Birthday in Achham

Today I'll take a break from the "Best Monsoon Trek Ever!" series to say "thank you!" to all of you who participated in the birthday card deluge I received for my birthday yesterday.  The expressions of love and support, arranged by my wonderful wife and kindly delivered via the New York office of Possible, got to me early in the week so I could open them on my birthday.  They were fabulous, they made me laugh, they reminded me of home and did me a lot of good.

I began the day as we do six days a week here - with morning meeting of the hospital staff.  This day I handed out sweets - a great custom, I think, that Nepalis observe when they celebrate birthdays (or maybe they just have unsuspecting expats observe it...hmmm).  In either case I got a lot of Nepali birthday greetings, and we took a picture of the whole staff.

I worked in the Emergency Department where I am helping to organize medicines and supplies and rework the re-stocking process to ensure meds are where they're supposed to be when they're needed.
During the afternoon I spent some time on my favorite hill overlooking the river.  Along came Aloo, who snapped a selfie:

He didn't like my hat:

In the evening I went to Sanfe Bagar - down the hill from the hospital at the Buddha Gange River, and had dinner and beer with my team and a few friends from the hospital.  There was a good deal of singing on the ride home!