The last day!

Julley for the last time from Ladakh...(unless of course Izzy and Lex take some irresistible vacation pictures over the next 2 weeks and just have to share them!)

We said good-bye today to Deb, Eric, Lea and Kate who are now in Delhi doing last minute shopping and hanging out until their next flights. Hope you are having fun- have a great time in Montreal and France, Deb and Eric!

Lex and Izzy will head to Tso Moriri lake (wildlife and nomadic tribes nearby)tomorrow in the south of Ladakh for a few days and then onward to the Nubra Valley and hopefully a 4-day trek from Phangilla to Chilling. Also, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is visiting Ladakh in the next 2 weeks so lucky us!

We hope you've all enjoyed reading about our adventures here in Ladakh. Its been a successful project with a lot of ideas gathered for what we hope to do next year. Our big presentation is set for December 6th at the Chan Centre at BC Children's Hospital at 5.30pm. Mark your calendars- we promise it'll be great!

Pics:
1) The first yak on the blog! Taken near Chantang Pass when Izzy was on an outreach trip last week with Ladakh-Hilfe.

2) Water play at Shey picnic area. Deb, Kate and Lex took some of the hearing impaired girls from Chuchot Hostel (the King's hostel) on an outing last Sunday.

3) Izzy assisting a lovely monk who had a brain injury in Shayop.

4) The first donkey on the blog! Taken in Phiyang during a hike that Eric, David, Izzy and Lea attempted last Sunday.

5) The goodbye this morning at 6.15am- Lex and Izzy actually woke up in time to say goodbye to the rest of the team!


Julley,
Lex, Izzy, Deb, Eric, Kate, Lea and Tree (in spirit)

Nearing the end

Hello everyone,

Here are a few pics from our past week...hope you enjoy! Only a few days left of the project now so we are busy busy finishing things up. Off to do some movie shooting now for a film on developmental milestones.

Pic 1: Lex with a girl with CP in Tia village on the trip this past week with Ladakh-Hilfe.

Pic 2: Izzy, Dolker (from Ladkah-Hilfe) and little guy Stanzin, with his new corner-seat that we just delivered today! In Saboo village near Leh.

Pic 3: Stef (from Ladakh-Hilfe) doing some standing exercise with Jingmet in Tai village.

Pic 4: Little boy with polio in Tia village; we made a cast for him after having tea at his house- a must-do first activity.

Pic 5: Picnic at Oriental Guest House- our home away from home- on a not so picnicy weather day. We planned a sunny picnic and after a fainting incident- plans changed- long story ;) Everyone is fine now.

Talk soon,
Us.

Cute kids & loos

Julley!
This week is our last full week of the project as Kate, Deb, Eric and Lea leave next Wednesday, July 25th. Theresa left last Friday so is home sweet home by now. (Hi Tree!)
Lex and Izzy will head out tomorrow on separate village trips (for a few days) with Ladkah-Hilfe (the German Physios) to see some more kids. Kate will continue to see kids and help train the speech assistants at the hospital with Dr. Namgyal. Deb and Lea will run a mental health workshop tomorrow at the hospital for some doctors as well as work on movie-making projects and see local kids in Leh.
So we are keeping busy and trying our best to stay healthy. Lea is resting after having a head-cold for a week and being really fatigued (no worries-she is being well taken care of). Its good to have connections at the hospital when we go for check-ups.

Here are a few more choice pics.

1st: The worst toilet ever! En route to the villages at a tea stop- despite the unbearble conditions, you've gotta go when you've gotta go! This one's for you Tree;)

2nd: Lex's fave community kid ever (from Achinatang village). Namgyal was a real ham for the camera and was rewarded with a new clapper toy.

3rd: Deb on her way up to the somewhat better toilet that we found at the same tea stop on the way back to Leh. Although there was more privacy, it was still so bad!

4th: Little drummer boy from Gongma village- so cute!

5th: The army evacuating Palzes, a little girl that Theresa and Lea met in Hanu-Gongma village with a new broken leg (after several previous fractures). She was brought to Leh for a cast, a diagnosis and physio.

That's all for now; we'll do at least one more post before the end.
Hope everyone is well,
Us.

SURVIVOR LADAKH 2

Julley everyone,

Here are some more photos from the 2 weeks out in the villages. All of the villages we visited were in the Domkar Valley and a couple were closer to the Pakistan border.

1st pic: An elderly lady who we helped with cleaning and dressing of her foot wound in Chanchucks village. We then adapted her shoe to relieve pressure -she helped with the adaptation since she has been a shoemaker for 40 years!

