The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

A problem not so easily solved came at the end of our visit to particular villages where the Sherpa girls wanted to become our wives. Polygamy is practiced in Sherpaland, and when the girls learned that both Brooks and I had only one wife apiece, they rallied the entire vil- lage to support their efforts to marry us. We fumbled about for diplomatic regulations, but this was a situation Washington had definitely not prepared us for. Finally, Shiva struck the right note — our prestige and high standing in America forbade us even to consider marry- ing girls from the small villages. The girls withdrew, quite satisfied that there was no chance for them. Friendship as a Cure The health programs we implemented in Nepal in the 1950s were successful, measured not only by the positive results we witnessed while there, but by their continuation in the form of new initiatives that fol- lowed. By 1977, for example, when Nepal had acquired roads and electricity, malaria was eradicated. The intensive anti-malarial programs that the U.S. and the World Health Organization supported throughout the 1960s allowed Nepal’s Terai area to be repopulated and to become the bread basket for the country, even- tually exporting 15 percent of its grain crops to India. (Sadly, like most other parts of the developing world, Nepal has seen the return of malaria in recent years due to drug resistances and persistent poverty.) Medical school had trained me as a physician, but did not prepare me for the challenges of treating people with a sharply different culture, belief system, education and worldview. It was direct experiences with the Nepalese that taught me medical diplomacy. Instead of disregard- ing their culture, which would have had disastrous results, I respected it and integrated it into my medical practice. They accepted what I did because they trusted me, and they trusted me because I respected them. Perhaps medical diplomacy can best be summed up by Buddha’s dictum that “friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace.” F O C U S D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 47 T HE R EMINGTON