August 5 – Big Changes

As encouraging as my trip with Dr. Sedhain was, our arrival in the village of Bayalpata added a layer of confusion to the Nyaya Health plans. We were intercepted by the local council, who took the opportunity to present their argument: we shouldn’t be working in Sanfe; we should look to restore the abandoned Bodelgata hospital. As explained earlier, the Bodelgata hospital was a 15-bed facility constructed 15 years ago that was never staffed and stocked. To this day, it has never seen a doctor. (See the video for more details.)

Apparently, the residents of Bayalpata had been putting political pressure on the central government to begin work once more on this hospital. They were working to bring electricity and water to the structure within the month, and noted that a road connecting Sanfe and Bodelgata would be built within the year. They wanted us in Bodelgata.

Though our goals as an organization are to eventually bring this hospital to full operative capacity, we had never planned to do it this soon. The timeline had actually been for the migration from Sanfe to Bodelgata over the course of 5 years. Bishnu, however, seems to advocate the Bayalpata route over the current Sanfe project, in which we have invested a considerable amount of time and money. Politics were in play once more.

Shortly after our return to Sanfe, we were approached by yet another coalition, this time from the Airport side. Their mission: to convince us one last time to relocate the hospital to the airport bazaar. After some discussion, they were placated by the concept of the clinic being at Bodelgata… despite the fact that the current clinic was only 20 minutes away (as opposed to a 1.5hour uphill climb to Bayalpata). The rivalry between the two sides is apparently that powerful.

We also finally met with Rajan, whose bus had been stalled in Nepalgunj for the past two days. He confirmed our suspicions that Rajan’s uncle had not been entirely upfront with us. The 40,000 Rupee work was actually a cost he had not yet paid previous builders before our arrival (i.e. he was trying to make us foot the bill for structural work he had done on the building before Nyaya even leased the clinic). Politics once more.

Duncan apologized to me when I returned to Dangadhi for having to watch things get ugly, but I think it has been the exact opposite. This trip has taught me that international health relief is not just about a fairy tale Paul-Farmer-saves-the-world-with-love-and-cutural-understanding scenario. I’m actually quite glad that I’ve had the chance to see the difficulties inherent in working with human societies.