OCT-B-10
A SECOND CLINIC DAY IN
AGAIN TREATING LEPCHA TRIBAL PATIENTS
IN THE “LOWER JUNGLE” FROM MANGAN,
BEFORE GOING ON TO GANGTOK,
CAPITAL OF
I got up
early, while it was still dark, and I put on my clothes and loaded up the
camera gear I had intended to take with me on a mission on foot. Instead of running this morning, I was going
to go up the road to the point at which I had seen the magnificent view of the
So, I came back in and packed and then tried to de-bug this laptop which is constantly “saving” a “corrupted text” always substituting it for whatever I have attempted to save. Trying to open the file then crashes the entire system with a note that “Word must now shut down” and an apologetic note “The prior attempt to open this file caused a ‘serious fault’ in the computer last time—are you sure you want to try it again?”—then the crash, as if to add—“I told you so!”
Today we go
to the “lower jungle” of the Lepcha people and we will have all our stuff (in
my case, not very much given that I wear the same thing every day that I had
flown to India wearing, since my bag and all its supplies are still marooned in
Kolkata and probably are forever irretrievable.) So, we will leave from the clinic to day to
go to the comparative luxury of a “big city” hotel—that is, Gangtok, the
capital of
AN ACCIDENTAL TOUR DOWNRIVER TO THE
“
BUT WITH AN ERRANT TAXI DRIVER WHO KNOWS
NO ENGLISH NOR THE WAY TO PHIDANG,
WE GET A TOUR OF THE WATERFALLS,
BRIDGES,
AND NEW HYDROELECTRIC DAM CONSTRUCTION
SITE
OF DIKCHU
With a
washout of the mountain views expected early this morning, we had a breakfast
that was tardy with all the baggage loaded to make the onward trip after clinic
with us to Gangtok. We took off in four
vehicles, with three of us in a mini-can with a driver who was following at
some distance as we left the Mangan village.
Soon we were driving directly toward the
Christine needed to stop to pee, so we told him to stop for this purpose, and he agreed, again, with the shake of the head. But when he did not stop at the third request, I took the wheel and pulled the emergency break. This was the only thing that slowed us down since he had the habit of getting wonderfully good gas mileage; by always turning off the key when we were rolling downhill, as we were most of the time on steep switchbacks. He even tried to pass an army convoy truck loaded with troops, passing without being under engine power! Now that is economy driving! I had preferred that he be under a little more control, including knowing where we were going.
We went
through very bumpy road washouts, usually caused by landslides at the site of
spectacular waterfalls. I tried to shoot
photos of them, but he would usually speed up when we reached them, so I have
some pictures of his dashboard and ceiling of the minivan as it bounced. We passed over the
TURNAROUND AND BEGIN ANEW AT
PHIDANG, THE LAST OF OUR
COMPLETING OUR 1600 PATIENT TOUR OF
THE
When we finally got him to turn around, it was at the site of the Jaiprash Industries Construction Company, a group that I curiously got to know as the same construction crew with whom I had bunked in their “Annapurna” in the Sangla Kinnaur Valley big hydroelectric construction around the clock project. I took a few photos of this site as the big diversion tunnels were already cutting the river through deep rock tunnels and the heavy equipment trucks were shuttling away the blasted rock rubble—the remnant of the earth’s upheaval when the subcontinent slammed into Asia and caused this massive buckle. When we went through Dikchu on the return we passed it to see the bridge we had remarked before, and there were all our group spread out under blue plastic tarps against the sun (although they acted as sails in the high wind) and impatiently awaiting our return since we had all the medicine.
We saw
about two hundred patients in a crowded rush at the Police Station of Phidang (
I know that “dang” means “the place of,” but no one could tell me what “Phi”
represented). We worked steadily and
then closed up around
Phidang is
the “Lower Dzungu Valley” enclave of the Lepcha, so when combined with the
upper jungle of the prior day at Namiprakidang we have seen most of the
population of the Lepcha in their places of residence, except for those who
have moved out to brave the world outside—as far as Kalim Pong—to learn a
language that they don onto use at home.
PHID is 27* 24.45 N, and 88* 30.31 E, making it 701 miles from
We had the usual adventures in transit, along the steep mountain roads with oncoming traffic on the one-lane high hazard, now guard rail roads in switchbacks up the steep mountain sides. Right of way goes to the upclimbing vehicle, so our convoy was favored for the up slope but had to back off when we tapered down. We staggered in to Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, after dark around 7:00 PM and checked into the Hotel Tibet—a definite luxury, since I have a private room with both electricity and hot water since the bellhop “turned on the geezer”—and I took the first shower in two weeks since I left Gaithersburg!
We have all rallied at the dinner table in the Snow Lion restaurant in the Hotel Tibet and we gorged on a Chinese dinner consisting of the first real meat we had seen in the two weeks, mainly in the momos which are Chinese dumplings. We will be here until about 11:00 AM tomorrow giving us time to see a little of the capital and also try, try again at sending an email message—a task that has frustrated me for over ten days since I had left Delhi and the Ajanta Hotel. I should have a complete message to send by the time I can connect!
Tomorrow we
will convoy off to