we had time
to exchange ideas.
After a short lunchbreak, - we had Chapati, carrots and apples - we got
back on the road to see our next patient.
Kerston crossing a creek and on the road
It was Jigmet Tsewang, a 10 years old girl with cerebral palsy. We knew
already that we would find her in a obviously bad hygienic condition, so
we had a nice warm woolen jumper ready for her. But as soon I saw her, I
wished I would have brought a second one, two more trousers and at least
5 pair of warm, long socks. I When I looked at her feet, I decided immediately
to give them a nice warm thorough clean up. On the one hand we tried to
get rid of that persistent dirt, on the other hand we had to get through
her muscle tightness, because of the spastic in legs and feet. Owing to
the warmth of the water we could loosen up the spastic and were able to
get her feet back in a normal relaxed position. Because Jigmets mum did
not have one pair of clean socks, she brought a pair of her own socks spontaneously
to keep the feet of her daughter warm against the cold. I would not have
put Jigmets old socks back on, because they were able to stand already by
their own, cause of the dirt!!!!
At the same time Dolker cleaned out Jigmets ears and in the end we looked
at a happy shiny girls face, and not just because of the oil, she was covered
with. We gave the order to clean her hands to her grandparents, because
we were running out with time and her mother was on the way to a traditional
ceremony somewhere in the village. All in one, we involved therapy techniques
during the cleaning process. All this time the healthworker watched us constantly
to learn how to handle a patient with cerebral palsy. After 1 1/2 hours
we left a happy smiling child behind, but we also left with a shocked heart!
Dolker with backpack on the way to a patient
All in one it was an exhausting second day. We had snow in the morning and
we had to cross lofty bridges to reach our last patient in Tia. His name
was Urgen, a 6 year old boy with a deformation on his right foot in form
of a sickle after he had a poliomyelitis as a baby. So we taught him and
his mother how to walk more properly and how his mother would be able to
assist him during that. We also taught his mother how to bring Urgans foot
in alignment by the way of a bandage. In the end we left a pair of high,
sturdy shoes as a present for Urgen behind. Immediately that produced such
a huge smile on Urgens face, you wouldn't believe it.
On Sunday morning we caught a bus back towards Leh very early, but we had
to stop at the village called Bazgo, where we had to visit another 2 patients.
Another long hike brought us to Tsewang, 17 years old, with a cerebral palsy
also. After lunchtime some healthy smiling kids explained us the way to
our next and last patient for that trip.
Our patients
Again we had a long distance to cover - sometimes our feet were on strike
- always along the main road in Bazgo...... till we finally reached the
house, where a little 2 year old boy was living with his family. Again the
disability was cerebral palsy and his mother was so thankful and happy for
the help and instructions we could give her. She was also very keen on learning
how to treat and handle her son in a "right" way! We left their
home also with the offer, that she can ring us up at the office of Ladakh-Hilfe,
if there would be any questions coming up in the future.
We hitched our backpacks and continued walking along the road in the hope
that a coach will passing by. At least we had sunshine on our way and after
45 minutes walking we reached the bus station (halfway between Leh and Temisgam).
As we were having a hot cup of tea, a bus came along, so walking was finished.
Mother with little patient
The next adventure started. The bus was so fully packed with people, that
we had to join our luggage on the roof. Finally anything was better than
walking. Never in my life have I done so much walking as in the last 4 days.
Anyway - driving back home on theroof of a bus was THAT adventure for sure
and "just" the last 30 minutes Dolker and I could compare with
icicles.
Stuffed with a lot of new impressions, experience and happy but tired I
reached our flat and looked really forward to a hot shower (which means:
boiling water on a gas stove, mixing the boiled water wit a bit of cold
one, just to tip it over myself afterwards!)
After all I quickly snuggled into warm clothes and my bed. As I shut my
eyes behind all the experiences, I went through the last couple of dayz,
and started dreaming ........ !!!!
See you next time - yours Kerstin Becker
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