Gurung Uncle

Yikes, what a summer! Kathmandu has a new water park and guerilla-general-turned-prime-minister-turned-political-outcast Prachanda is prime minister again. I've been abroad for some time due to visa difficulties (grumble), and between gallivanting and working, little time has been left to me for the upkeep of this site. Hopefully my glorious return to Nepal will come in 2017, and meanwhile I'll try to keep things moving in the old Fate's Clay newsroom. This one was dredged from the murky nether region of my journals, written about six months ago:

I wish I could rock a hat like that

I don't know this man's real name, but we all affectionately refer to him as Gurung Uncle, Gurung being his caste / ethnicity. He is a groundskeeper and guard at Surya Boarding School in Khandbari, where he has worked for more than twenty years. Every morning he dresses up in his uniform and plays with the kids as they enter the school. He's a really sweet old guy and I've loved him since I arrived here.

Gurung Uncle is now about sixty, by my reckoning and has a son studying in college. They lived together in a one-room thatched-roof hut in the countryside about ten minutes' walk from the school. Gurung Uncle's lifelong dream has been to buy the terraced fields surrounding his house so that he can retire and live off of the land. The cost of the land is $1,500, and he had managed to save about $1,000 so far in his many years of work.

Last month his house burned down in an electrical fire. Since it was entirely wooden and very small, it was quickly engulfed in flames and impossible to save. We saw the smoke from a distance, but we didn't know what caused it until the house was already destroyed. He lost everything he had, including his life savings, his food, and all of his clothes except what he was wearing. We raised money for him through the local branch of the Red Cross, and some friends have given him sacks of rice and other supplies, but it's not nearly enough to cover his losses. Now he's staying at our school, and on his own he'll probably be unable to rebuild his house, and will certainly never achieve his goal of purchasing that land.

That's where we come in. The owner and benefactor of our school has, in gratitude for Gurung's many years of service, funded the replacement of an old shack in the school's fields with a three-room house, which will belong to Gurung until his death. He will also get complete health insurance coverage, which is unheard of in Nepal. A while ago, a bunch of us teachers tore down the shack and leveled the land, all in less that three hours. That's the power of teamwork! The next day, much to my amusement, I caught Gurung working there, expanding the area of the leveled plot. A group of Japanese tourists later came to Khandbari to volunteer as construction workers on the project and made somewhat notable progress. For the time being we'll have to file this one under It'll Get Finished Eventually, but Gurung Uncle is down there every day building it on his own.

Since then, the school forced Gurung to retire with a pension, but he comes up to the school in his uniform and salutes all the kids every day anyway.

That's all. It's nice to get a success story like this once in a while amid so much difficulty.

Water pours

Without words

Showing me the Way

Unexpected Photo Dump #2

Yikes, it's time to dust off the old blog. My goal was to post monthly, and I'm disappointed to see that I couldn't even do it for one lousy year. Anyway, here are some more notable higher quality photos from the last six months or so. Like last time, they're organized by how far I had to go from my room to take them, and include such locations as Downstairs, Surya Boarding School, Tumlingtar, Chainpur, Itahari, Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, and Boulder, Colorado (upon Mr. Kitty's request). I've also standardized my formatting in past posts (hard to do on a smartphone with very slow WiFi), and even removed a few grammatical errors (gasp!) from past entries. Fate's Clay has a couple regular readers (or perhaps, by now, even several!), so sorry for the delay. More written material will follow soon...

Narayan Shrestha

I don't know where to begin with this one. I'm trying to write just a few pages about someone who deserves an entire biography. Although not well known in the United States, Narayan Shrestha is renowned across Nepal for his philanthropy and eccentric-rich-guy antics. In Sankhuwasabha, people talk about him all the time, even when he's not here. When he comes, the army and police both send escorts, and people start gathering at his office before he arrives. His typical day in Khandbari starts with meetings from seven until lunchtime, followed by some public function, inspecting his projects at our school and elsewhere, and then wining and dining some local official - not out of gluttony, but for bringing them under his influence. In Kathmandu he does the same thing with congressmen and ministers. He doesn't always drink beer, but when he does, he drinks Tuborg, because it's the only imported beer that's widely available in Nepal. He's the most interesting man in the world. He's also my employer, friend, Nepali grandfather, and teacher.

