Lunch for Dr.Lotay and Team

Dr.Lotay's team began their voluntary surgical camp in Bajothang on 4th Nov 2013. The next day my wife underwent the surgery. During my two days in the hospital I have witnessed the finest human qualities and absolute sacrifice. He ran from one end of the hospital to another with bright smile on his face, between two surgeries he sees 10 to 20 patients, still there are people waiting to take chances on his way to the OT. He shows no sign of disgust, he rather walks them to the bench and ask them to wait there until he finishes his next case. This continues from 8 in the morning to late into the night. In the following day the team spent over 18 hrs straight, completing record 32 cases in a day, and calling it a day only at 5AM in the morning.

Dr.Lotay doing his last surgery in Bajothang on 13th Nov.

 I was so proud to see my school mate and adopted sister Nime Chunda in the team. She always had that caring nature in her and this time she has found the right team to work with. She hides her shy smile behind the mask and deals with hundreds of patients with consistent softness. I offered to bring her meals but she declined saying she eats with the team in the hospital itself and that's when I learned that they were eating at the hospital mess. I know the food there isn't so bad but for the team that's doing so much I felt it would be an honour to offer them good meals.

I made a casual post on Facebook about offering lunch to the team and suddenly I received a message from a Bhutanese living in New York. Ugay Wangmo supports various causes in Bhutan and this time she asked me to offer lunch to the team and has sent me Nu.10,000. I was so motivated that I offered to serve them lunch throughout their stay here. Even my school and my friends promised their help. By 10th Nov morning my wife recovered enough to help me and together we worked on menu for 13 member team and over 6 helpers. We ordered the lunch from the best hotel in the town.

It's interesting to observe that the team has no set lunch break, they run for lunch in twos and threes as they get time and rush back. Dr.Lotay himself had less than 20 mins to finish his lunch before the next case was ready. But I love it so much when he looked at his menu and commented: "Someone must have told you that I love fish." Yes he loves fish. He was so pleased to see my wife standing and working. Later in the evening when we went to serve them tea and momo, he took my wife in front of the crowd of anxious people and said, "See, there is nothing to worry about. She had her surgery and now she can even work, she is our cook." She was made to show her healing wounds.

Patients consult Dr.Lotay during the Lunch Break

That night they went on till 5AM in the morning to complete 32 cases. After few hours of rest on 11th Nov they conducted 80 endoscopy and still managed to work on seven surgeries which took them till 2:30 AM, this morning. During the lunch I expected to see everybody exhausted but not surprisingly they were full of energy. They were relaxed and had little more time to spare. They say that jokes keep them awake and give them energy but at the end it's the passion that drives them to extremes.

I got a call from a young entrepreneur, Chencho Dorji who wants to help me in offering lunch to the team and he contributed the additional amount of Nu.2000 for yesterday's lunch. For tomorrow a close friend of mine, and an inspiring young leader has offered his hand. He said said, his is not rich but he can do so much for Dr.Lotay. He will send me Nu.5000. He chose to be unnamed. At the end I may have to contribute only a small amount but experience of doing it is an honour for my family and all thanks to three of you.

The following is a poem that has inspired Dr.Lotay and I hope it does the same to all of us. Thanks Tshewang Rabgay for sharing it.

Do it Anyway

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. 
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. 
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. 
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. 
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. 
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. 
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. 
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. 
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. 
It was never between you and them anyway.

~Mother Teresa

Invitation to Bhutan

My sister in-law is a Japanese, living and working in Taiwan. She visited my brother for the first time after their long Facebook relationship in September and spent over a week with my family. She enjoyed her times with us so much that she sacrificed her job and bonuses to meet us again in October. Fifteen day stay made her even more happy and wanted to come here again.

This time I thought I should invite her as our personal guest so that she won't have to pay so much as she did during her first two visits- she paid cost of a car already. However, I didn't know that the Immigration in my country won't acknowledge her relationship with us. My application for invitation was rejected. By the rule they have in their book, we should have met her outside Bhutan to qualify for invitation, which otherwise means that she can't be my sister in-law because she met us in Bhutan. What could be the possible logic behind recognizing acquaintance outside Bhutan? What I think should be important is the authenticity of the relationship. 

At Dochula, during her second visit.

Many people I contacted for information advised me to find a person who has been to Taiwan and prepare the application in their name, or to cook up a story of having met her in Singapore during my visit there but I defended knowing our true story was far better than those lies- after all they are humans at the other end! If I had known there are all robots interpreting the rules rigidly I would have listened and lied.

It's not all about money. I just wanted to show her the Bhutanese we are, our courtesy and hospitality to guest, and that's not possible after letting her pay thousands of dollars. She was supposed to visit us for the third time in February 2012 but she couldn't wait that long. And here my application was rejected. I couldn't tell her that she could will have to pay a huge price to meet us again but it turned out that she was more Bhutanese than the people who rejected my application. She consoled me saying, "Hey brother, don't worry, money can be made." 

And thus she came here for the third time as tourist and these days she is with us in Wangdue having a wonderful vacation with my family.

P:S: If you happen to be a wanna-be guest or a host and stumbled upon this post while Googling, please note that this article is not to encourage you to cheat your way out in this process, but I am not responsible if your application is rejected after telling the truth either!