Kuenza's Diary

The people of Bhutan have been enjoying free health services till date. The health sector has always been one of the top priorities in the government plan and has always ensured that the people had free access to health care. While the standard of the medical facilities in the rural areas may not be up to the standard as seen in the developed countries, the aim of these basic health units are to attend to the basic health care services such as common ailments like cold, fever, water borne diseases etc. On this front, Bhutan has been performing commendably well and the Ministry of Health reports that the basic health coverage is 90 percent (WHO 2010). It also reports that, because of the free health care access, there has been a prominent decrease in the mortality and morbidity in the recent years with life expectancy at birth rising from 33 years in 1960 to 66 today. Moreover, there is a remarkable improvement on key health indicators, such as immunization coverage, elimination of le...

When I had to take a very difficult subject in the final semester, I panicked that it might detain my return. When I chose my course, I wanted the duration to be 18 months because I thought two years was too long, and one year was too short. I didn’t want to be away from home too long. I am glad things did go as planned – at least this once. And now, I am home. I missed my mother. I missed my country. But until the plane descended and I saw Paro Valley, I didn’t realize the intensity of how much I have missed home. I craned my neck and watched out the window, wanting to carve each small detail of the landscape in my mind:  clumps of clouds strewn overhead, the small isolated houses on the hill tops and down in the valley looked heavenly. I thought even the long zig zag footpaths that go to these houses have happy stories to tell. A chill winter wind welcomed us home as we got out the plane. But I thought, ‘it isn’t as cold as I thought it would be.’ My brother and drive...