Nepal

So while Erin is off trading recipes like I used to do with Pogs, she asked me to put up a post about my travels last August. As part of my master's degree, I am required to design a medical device for both the US and developing world markets. To facilitate finding a project and really understanding the people who will eventually use the device, we were shipped off to various countries for several weeks. And while I missed the fam like crazy, I had a blast. I spent several days in Norway visiting a medical device development company that sponsors some of the global health projects. Norway is anything but a developing country, and we were treated extremely well there. A few pictures from Stavanger, Norway (fair warning, this post is going to be very image heavy!):

The last three pictures are a hike we took up to Pulpit Rock. On a good day, there is a fantastic lookout over the fjord several hundred feet below. Obviously, we couldn't see any of that and it felt strangely unalarming being just a couple inches from the edge.

After living it up for a few days, it was time to see a very different side of the world. Most people know Nepal for Mt. Everest, and the nation's capitol, Kathmandu, though not all that nice, knew how to cater to wealthy trekkers coming to visit. So we stayed in a pretty decent hotel surrounded by countless street shops all selling the exact same stuff. But this didn't last long as out work began in a rural down called Dailekh. To get there, we took a 1-hour flight to Nepalgunj, where we jumped in some 4-wheel drive vehicles and started a 6-hour drive to the remote village. But this wasn't a nice trip to Lake Powell. Most of the way was dirt roads washed out by the monsoons, and going up and down steep switchbacks. Big busses packed full of people inside and on top would come barreling around hairpin turns that could only possibly fit one vehicle. It didn't help that our driver was maybe 18. But somehow we made it.

The poverty I saw in Dailekh easily rivaled the conditions I witnessed on my humanitarian trip to Bolivia. Dailekh is a district center, and has a hospital that serves a wide region. This is the only health facility for many many miles, and because roads are too unpredictable, most people had to walk there. But getting there is only half the battle. Add an absence of electricity and unskilled health providers, and there isn't a lot that can be done. Our project was to design a fetal heart rate monitor for this type of setting. The tool that is most commonly used there to listen for whether the baby's heart beat is normal or irregular is the pinard horn (balanced between your ear and the mother's abdomen):

We interviewed a lot of people to get their perspective on what kind of tool would be most helpful and what features it should have. We have used this feedback throughout the year as we designed the device. Here's a bunch of pictures from Nepal, both tourist and work related:

 

I loved Nepal. It was humbling to go there and then return to my pathetic first-world problems. I only hope that the work I am doing now will benefit these people someday!