We've finally arrived at the main PP office. On the way from Yushu, we crossed several more high passes- one at 4800 meters, another at 4600. As we rolled up to Zhiduo, we were greeted by snow-capped peaks. We're now settled at 4200 and will not be climbing again until we go into the project area at the end of the week. The day was sunny but breezy and a bit dusty. I went for a two hour walk along the river plain towards the Yangtze.
Living conditions are quite a bit different here: every room has a yak dung stove that we have to burn for warmth. Every meal has to be cooked on the same style stove. Water is drawn by hand from a well and must be boiled or filtered before consumption. There is an outhouse with no roof and no door- but with a lovely view of the snow-capped peaks! The main office and living quarters are in a concrete block house with tiled floors. However, I am staying in a rented room at the neighbor's house- an adobe home with mud walls and floors. Luckily there is electricity this time of year (later the canal that drives the hydropower will freeze over) and there is also high-speed internet- though it's a bit spotty. I'm hoping to find a shower house in town, but if I can't I'll be doing what everyone else does: heating a kettle on the stove and spot washing from a basin.
The town is home to about 4,000 residents and is a wild-west outpost built along one main street packed full of nomads, animal hides, motorcycles, and wind driven billows of gritty dust!
We're planning to go out Wednesday to check up on one of our clinics to see how effectively they are serving the community and how safely they are disposing of needles and bio-hazards. We will also be taking water samples for contamination testing. Then- if all goes well- we will be leaving Thursday for an extended trip through another part of the project area to check on the rest of the clinics, take water samples, and take grass clippings for a grazing study.
It's much lonelier out here and I have great respect for those who are coming from comfortable backgrounds to live and work and raise families under such conditions.
