Update

• Namaste from Anandaban! The cold is here.
• It looks like I may be able to get my laptop back soon. The repairshop in KTM has now said it may/possibly/at the very least take a month "or more" to get in a part at a cost of over 130USD. I found out a TLM rep from the UK is coming this week. He has mercifully agreed to place the tiny part in his luggage. Cost of part: 15USD. The laptop problems began in July. It is now mid-november. The anticipation is almost too much.
• Visitors to Anandaban have been phenomenal. There is a constant influx through the guesthouse next door. This past year has seen: Japanese, Indian, Australian, Sri Lankan, Dutch, Brits, Aussies, New Zealanders, Scots, Irish/Northern Irish, Italian, Canadian, American and then some others with mixed up origins from the multiple countries where they've lived. Some are missionaries/pastors, scientists, clinicians, tons of students, accountants and administrators, counselors, prostheticists, biologists, physios, nurses, surgeons, anthropologists, trekkers and fundraisers. Meals there can be unexpected meetings with people from fields and places you never imagined.
• This is a pic of Anandaban's staff taken in August (with a few extra visitors at the time of course). We have two expat staff right now: me and Elisa the Australian occupational therapist (middle of the back row somehow looking shorter than she actually is). The staff are great coworkers.

• This past week, a plastic surgery team composed of a hand specialist, anesthicist and surgical nurse flew in from the UK for a surgical camp at Anandaban. Surgeons from Lalgadh and Biratnagar came to watch and learn. Some patients were prescheduled and another busload arrived Wednesday night (~23 specialty surgeries total). They managed to fit them all in. All but one were leprosy patients. Yesterday, I went to the operation theatre and observed while Dr. Indra and the visiting surgeon performed a tendon transfer on a 14 yr old boy's leprosy-affected hand. It was very, very cool. A tendon in the palm was divided into four and then woven around the bases of other muscles. It will allow him to regain some useful motility in his clawed hand. I have great pics and some video. The boy was awake for most of the surgery (local anesthetic/block). He will need to stay at Anandaban for a couple months to undergo post-surgical physiotherapy and learn how to use his newly "rewired" hand.
• Just to highlight how things go here in Nepal: The surgical team arrived on Sunday with only their carry ons and the clothes they wore. No luggage. No specialty surgical tools. Nearly everyday that meant one of the team had to travel an hour or so to the airport to see if they could recognize their bags in either the morning or afternoon flight from Delhi. Monday: "Sorry, your luggage must have been left in Delhi." Tuesday: "Sorry, your luggage never left London. It is still there." Wednesday: "Sorry, your luggage is now in Phoenix, Arizona, USA." Friday night it arrived at Anandaban after the last surgery was performed. The team left Anandaban Saturday morning. Such is life here. High strung people will not survive.
• In clinic this week, a 12yr old girl came in with leprosy. She came from outside KTM, but we found out that practically all other members of her family have or have had leprosy. She was beautiful and very brave during her slit skin smears. That is a test where a scalpel blade makes a small cut to scrape skin cells from the earlobes, elbow and knee to run a test for leprosy. Kids still get leprosy.
• I attended part of a 3 day national nepal science and technology conference this week. The maoist prime minister and the finance ministeer spoke on different days. There were numerous talks by mostly Nepalese students on their projects ranging from Biotech, Bioinformatics, Korean methods for country development, what diseases are available on products from the local vegetable and dairy markerts to what local drugs are used by Nepalese to treat their sick cows. It was an interesting chance to meet people.
• The lab has been undergoing painting inside and out for the last two weeks. We've also been using the opportunity to try to reorganize and clean out pieces of equipment that are old and irreparable (many things are from the late 70's and 80's and are too outdated for today's science or to get replacement parts). A local group is taking the stuff so that Nepalese biotech engineering students can have a chance to work and learn on medical lab equipment. If they are able to fix some of them, we can have them back for reasonable repair costs.
• 2 Graduate students in our lab at anandaban are finishing up their thesis for graduation from Tribhuvan University. It's alot of work. Imagine correcting multiple drafts of ~300 pages of science writing.
• In December, I will leave on the 4th to go to Delhi for a TLM south asia science meeting and then I will fly to Cebu in the Philippines for an IDEAL meeting (Initiative for Diagnostic and Epidemiological Assays for Leprosy; http://www.turingfoundation.org/lepra_uk.html#ideal). Hopefully, I will also be able to spend some time at the TLM hospital there in Cebu where they also perform leprosy research.
• Elisa has gone trekking outside Pokhara with an Australian "Trek for Treatment" group that arrived last week. Trekking = hiking/camping for days in the mountains. These groups really help to raise funds for TLM sites around the globe that practically minister to those afflicted with leprosy.
• Please pray for us. The season is very busy, but that also means that there are many opportunities.