OCT-B-1

INAUGURAL MEDICAL MISSION TO SIKKIM AND WEST BENGAL

  1. Oct-B-1  Index to Oct-B-Series in Sikkim
  2. The start of a new adventure in a brand new Eastern Himalayan site: Sikkim; Arrival in Delhi and Air Transit to Bagdogra.
  3. The arrival at Destination Sikkim: Kalim Pong, for the start of clinics in the new medical mission to Sikkim-03.
  4. The first clinic day begins with a run at Kalim Pong.
  5. A rainy day cancellation of the morning run precedes our second full day clinic in the West Bengal district from our Kalim Pong base at Sood’s Garden.
  6. A third clinic day under cover of rainclouds, with high patient volumes, this time in Kalim Pong, West Bengal.
  7. Our final clinic day in West Bengal, reaching beyond one thousand patients, and another attempt to start this day with a run, with the vagaries of electrical power and hot water bucket baths as a limitation.
  8. Closing out West Bengal and Kalim Pong with an amazing total of 1380 patients for four clinic days in this province for my first week, and going on by road, out of West Bengal and into Sikkim, through its capital, Gangtok, and on to our next clinic setup in Mangan.
  9. The start of our new week of clinics in Sikkim, beginning with our base in Mangan, treating a group of indigenous tribal patients in a picturesque setting.
  10. A second clinic day in Sikkim, again treating Lepcha tribal patients in the “upper jungle,” from Mangan, before going on to Gangtok, capital of Sikkim.
  11. Transit from Gangtok, Sikkim by means of a road trip to Darjeeling, for a new city to be explored.
  12. A full long day exploring Darjeeling, from pre-dawn to post-dusk, from Tiger Hill sunrise on Kanchenchunga to a walk all around town—to the (closed) Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering and Zoo, to the “Joy Ride” on the “Rope Way” over tea pickers against the backdrop of Kanchenchunga and the Rangeet valley, preceding another “walkabout”.
  13. Beginning the long trip from east to west, leaving Darjeeling for Bagdogra by road, then the first flight to Delhi, and launch the globe-girdling twin hop from Delhi to Paris to Dulles to return to a transformed Derwood.       

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