The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

What a strange spectacle we must have been to them. I was too fair, and Brooks, an African-American, was too dark; and we were dressed as though from another world. We instructed our interpreter to utter a greeting. The men continued to grip their weapons, however, and their stony faces remained unchanged. Finally, a man spoke, and our interpreter turned to us and cried, “They speak Tibetan and do not understand me!” We encouraged the interpreter to keep trying and to gesture with his hands. As he did, one of the men in the back smiled and jab- bered to his companions. Apparently, he had been to Kathmandu and knew enough Nepali to understand the gist of the interpreter’s words. Soon, the men relaxed and smiled. Our interpreter went on to extol our goodwill mission with promises of medical cures. Soon, women and children poured out of their houses laughing and shrieking their acceptance of us as guests. The Sherpas led us to the esteemed lama who begged us to join him for tea, a hot concoction made from rancid butter, barley flour and concentrated tannic acid. We sipped it politely. The lama accorded us every hospitali- ty during our stay. We found perfect workers for our team in the young women who had once been part of the maharaja’s harem but were returned to their villages when he was deposed in 1950: they spoke Nepali and were eager to help us. The lama also offered us the Buddhist temple to use as a clinic. The translation process, while effective, was cumber- some; the Tibetan dialect had to be translated to Nepali and then to English. We kept instructions as simple as possible, but occasionally the patients provided cause for worry. I would look up and see treated patients swapping pills. The colors of the tablets fascinated them and often one patient had a preference for the other’s remedy. Sometimes, several patients in a row had similar symp- toms as they overheard an earlier person’s complaints. Every village, every patient provided a new learning experience that showed us how to be more judicious in assessing their conditions. We became more attuned to their needs with each succeeding visit. F O C U S 46 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4