{"id":540,"date":"2014-09-02T09:10:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T09:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=540"},"modified":"2014-08-29T16:39:25","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T16:39:25","slug":"july-3rd-pamir-following-in-the-shepherds-footsteps-to-learn-about-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=540","title":{"rendered":"July 3rd – Pamir – Following in the Shepherds\u2019 Footsteps to Learn About Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"BillOn July 3rd<\/sup> around 6am with low cloud we headed out of Shimshal village on foot towards the Pamir.<\/p>\n

Our group included Zulfiqar (Zulfi\/HC administrator + guide), porters Saieed and Hussain, Pat and Dr. Bill.<\/p>\n

Our gear comprised of medicines\/ medical equipment (including blood pressure machine, stethoscope, auroscope, opthalmoscope etc.)\/dressings\/ clothing for kids + LED lantern + food and fuel, camping gear etc.<\/p>\n

A trip like this had not been done before in this area so we were not sure what to expect. We started out with mixed feelings of excitement and apprehension.<\/p>\n

I was interested in traveling the same route that the shepherds seasonally have travelled for decades with their sheep\/goats and yaks.<\/p>\n

Travelling the same route gave us a much better understanding of the many challenges they face and the impact such challenges have on their health. Traditionally mainly women live in the Pamir (4700m) during the summer months(May to October) tending to their animals and a smaller number of men spend the winter months looking after their animals in the winter pasture at a slightly lower elevation. The winter shepherds usually rotate between families. Children from the villages usually join their mothers in the summer pasture once school holidays begin. The fathers usually look after the households, tend to the gardens and fields during the summer months.<\/p>\n

Shortly after we started out eastward along the Shimshal river drainage we encountered rain and cooler temperatures. We crossed the river a number of times and then headed northwards towards Shimshal Pass. We rapidly gained altitude shortly after we turned northward. We traversed a very narrow, exposed, muddy trail above the river. There were beautiful views back towards Shimshal and across to a glacier across the valley. We dropped altitude to cross the second of many suspension bridges we would encounter along the way. We took shelter in an old shepherd\u2019s hut close to the river for a welcome break for chai and chapatti.<\/p>\n

We then gained further elevation above the valley and passed a new shepherd\u2019s house almost fully completed.<\/p>\n

After we gained further elevation, we started a long, narrow traverse high above the river. Some of the wet, slippery rocks added to the challenge along with the elevation gain. As the day went on the clouds started to break up and the rain eventually stopped. We saw ibex\/blue sheep \/yak and shepherd tracks high up on the opposite side of the river.<\/p>\n

We camped close to a side stream and shepherds hut high above the river. We had some rain on and off during the night but the weather cleared by morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 3rd around 6am with low cloud we headed out of Shimshal village on foot towards the Pamir. Our group included Zulfiqar (Zulfi\/HC administrator + guide), porters Saieed and Hussain, Pat and Dr. Bill. Our gear comprised of medicines\/ … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,35,11,28,14,27,22],"class_list":["post-540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-e-health","tag-education","tag-fundraising","tag-health","tag-medicine-in-remote-locations","tag-pakistan","tag-world-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-03_02-01-28.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4UPJH-8I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":553,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=553","url_meta":{"origin":540,"position":0},"title":"July 8th (Tuesday) Back at Shimshal, Again.","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"8 September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We woke up to a crisp, clear, blue sky morning. The early morning sun brought back warmth and great light to the pasture. After chai and chappatis at Tai Bibi\u2019s house we donated a solar lantern to the community, said our goodbyes and started out across the snow covered, sun\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"e-health\"","block_context":{"text":"e-health","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=e-health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-07_19-31-21.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-07_19-31-21.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-07_19-31-21.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":546,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=546","url_meta":{"origin":540,"position":1},"title":"July 5th (Saturday) – Shimshal Pamir","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"4 September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We awoke to some fresh snow and cooler temperatures. We started out a little later than originally planned (7.15am) because of the conditions. We started up a very muddy, steep incline in fresh snow. Our single poles came in handy to get some traction along the steeper muddy trail. Fortunately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"e-health\"","block_context":{"text":"e-health","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=e-health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-05_23-30-46.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-05_23-30-46.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-05_23-30-46.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":549,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=549","url_meta":{"origin":540,"position":2},"title":"July 6th (Sunday) Shimshal Pass Summer Pasture","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"7 September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Shimshal Pass summer pasture at 4700m.We woke up to a crisp morning with scattered clouds. At 5am women were milking their sheep\/goats and yaks in the stone walled enclosures in subzero temperatures. There was a calm, focused silence among the shepherds in the animal enclosures. By 8am the milking was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"e-health\"","block_context":{"text":"e-health","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=e-health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-06_09-54-59.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-06_09-54-59.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-06_09-54-59.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":510,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=510","url_meta":{"origin":540,"position":3},"title":"Hunza, Pakistan – June\/July 2014","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"27 August 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In June\/July 2014, Dr. Bill Hanlon, Founder and Medical Director of Basic Health International Foundation returned to Hunza in north east Pakistan to build on existing medical programs and expand it\u2019s work into more remote areas such as the Shimshal summer pastures at 4700m, Chipursan Valley (3500m), Misgar Valley (3075m)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Fundraising\"","block_context":{"text":"Fundraising","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=fundraising"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-06-28_22-45-10.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-06-28_22-45-10.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-06-28_22-45-10.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=535","url_meta":{"origin":540,"position":4},"title":"Shimshal (July 2nd)","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"1 September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Our first morning in Shimshal involved a number of meetings and organising food and gear for our upcoming hike to the summer pastures of Shimshal Pass. We visited the Shimshal Health Centre early in the morning. We met the staff and then joined Mr Farman Ullah at his clinic, seeing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"e-health\"","block_context":{"text":"e-health","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=e-health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-02_06-20-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-02_06-20-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/basichealthinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/2014-07-02_06-20-20.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":543,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=543","url_meta":{"origin":540,"position":5},"title":"July 4th (Friday) Travel Day","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"3 September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We started out the day gaining good elevation along the side creek and then started a long traverse high above the river. There were spectacular mountain and river views along the traverse. The footing was more forgiving as things started to dry out. 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