TAKE-OFF FOR INDIA, LEAVING A WHIRLWIND OF DERWOOD
ACTIVITY BEHIND
Index to the Jul-B-series of the start of India expeditions.
Takeoff amid the welter of activity
in Derwood’s rapid changes, as I head out on the first of three Himalayan
expeditions, beginning in this Jul-B-series with Ladakh-03.
On
board LH 419 from IAD to FRA, then, LH 760 from FRA to DEL, enroute for
the first limb of the long road to the far side of the globe for the next
several weeks leaving all else behind.
Arrival
in DEL, transfer through domestic terminal to fly to Leh, Ladakh, and settle
a group of virgin Indian expeditionary forces into the Hotel Kangri.
The
acclimatization day in Leh, and prep for the expedition as each first-time
participant of the 27 novices gets oriented and ill from jet lag, altitude,
and an insertion into an exotic environment of alpine desert, new food,
and overhead sun.
The
arrival letter transmitted from an Internet Café in Leh Ladakh at the start
of Ladakh-03.
The
start of the Ladakh-03 medical mission after the last of the stragglers
in our group of 27 first-timers has been assembled in Leh and oriented to
the
clinics we will be conducting.
The
now veteran group, having been overwhelmed by their “first day in the office”
learning that medicine is hard and often uncomfortable, returns to the
same clinic after the first 300 patient day to try again to “do good, better!”
and more efficiently.
The medical program and the medical education program
and the integrity and credentialing of each; the early morning ride up to
Kardungla, highest
motorable road pass on earth, elevation 18,380 feet—enough for another headache.
Packing
up and driving out: our road trip to Tangste to set up camp and to treat
the population expecting to meet us tentside.
The Tangste Valley venues
of the Ladakh-03 medical mission, coinciding with the Ladakh festival celebration
in Shachukul.
Return from Tangste
via Chungla Pass to Leh and packing up with new joiners to head out to
Tso Morari after another dawn run over Leh.
The trip along the spectacular
Indus River canyon, stopping for lunch at Chumathang, 13,470 ft, and our
arrival at the lakeside camp Tso Morari,
at 15,075 ft, for the two days of clinic, climbing, and a lakeside morning
run, before departure back to Leh, concluding Ladakh-03.
