Surgery and Healing in the Developing World - Dartmouth-Hitchcock

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470 Surgery and Healing in the Developing World
that we are slowly building up to) by the Chief Medical Officer of all of Ladakh
Province. I had met him twice before. He had seen me along with his “Bloc” supervisor
who had been one of the people who had come during the “public health
show” we had put on for the kids at Thicksay Gompa. During dinner, we traded
speeches and toasts, in which he thanked us all sincerely, and invited us to full
participation in whatever activities we would like in his province. He had expressed
surprise that a group, who had worked all day in a clinic setting, still had the interest,
energy and enthusiasm to take off for Khardungla after a full day of work. He
asked me to return on an expanded itinerary, and such plans were made during the
later dinner, involving a helicopter approach to some very distant remote populations
in Ladakh in far corners of the Himalayan mountains and a trek out after the
medical missions in such camps. This proposal was made for next year at this same
time, and the Chief Medical Director of Ladakh, Dr. Dawa, approved them on the
spot.
So, as a reluctance to send you by email what might be misunderstood as a
hostile territory for which I should, once again, be getting combat duty pay, I thought
I would separate this note as to how it is that we are here under military curfew. This
curfew is based in a couple of events, that are, of course, unfortunate, but do not
have any ill will directed toward us. To the contrary, there seems to be a limitless
good will toward our mission and toward each of us personally, and there will be
even greater recognition of that not only in Ladakh, but internationally, since I
understand that the premier photojournalist of India, Raghu Rai, may be coming to
Leh tomorrow to try to follow me through at least part of the medical mission. He
had called after being commissioned by George magazine from New York to do a
documentary coverage of me and to obtain a “perfect portrait” in a setting here on
the Tibetan plateau. He had explained that he had difficulty with altitude, and
therefore could not go on with us, as we planned to be departing a day later for Tso
Morari, where he could not follow, because of his limited tolerance for altitude,
which he based in his poor lungs. But, despite failures of communications and some
of the details of making such arrangements, he may try to catch up with us tomorrow
as we are moving to a new clinic setting for a venue of a medical camp in a
village called Chuchot, situated just below the peak on the slopes of Stuck Khangri.
Come on along tomorrow to see if we all arrive in the same place near the same time,
as our saga continues in the experiences of the Himalayan High!