In the words of a friend, all that's missing are a few explosions in the back

Narayan grew up in a village close to Khandbari, at a time when there was no electricity and no vehicles, and when Khandbari was little more than a village itself. He got a job at Tumlingtar Airport, which was only a dirt landing strip, and he rode a horse one hour each way to reach there. By meeting and helping foreign trekkers at the airport, he got connections and assistance in the United States and was able to hop over for college. That was about forty five-years ago. After graduating, he got an office job and shortly thereafter opened Old Tibet in Boulder, Colorado, the first kitschy Nepal/Tibet tourist shop in the United States. Anyone who knows Boulder can imagine how well that went. Riding on his success, he opened many other stores and restaurants across Colorado, and gave most of them to his Nepali friends and relatives. He has helped many more Nepali people come to the United States for studies and other work, along with helping refugees of Nepal's civil war to get asylum. The number of Nepalis legally residing in the United States due to his intervention is about three thousand now. However, I'll be the first to say that the solution to Nepal's problems is definitely not having everyone leave, so let's talk about what he has done on his home front.

Total baller

Some of Narayan's early antics include bringing the first land vehicle to Sankhuwasabha, via helicopter, no less, in the '70's, and founding our school, the first private school in Sankhuwasabha, in 1989. After creating Helping Hands Health Education, he began bringing countless medical professionals, both American and Nepali, to provide a caliber of healthcare far beyond what was available locally, and built Sankhuwasabha's first hospital. He was also involved with the building of Sankhuwasabha's only major paved road, which is considered a rare success story among Nepal's government-led projects. At one time he owned a sizable proportion of the land in Khandbari, but he has donated most of it to people in need and to various development projects. Just about every public building has a plaque in it thanking him for his contributions. Everyone in town has a story of how he helped their family.

Lately he's been expanding outward, giving particular attention to Chainpur, a lovely little hill town nearby that has gone unnoticed by the outside world despite its natural beauty, remarkable cleanliness, and unique enterprises such as a fantastic winery and traditional metalsmithing. He's sponsored an ongoing series of free medical clinics, and is working with the town's committee to create and promote tourism. In Bhaktapur, which is perhaps the greatest cultural and historical treasure of Nepal, he has built two thousand temporary houses for those who lost theirs in the earthquakes last year.

Outside of Nepal, he's building a school and hospital in Nicaragua, following the successful model used in Khandbari, developing trade and educational relationships between Nepal and Bhutan, and bringing the Japanese NGO Shumei to create a permanent presence Khandbari. In the typical month, he spends ten days in Colorado, ten days in Nepal, five days in Japan, and five days traveling. He also has a wife, two kids, and his very successful business. I don't know how it's possible.

The dark side of all this is that he attracts greedy, selfish people like a magnet. Even in the face of this and the seemingly endless corruption of the developing world, he forges ahead, sometimes drawing criticism and intrigues disseminated by those who have failed to abuse his kindness. The thing that is really incredible about him, though, is that he finds ways to improve the lives, and minds, of even the people who are trying to take advantage of him, and he does it without ever losing his temper or good humor.

I could go on and on telling stories, like the time that he called the Prime Minister to un-cancel a flight to Tumlingtar during last autumn's fuel crisis, or the time that he came with a battalion of soldiers to retake our school from Maoist guerrillas, but I'll leave it at that. We may soon be hearing much more about him in the United States, as the Democratic Party of Colorado is conspiring to have him elected to a significant local office, followed by a potential Senate run. I have a general distaste for politicians, but I'd have to make an exception for him. He's shown me nothing but kindness and I'm honored to work in his shadow.