2nd pic: Lex and Tree with baby goat "Akexis" in Kurembik village (the highest village we trekked to at 4100 metres).

3rd pic: Lea doing some self-help shopping in the first store we found in over 10 days!- in Skurbachen village.

4th pic: Kate playing Lego with the school kids in Dho village.

5th pic: The infamous 1st back care workshop in Gongma village. Eric (as a pregnant village lady!) and David acting; Deb filming; and Izzy and Tree leading the workshop.


Some more highlights (and lowlights) from the adventure:

1)High point= watching the guys (our team of helpers) dance into the late hours of the night/Low point= waiting to go to bed because the guys were dancing in our sleeping area!

2)High point= taking the local buses between accessible villages/Low point= waiting for the local bus and wondering if it will show up!! (everything is on "Indian time")

3) High point= sleeping under the stars/Low point= sleeping with bed bugs

4) High point= having a toilet within close range to our sleeping areas/Low point=not having a toilet or else having a hole within view of the cooking area!

5) High point= trekking to new villages through incredible valleys/Low point= trekking in the rain with very limited rain gear!

Until next time,
the gang.

p.s. Jen- how was the race??

SURVIVOR LADAKH

1st Pic: The first morning of village life. Tree having tea in her sleeping bag and Deb trying to change discreetly in hers...since all of our wonderful helpers were already up and about.

2nd pic: Our incredible first night welcome by the Amales (mothers) of Domkar-Gongma village. Traditional dancing in their traditional dress...yes, we all joined in and learned the dance moves too!

3rd pic: The gang (Vancouver team plus our 8 cooks/translators/trainees) on our walk from Bharma village to Dho village. Eat your hearts out girls ;)

4th pic: Izzy with a little boy with CP (and his mom) in Hanu-Gongma village after just trying out his new corner seat for the first time (complete with pool noodle lateral inserts!)

5th pic: The Ladakhi cast of a play in Bharma village. Drama is a major form of teaching in Ladakh. This play was a result of a mental health workshop we ran for the village youth.


Some highlights from our 2 weeks on the set of Survivor Ladakh!!
# of villages visited = 12
# of kids with disabilities seen = 15
# of workshops given (back care and youth mental health) = 9
# of people who never want to give a back care workshop again = everyone!
# of hours on the bus = 17
# of hours spent waiting for the bus = 17
# of baths taken per person in 2 weeks = 1.2!!!
# of Ladakhi toilets that we had to adjust to = 11
# of people who fell into a Ladakhi toilet = none, but several close calls!
# of people who had minor emotional breakdowns = all except 3 (Lea, Eric and Izzy)
Illnesses and injuries = infected hand (David); dysentary (Eric); food poisioning (Lea & Lex); colds (Tree and Lea); serious and persistent bug bites (Kate & Lex); minor falls while trekking (Deb & Izzy); diarrhea (everyone).
# of dances with village ladies and with our team of guys = 23
# of times we heard the new release Ladakhi song "Skalwa" = 1,000,000
# of times we thought of returning to Leh early = 5
# of times we pinched ourselves b/c of this incredible experience = all day everyday


To sum up: this past 2 weeks was a tour of rural Ladkah that you could never put a price on. We feel so lucky to have experienced it and are so thankful to our hosts for arranging it all.
We will add some more choice photos later when we find another internet cafe that allows us to slow up their wires.

Talk very soon,
Us.

Last post until July 10th

Julley everyone! (this means hello, goodbye, thank-you, etc. in Ladakhi)

Here are a few more pics before we head off to the villages for 2 weeks.
We are busy prepping/packing today and will hopefully go to the Tibetan Childrens' Village (school for 2000 Tibetan children) tonight for a dance performance. No computer access while we are out in the villages, but there is sure to be some great pics when we return on July 10th!

The pics today are:

1) 2 girls that Eric, Deb and Lex met en route to a monastery on Friday. We got lost trying to find it, which is meant to be good karma!

2) The finished product of Iqbal's wheelchair! We had a whole team watching the Canadian women work-it was too funny. Thanks Jen for all your help- the chair worked out really well!

3) The revolutionaries (Izzy, Lex and Tree; Lea is taking the photo) at work gluing the foam together for Iqbal's seating system. It was so smelly!

4) Song time at the Moravian Mission school where Kate, Izzy and Lea went to work with Ladakh-Hilfe a few days ago. The little guy in Lea's lap is sound asleep (he has a seizure disorder) but with lots of sensory processing tricks, they were able to wake him up to work on a puzzle- the most that Ladakh-Hilfe has seen him awake in a long time!

