Artist Govinda Prasad Sah “Azad”

Govinda Sah “Azad” is a Nepali artist gaining reputation in the international art circuit. He has MFA in Painting from Wimbledon College of Arts, London; and was shortlisted for Sort listed for 2010 John Moores Contemporary Painting Award, UK.

Above the Sky, Oil on Canvas by Govinda Sah. Image via Govindasah.com.

The Ecologist interviewed Azad earlier this year, and discussed his paintings and how he relates to the environment and global warming.On painting clouds, Sah says,

“‘When I started, I was a landscape painter and the first time I really encountered clouds was in 1999 when I was painting near the mountains [in Nepal] before sunrise. As the sun started to rise, a small bubble appeared and these bubbles were clouds. Within an hour these bubbles had become massive and I had to stop painting because the mountain was gone. I didn’t think I’d paint clouds then  – I was irritated because no-one could see how beautiful the mountains were thanks to the clouds. But I never forgot it and later on, in 2006, I started to paint the clouds themselves.”

Asian Art has profiled his art work. Sah is represented by The October Gallery.

“October Gallery has been instrumental in bringing to worldwide attention many of the world’s leading international artists, including El Anatsui, Rachid Koraïchi, Romuald Hazoumè, Nnenna Okore, Laila Shawa and Kenji Yoshida. The Gallery promotes the Transvangarde, the very best in contemporary art from around the planet, as well as maintaining a cultural hub in central London for poets, writers, intellectuals and artists, and hosts talks, performances and seminars..”

For more on this work and background, please visit his page.

American Nurse in Nepal

Joe Niemczura, on working in Nepal-teaching nursing at Tansen Nursing School.

Mission Hospital in Tansen is run by United Missions to Nepal, the first Christian NGO allowed to operate in Nepal. I teach nursing at the University of Hawaii and in 2007, I made my first trip to Nepal to teach nursing at Tansen Nursing School (TNS). In Tansen I taught bedside clinical skills, working side-by-side with nurses and doctors treating actual patients, pretty much exactly what I do with nursing students in Hawaii.

Most videshi nurses that come to Nepal do not have a background in critical care, management, or teaching as I do, and so I was able to look at the way the hospital was run with a degree of insight and sophistication that other newly-arrived videshis may not have brought. My book “The Hospital at the End of the World” describes my first trip to Nepal and I have now made four trips.

Oprah Winfrey, the TV host, was once interviewing a famous author named Toni Morrison, about her most recent book. Oprah said “Tell me about your book –  if you just had one paragraph to let everyone in the TV audience know what your book was about, what would you say?” And Toni replied: “Honey, if I was able to say it in just one paragraph, I wouldn’t have bothered writing a book!”

The same applies with respect to Nepal health care issues. Culture, geography, politics and globalization have worked to create the situation today. The single biggest factor which challenges the system is lack of money. The Nepali doctors and nurses and intelligent enough, hard working enough, dedicated enough; but do not have the resources in place.

Even simple things, such as adequate textbooks, become difficult to obtain. I have worked with SNEHA, the Nepal Society of Honolulu, to bring up-to-date nursing textbooks to Nepal, and we have established the best library of nursing books in Nepal, a resource for all Nepali nurses. Lalitpur Nursing Campus allows all students from other schools to use this resource. If you are returning to Nepal, why not bring a book to donate to LNC or one of the Universities?

This summer I am in Kathmandu. I invite you to read about the 2011 trip in ‘real time’ on my blog, “Kathmandu Critical Care 2011.