Sickness, Strikes and Sunrise

So I've been really ill.
Had some horrendous stomach cramps, the dreaded diarrhoea and ovaries fit to burst, continuous agony. These cowboy supervisors jumped at the chance to self diagnose and decided it must be "lady pains". Anything to do with the fact that they are both men and were confused.com about my symptoms?
The joke is that I've been on the pill throughout my stay in Nepal and haven't allowed for a period as I thought it would be too hot and just plain nasty. Lucky I did because when you are a woman in Nepal and are menstruating, you are segregated from the family for the first 4 days. Not allowed in the kitchen, and therefore cannot cook, must eat seperately, and cannot talk directly to your buwa etc. However this varies between families and depends on how educated they are about this natural occurrence. Although it isn't too bad in my household as the women run tings here, just how I like it!
Erm yea so it couldn't have been anything to do with periods, eventually after a night and day of dying in my bed after taking budget pills for period pains to no success, I was taken to the hospital.

OMD the ambulance is basically a minivan with a blue light attached and a cross painted on it. All I have to say is that if you had broken your back and was not paralysed when you were picked up, you would definitely be after a ride in one of those. A&E was quite swift, although I didn't like them putting that thing in my vein that allows them easy access for injecting me! Still have the bruise!
After analysing my stool and piss I was informed that I have a stomach infection and am on antibiotics and painkillers for a week. It's good we can't go to Thamel this weekend because I wouldn't have been able to drink!

The reason we couldn't go is also related to the slight apprehension about taking me to the hospital. Since last Saturday there have been strikes all throughout Nepal. This is because of the Maoist political party. At the moment they have 45% of the seats (enough to influence decisions) and their demands have not been acknowledged, hence the riots and strikes. There were a lot of demonstrations going on, a load of Maoists in their red colours marching around blowing whistles. 2 people have been killed. And for everyone's safety the only vehicles allowed in and out of villages and towns etc were ambulances, police and the army.
So when I was in the ambulance I had been instructed to lie down, so as not to instigate and attacking of the vehicle if the Maoist's had seen a tourist. My sister told me that the people in Thamel, Kathmandu are without gas, food, proper water because no shops were open and buses weren't running, it was a ghost town out there. I noticed that whilst out in the ambulance, the usual hubbub of horns, mad gridlock and general mayhem of Nepal's roads were non existent. Eerie. As long as we stay in Sirutar we are generally safe and on the plus side we seem to have electricity 24-7! Blup!

Last week we visited Nagarkot, the place with the beautiful sunrise views. It was flipping raining on the way and all night too, hailstones the size of golf balls as it was blitz. Circling round and round the mountains on the thinnest roads and in a rusty, dusty bus didn't feel like the safest thing!
The hotel was decent, we had seperate cabin like rooms. Noticed a bit of gender inequality going on with the women's quarters without running water and electricity for longer periods of time. Funny how everyone came flocking to our room regardless. The evening was amazing, we all sat around the fireplace near the bar singing along to tunes played by some of the volunteers on their guitar and mandolin. The guy with mandolin is sick! He can play tunes from FF9 even.
We were allowed to drink aswell, either 2 beers or 2 bottles of wine. Seriously!? Tough choice lol. Waking up in the morning was hard as it was a 5am start to get to the viewing tower in time for the sunrise. We were delayed differently by the supervisor getting the shits. Even though we slyly missed it and it was foggy I still managed to get some postcard worthy pics!

Ah man, went to an orphanage in Lubloo yesterday. I had so much fun playing around with the children. There was a trampoline!!! We brought them sweets, paints, crayons, balloons, it was quite jokes. So much fun in fact that I temporarily forgot what the place actually was, then I got quite emotional. It was bittersweet. Got the orphanages address so I can send them all the photos taken.
Weighed myself there aswell, was 10 stone when I left and now the scales wanna tell me I'm 9 stone, 4!? I hope not, that's too much so it must be wrong. You be the judges, lol.

19 days to go!

I am ready to come home bitches! Are you ready?

xxxxxxx