Beyond the NextVillage: A Year of Magic and Medicine in Nepal

(Paperback)

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Beyond the Next Village is Mary Anne Mercers memoir of discovery, growth, and awakening in 1978 Nepal, which was then a mysterious country to most of the world. After arriving in Nepal, Mercer, an American nurse, spent a year traveling on footoften in flip-flopswith a Nepali health team, providing immunizations and clinical care in each village they visited. Communicating in a newly acquired language, she was often called upon to provide the only modern medicine available to the people she and her team were serving. Over time, she learned to recognize and respect the prominence of their cultural beliefs about health and illness. Encounters with life-threatening conditions such as severe malnutrition and ectopic pregnancy gave her an enlightening view of both the limitations and power of modern health care; immersed in villagers lives and those of her own team, she realized she was living in not just another country, but another time. This unique story of the joys and perils of one womans journey in the shadow of the Himalayas, Beyond the Next Village opens a window into a world where the spirits were as real as the trees, the birds, or the rainand healing could be as much magic as medicine.

Reviews

Mercers memoir of her months as a volunteer nurse in Nepal is moving, uplifting, and timely. Written with insight and humility, it illustrates the dilemmas of being a stranger in a strange landeven if youre a stranger with the best intentions and the tools to truly be of service. Mercers eye for detail, humor, and frank self-reflections makeBeyond the Next Villageenjoyable as both memoir and travelogue. Its also a sobering reminder, during these pandemic years, of how wealth determines the standard of medical carenot just across international borders, but within developing countries.

Jeff Greenwald, author ofShopping for BuddhasandSnake Lake

Was I ready to change my life a young American nurse asks as she ventures into Nepalese villages at a time when the Himalayas were mostly unknown. Mary Anne Mercer treks between worlds in this mesmerizing memoir of adventure and initiation into another culture, another way of healing, of understanding home.
Brenda Peterson, author ofWolf NationandI Want to Be Left Behind

With deep compassion and sharp critical insight, Mercer chronicles the challenges of delivering healthcare in rural Nepal while also recounting a more personal story of a woman working through her own uncertainties and vulnerabilities to embrace her calling. This is a must-read for any traveler who hopes to help in Nepal.
Elizabeth Enslin, author ofWhile the Gods Were Sleeping: A Journey through Love and Rebellion in Nepal

You can only go to Nepal for the first time in your life once.The author came do meaningful workand has never really left Nepal. This candid, compelling memoir gives a glimpse why.
Stephen Bezruchka, author ofTrekking in Nepal

This is a vivid and compelling story of a young nurses challenging trek through rural Nepal to deliverhealthcare to families in remote villages. With compassion and honesty, Mercer grapples with uncertainty and frustration as she adapts tolocal cultural beliefsand scant resources. In the process, she comes to better understand herself as a health-giver and to embrace the deeper mysteries of healing.
Margaret Combs, author ofHazard: A Sisters Flight from Family and a Broken Boy

Mercers account of her year in Nepal takes us back to a formative time in the country, when modern medical care was making an inroads into rural communities in the 1970s. She examines local life with honesty, as an informed and engaged outsider, questioning local customs while also accepting her own limitations to change them.Beyond the Next Villagewill interest everyone who loves Nepal, with a portrait of times past that is vivid, tender, and deeply moving.

Manjushree Thapa, author ofForget Kathmandu

Mercer has written a vivid account of a volunteer American nurse in Nepal honest, open, and thoughtful about health care and the bigger picture of international aid and volunteerism.
Naomi Bishop, author ofHimalayan Herders

This is a personal story that takes the Western-world reader into the lives of Nepali women. Though the years described are four decades ago, the beliefs still hold today. Welcome to a glimpse of another culture among splendid mountains and people.
Daniel C. Taylor, President, Future Generations University and author ofCairns: A Novel of Tibet

There is a real pattern to culture-shock . . .yet Mercer does not turn away from any season of this cycle of transformation. She also comes to question the wisdom, ethics, and effectiveness of helicoptering in healthcare, without attending to the immediate needs of these communities, and without being part of the effort to extend a sustainable public health care system into the poorest and most isolated parts of the world. This tale of humility found should be shared with all global health practitioners and scholars.

Rachel Chapman, author ofFamily Secrets: Risking Reproduction in Central Mozambique

Author Bio

Mary Anne Mercer grew up on a Montana ranch and has spent most of her career working in public health in countries around the globe. A writer and activist, she coedited Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health and has published extensively in the Huffington Post on issues of social justice and health. Excerpts from her book have appeared in Tikkun magazine, the Communion Arts Journal, and the book Secret Histories: Stories of Courage, Risk, and Revelation. She received a 2012 Silver Solas Award from Travelers Tales for Best Travel Writing and the 2015 inaugural award for Communicating Public Health to the Public from the University of Washington. She lives in Seattle, Washington.