5) Deb and Eric skipping rocks by the river with kids from the Tibetan Childrens Village. Deb, Eric and Lex went to the public ceremony for Ling Rinpoche (the re-incarnation of the His Holiness' senior tutor) this morning and after sitting in the blazing sun, we needed to seek shade by the river. We thought the ceremony was going to be in a monastery, but it was in a huge field similar to the folk festival setting- we were a little unprepared!

Hope everyone is well, miss you all,
The gang

Week 2

Hi all,
Some more photos with captions this time (and captions from last post).
Last post:
1st pic: eating breakfast at the guesthouse: Eric is taking the picture; from left to right is Kate, Theresa, Deb, Alexis, Isabelle and Lea.
2nd pic: East view from Shanti Stupa (a religious site that is a short but very steep climb from the guesthouse)
3rd pic: Northern view from the courtyard at the guesthouse
4th pic: a view of Leh from Shanti Stups- not sure which direction?? we think N-E
5th pic: the group from the Mental Health discussion: from L-R is Thinlas (translator); Lhamo (traditional healer); Deb; the cook; Amala; Anila (Tibetan Medicine Amchi); Theresa; in front is Alexis and Stanba (director of HEALTH Inc).

Photos from this post:
1st pic: Two monks in Leh
2nd pic: naptime for the dogs in Leh
3rd pic: Deb & Eric en route to Leh
4th pic: Kate, Theresa and a random cow
5th pic: Lex at the top of Shanti Stupa

We'll post at least once more before our 2-week trip out to the villages on Monday.
Jullay,
Deb & Lex

Photos finally!

Hi all,

After several computer gliches and an email home for help, we finally figured out how to attach photos!

We had a great day today- our team split into 2 groups. One group (Izzy, Lea and Kate) went to a school with Ladakh-Hilfe to see some kids who have various disabilities and who receive treatment twice per week from Ladakh-Hilfe. It was great to collaborate with the PTs and share ideas about communication, language development, sensory integration and positioning. We will continue to do some more collaoborating in some viallges around Leh and also after we return from our village visits with HEALTH Inc.
The second group (Deb, Tree and Lex) attended a historical meeting with Dr. Gulam, a GP in Leh, and some Onpos (traditional/spiritual healers) to discuss mental health issues. This is the first meeting ever of this kind as Onpos and allopathic practioners do not collaborate in Ladakh. They all shared their forms of healing which varied from being an oracle to Tibetan medicine to astronomy and astrology. We were able to share ideas about mental health in Canada. Deb gave an incredible presenation that was culturally sensitive and very well recieved by all. Dr. Gulam has now invited us to the hosipital to give a presentation to the doctors about mental health (after we return from villages).

Please enjoy the photos.
Talk again very soon,
the gang

p.s. we hope the photos are on but if not, we're in the middle of the Himalayas and will keep trying- at least we know how to do it now!

Day 3

Hi all,
We are adjusting well and sleeping much better now.
Off to Leh with a helper, since yesterday a few of us got lost! and its only a 20 minute walk from the guest house- we chose to wrong fork in the road and ended up near the military airport where we landed!
Doing lots of planning and yesterday Izzy and Lea assessed Iqbal for his new wheelchair. This will be a big job for sure, but he already said he was much more comfortable in it.
Halfway there to getting a photo on this- later today.

Talk soon,
the gang

We're here!

Hi everyone!
We made it and have arrived safely in Leh. Happy to leave Delhi, although it was the coolest June 16th in 5 years at 34 degrees!
Had a white-knuckling time in Frankfurt when Izzy's plane was delayed, but she made it with minutes to spare and we were so relieved.

Have now been greeted and treated like royalty since arriving at the Oriental Guest House. It is so beautiful here and the flight over the mountain ranges was unbelievable. So now we are under strict instructions to rest and drink 8 litres of water today. Feeling light-headed and a bit short of breath but so far so good. It is only 10 degress here and it feels so much better.

HEALTH Inc. is so organized and we are all feeling really excited to start working! We will have a meeting on Tuesday (today is Sunday here) with the local docs and German PT team (Ladakh-Hilfe) to start discussions. A lot of planning this week and then we will head to the villages in Sham on June 25th to July 9th.

More updates to come....
Warm wishes to everyone. We will get some photos up very soon.

Alexis and co.

2 days to go...

2-day countdown until departure!
Madly packing and checking our lists...and getting super excited!!