Why does anyone stay here?

Why does anyone stay here? There are seven hours of load shedding per day. The tap water is unpotable. The streets are mostly unpaved and, with rare exception, all filthy. The private schools are expensive and the public schools considered worthless. The air pollution is oppressive and has caused an epidemic of lung disease. There is no central heating anywhere. There is no consistent hot water. And yet, I’m told Nepal offered those who moved here an improvement in living conditions.

The medical director of the clinic where I’m volunteering left his home country of India for medical school in the Ukraine. Then somehow ended up in Nepal, where he has friends, working in a hospital. He took a job at the clinic to work with his friends and now he’s the medical director. Is Nepal an improvement over the Ukraine? From what I hear on the BBC radio, Eastern Europe is experiencing energy shortages worse than those faced in Nepal, with 23 hours of load-shedding per day; seven hours without electricity seems a luxury in comparison.

The story is similar for a fellow nurse. Her parents are Tibetan, but they fled Tibet for India during the conflict with China; my coworker was born in India. The family’s village in India is three hours from the nearest hospital and morbidity and mortality malaria is rampant due to the climate’s hospitality toward mosquitoes. My coworker did a stint in the Indian army where she received her nursing training for free. Financially and logistically I’m not sure how it happened, but her entire family now lives in Nepal and two of her sisters also work at the clinic. So, Nepal, even with all the inconveniences I described in the opening paragraph, is an improvement in living conditions for this family.

If they had the means, why don’t they leave? In the case of the medical director, he had the means to go to medical school in the Ukraine, probably no small feat, why didn’t he keep going? And the nurse – her family made one move to improve their living conditions, why not continue up the ladder?

I’m sure the decision is individual, but can imagine some of the difficulties. In terms of finances, it is much easier to leave one developing nation for another than a developing nation for a developed one; even though the value of the American dollar is falling, the Nepali rupee is still worth only about sixty rupees to the dollar. With the average income around 200$ US, and the cost of airfare probably six- or seven-times more, saving for the cost of travel alone would take a lifetime. Even if one does manage to save to get to his/her adopted home, one must factor in the cost of starting a life in another country, as well as an occasional visit home.

There is also the trouble of procuring a job. Based on the number of signs for schools along the roadside, education seems to be valued. In reality, only the well to do can afford to attend school because the only form of education that is worthwhile is private school. With little or no education, Nepalis have no hope of competing with workers from developed nations for much coveted jobs. Both the medical director and the nurse were educated elsewhere and moved to Nepal in adulthood. Perhaps moving to a developed nation would be easier for them, having been educated elsewhere? The nurse has a daughter who is currently in private school; only time will tell what choices she gets in life, having started in Nepal.