April 20

Last night I picked up my kirtas! I am very happy. They are very comfortable and breathable. It is as comfortable as wearing your pyjamas and yet I look very respectable. I will be very happy when I leave the city and I have them to wear in the rural and remote areas.

This morning I smiled at a mother with a baby. She then convinced me to come buy her groceries for her 4 children. She told me that things were difficult. Their house fell down in the earthquake, her husband is away working in India. She has a hard time feeding her children. I spent more on those groceries than I do on food for myself for a whole week but at least she has rice and milk for her family for awhile. Cathy teased me when I told her the story "She's a professional beggar!". As my husband knows, it’s the mothers and babies who I can’t resist. Even more sad is that her story very likely all true, and true for thousands of families more here. But my student line of credit cannot feed everyone so I will have to resist in the future. I hope that we can have more of an impact for more families by modeling respectful maternity care and advocating for women’s rights while we are here.

I finally shook the headache midday, which is a relief. It is hard to get motivated when you are not feeling well. Cathy was busy all morning finishing up her and Mickey’s abstract for the conference, coordinating with Jill and Nani and doing her best to get her nursing license. Bureaucracy here is very very tedious. It turns out she has to go back again tomorrow to get her license but we have a good feeling she will get it. It just takes lots of time! I did some other errands to get ready to leave tomorrow. And good news - it seems as if Jill and Ngima have secured a translator who will travel with us to Mugu! We are very pleased with this fortunate turn of events - earlier this morning we were having our doubts.

After this you may not hear from us from until end of April/beginning of May. I finally had good enough Internet to see that some of you have commented on the blog. Thank you so much for your responses. It is nice to know there are people out there reading and supporting us! Much love to all.