Two Arrivals!

On July 28, the container finally arrived in Kathmandu - or rather, its contents arrived by truck to Annapurna Neurological Institute.

Unfortunately, some items were damaged during transportation, but Dr. Pant told me it can be fixed, and he has now distributed the goods between his own hospital and Paropakar.

Another chapter is hereby closed.
On September 13, there was another arrival: our second son Alexander was born at 10.51 am, weighing 3650 gr and measuring 51.5 cm.

We will wire the rest of the donated money to the 2 hospitals during the coming weeks (another USD 10,000 has been raised since March), and then I don't expect much more to happen regarding The Victoria Association or on this blog.

Epilogue
A year ago, around this time, I first read about little Victoria that Sunday in my summerhouse - a year has gone by, and though we lost Victoria only 2 months after getting involved in her destiny, her fate has touched many people around the world and helped us help a lot of others in need.

She will forever be in my heart, the sweet little girl.

2 April: Bhaktapur

This morning, we drove up to the old village Bhaktapur and walked around among the beautiful temples, terracotta- and woodworks.

Tonight, we will have dinner with the Director of Paropakar Hospital, Dr. Lata, and tomorrow we leave for Mumbai where we stay 2 days before returning home.

1 April 2011: on top of the World

We got up very early today and enjoyed Buddha Air's magnificent Mountain Flight over Everest and the other giant mountains of the Himalayas:

In the evening, Dr. Pant had invited us to his home for dinner. First, we got a tour of his other workplace, private hospital Norvic which is situated right across from Paropakar.

Dr. Pant lives in Patan, and we had a great time at his house with his beautiful wife and kids - his little girl showing me her drawings and pictures of a cat that she will be getting, while Christian discussed soccer teams with the oldest son.

31 March 2011: donation day

Today, we got to the Neurological institute around noon, to do the formal cheque handover and arrange practicalities around receipt, container paperwork etc.

Unexpectedly, we were met by the entire hospital staff in the conference room, and they held a kind of ceremony where Dr. Pant gave a speech and we were greeted with flowers, food and sweet tea.

I also said a few words, explaining how the container was filled and on its way to Kathmandu now, and how Victoria's story - and thereby, the awareness of the hospitals - had spread all over Denmark, UK, Ireland, Germany etc., and then we handed over the money and there was a group photo.

Maya was there, too, in a beautiful sari and wearing the bangles I had given her as a departure gift last time.

When she handed me Victoria's left items - her 2 pink bodies and the string of colored wooden elephants that she used to play with - we were both in tears.

After all, nothing of all this will ever bring our little girl back, we can only hope to diminish the suffering of other children in the future.

After Annapurna, we went to Paropakar and a similar "handover" ceremony; in Dr. Lata's office, we gave the cheque and discussed the utilisation of money and equipment. We had tea and cake and received flowers and a buddhist temple model in a glass case.

Back at the hotel, I smelled Victoria's little bodystockings - they still have a slight scent of her, but mostly of hospital.

30 March 2011: Paropakar and Annapurna revisited

My husband and I arrived in Kathmandu yesterday - today, we visited Annapurna Neurological Institute and Paropakar Maternity Hopsital:

Christian met Dr. Pant, and he gave us a tour of the house, so that I could show my husband where Victoria was operated and tested, as well as the room we stayed in. I also had an ultrasound scan in the basement, just for fun, to see if we could detect our coming child's sex, but it (still) wasn't possible to tell, so we will have to wait.

Tomorrow, we have a meeting again at noon, to handover the donation and agree on a plan for how the money will be used. We also have to arrange all the paperwork for receiving the container which was picked up from my address yesterday and is now ready to leave Copenhagen harbour.

After lunch, we went to Paropakar, but Dr. Lata was out - will try again tomorrow morning. But we did visit the Special Care Baby Unit and I showed Christian the backroom where I first met Victoria; they had put a bench in there and moved things around, so the chair she had been lying at was over in a corner.

It was strange to see that room again, without her in it.