The Nepali people have one of the most heart-warming, genuine smiles in the world. Through this medical trip to Chitwan, I’ve gotten to experience receiving their kind laughter, whether it’s responding to an assuring diagnosis of their symptoms or encouraging my rigid attempts to learn traditional Nepali dance. With that, they’ve managed to draw me out of my comfort zone and challenge my perspectives.
Although I’m helping in providing medicine and healthcare to Nepal, I feel like I have received much more from the Nepali people in return. Through them, I have learned the value of simplicity: although they are considered poor in the most obvious manners (low access to top healthcare, resources, etc), they are rich in finding pure joy in the smallest of things that most of us have taken for granted. The idea of appreciating simplicity struck me one day as I watched a little Nepali girl scribble circles on the back of her registration paper- her face lit up when someone gave her a box of colored pencils. To my amusement, I later saw her eagerly scribbling more circles on a piece of tissue paper, this time in color, forgetting the uncomfort of a running nose and her ear infection. Through a three year old Nepali, I’ve learned to value the simple, peaceful parts of life and alleviate my desire to be involved in complex, busy schedules all the time to feel efficient.
Many times throughout the trip, I’ve seen patients come in having run out of medicine to control their hypertension. As I measure their blood pressure and listen through the translator of their complaints about escalating symptoms that cripple their ability to conduct everyday tasks, I realized the multifaceted role of doctors: they not only provide appropriate cures for various diseases and symptoms in the short term, but also, in the larger sense, play a tremendous role in upholding the community’s quality of life by improving the people’s health in the long run. Physicians are truly influential and crucial to the community, qualities that I most certainly have come to and continue to admire.
I truly hope that in the duration of the trip, we have made a prolonged impact on the community’s health and that I will see the same patients I saw when I return, this time healthy and smiling as widely as they had before. To Jugedi, Nepal: धन्यवाद, and see you next time!
