Our money helped send trainee nurse Shannon Crowley to Nepal and now she has returned read the highlights of her lifetime experience.
Here she is with paediatric surgeon Dr Dinesh Koirala following the surgery she assisted in
read on for Shannon's highlights
I had an amazing time while away. I was able to experience a variety of different activities outside of my placement, whilst also observing and participating in the care of patients with a wide range of interesting issues.The accommodation provided was cosy and welcoming, as were the people who worked for the organisation and the other students staying there! The food provided by the catering team was amazing (I foolishly hoped to slim down during my trip- so of course the complete opposite happened!)I didn't manage to do an awful lot of actual trekking/hiking and I would say the main one would be the three hour return hike to get to the Peace Pagoda in Pokhara. However, I did do a lot of walking, most of which often felt like trekking due to the mountainous and hill filled nature of the Nepalese landscape. For example, visiting the Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey Temple) was a trek in itself as it is situated at the top of quite an impressive hill (pic attached).While in Pokhara, I was also able to boat across Phewa Lake, paraglide down from Sarangkot and even go on a zipline (which was extremely fast and very steep).The highlight of my placement experience was definitely the opportunity I had to scrub in on a paediatric surgery and act as first assist to the lead surgeon. Over the four weeks, I was able to spend time in the PICU, NICU and paediatric surgery in TUTH and also paediatric surgery in Kanti Hospital.Myself and several other students also visited the Snow Manjushree School and Orphanage in Nagarjun, Kathmandu on a couple of occasions which was a delight, as the children there were so happy and inspiring!I visited many temples, of which there was an abundance but some more impressive than others! In a lot of the areas I visited, the effects of the earthquake from 2015 were still evident with a lot of buildings and temples still under reconstruction.On the line of spiritual and religious events, I was fortunate enough to visit the living goddess, Kumari (a 5 year old girl!) in Kathmandu Durbar Square. Usually when seeing Kumari, visitors are not permitted to take photos and are only able to view her through a window in her house for a very brief time, however, as I visited on the day of a festival, she was brought out into the main squareand placed in a special carrier - which my friend was able to video!Whilst I unfortunately did not have the free time to be able to trek across the Annupurna Range or make it to Everest, I was able to go on the Everest Mountain Flight which was an amazing experience.There was so much more to my experience than what I have already listed, but these were definitely my highlights!Many thanks again to the members Of Grays Thurrock Rotary to help me experience this amazing countryShannon
