Nima: A Sherpa in Connecticut

This book details the experiences of an average upper-class American family who befriend and bring home a tubercular Sherpa guide from Nepal. In 1980, Fuller and her husband visited Nepal in the hopes of gathering some material for a new book. They didn't speak any Nepali or Tibetan, and their guides didn't speak English well enough to translate interviews with the mountain-dwelling monks, so the planned book never materialized. However, one of their Sherpa guides, Nima, turned out to be exceptionally endearing. When they learned that his persistent cough was actually TB and that local treatments were not making him well, they determined to bring him home with them to Connecticut for treatment. When Nima arrived at JFK airport in New York, he weighed only 80 pounds and was quite feeble with his disease. They had to carry his pack, and almost had to carry him back to their house in Connecticut. There, they deposited him in a room fully equipped with bed, color TV, posters, etc- -all the trappings of an American teenager. Neither Nima nor the Fullers were prepared for the cultural misadventures that were to follow. Nima had little knowledge of modern conveniences like indoor running water or electric ovens, and he thought everything that appeared on TV was true. Although the Fullers had spent 40 days living in Nima's world in Nepal, they had developed virtually no understanding of how incomprehensible American life would be for Nima. Nevertheless, through their bumbling good well and Nima's adaptability and resourcefulness, they eventually achieved a working understanding of each other's cultures. This was, no doubt aided quite a bit when the carpenter the Fullers hired to put on an addition to their house turned out to be a returned Peace Corps worker, who took Nima under his wing as an unofficial apprentice. Miraculously, Nima was able to return to Nepal and readapt to his own culture when his six month US visa was up. With its amusing anecdotes and dire warnings of the consequences of cultural ignorance, this book would be a source of delight, reference, and discussion for those considering taking in an exchange student or otherwise participating in a cultural exchange. The book is illustrated sporadically with black and white tourist quality photographs.