from RiverCity Press Vol. 25, No 33, September 3, 2009

“Refreshingly different to anything I have experienced before” is how Wanganui optometrist John Mellsop describes his recent trip to Khari Khola high up in the Himalayas.

John spent three weeks at this year’s Band-Aid Box medical clinic in the small village in Solukhumbu (Everest) Nepal, joining 22 other volunteer medical professionals from New Zealand and Nepal in putting their skills to good use. Since 2005, the Band- Aid Box Trust has arranged a yearly medical clinic at Khari Khola. Their catchcry is “keeping Khari Khola healthy” and each year the trustees, Robin Drake and Alan Jellyman assemble a huge pile of medical equipment, a team of healthcare volunteers and a supporting trek group to transport it all to Khari Khola for the beginning of the two week clinic.

“When my sister Gillian moved to Kathmandu two years ago to work for the UN as the regional representative of UNICEF, I saw the perfect opportunity to combine a family visit, some trekking and volunteer work,” John says. “The Band-Aid Box Trust provided the vehicle to make it happen for me.

” For this year’s clinic there were 12 western volunteers, including three nurses, a teacher, a pharmacist, four doctors, a dental surgeon, and John. They also had a team of 10 Nepali staff.

After spending a couple of days in Kathmandu with his sister, John and the team flew out to Paphlu airstrip where they began the three-day trek to Khari Khola.

“Getting out of the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu with its mad traffic, heat and smells was a treat. Walking was the only mode of transport from now on, so thankfully we had a team of porters to carry our gear, which included 380kg of medical equipment and supplies from New Zealand.” A team of Sherpas was also on hand to keep an eye on them.

After a steep climb on the third day they arrived to a warm welcome at the guest house that would be home for the next two weeks. Each day the team walked the one kilometre track to the clinic building where they would set up the equipment and supplies. John says they were fortunate to have the use of three rooms, two slitlamps (providing a magnified view of the front surface of the eye) and two trial lens sets.

“Between the five of us we examined over 1,000 patients during the clinic. We prescribed over 500 pairs of spectacles, treated a lot of allergic and acterial conjunctivitis, and referred patients with more serious eye disease including cataract to hospitals in Paphlu and Kathmandu.”

A highlight of the trip for John was working with and getting to know the Nepali optometrists and the ophthalmic assistant, who impressed with their skills and ability to manage any patients’ conditions. They had the advantage of being able to communicate with patients and not having to rely on an interpreter. “They also introduced me to a local snack called Momo’s which are vegetables or meat cooked in small pastry packets,” says John. “We also tried the local beverages, some of which were more palatable than others!”

Each day a fresh group of people would turn up at the clinic, some having walked three or four days and others carried on a stretcher or in a Doko basket. Most were subsistence farmers who led a “pretty hard life.” The Band-Aid Box Trust employs a paramedic who is stationed at Khari Khola year round, but the Band-Aid Box clinic is the only access that local people have to a doctor, so many of them took the chance to come in for a check-up during the two-week period.

Following the clinic the team trekked for six days up to Namche Bazar and then back to Lukla, where they flew back to Kathmandu. Around Namche they  experienced “magnificent views” of some of the highest mountains in the world, including Everest. John says the trip was a great experience and so different from anything he had experienced before. “Being amongst a people that live so differently to us in New Zealand without a dependence on a lot of things that we take for granted and could not do without like cars, clean water, supermarkets.

“Yes I enjoyed it and it gave me a great perspective from which to view our modern way of life.”