Sad to Leave the SMD School

 Over the past month we have made lots of great connections with Nepali teachers, children, young students, university students, and leaders of some of the largest non-profit groups here in Nepal. After a month here in Kathmandu, my feelings about the city have completely changed. I have learned to enjoy (more like tolorate) the maze of streets, constant honking, and pollution. But more importantly, I have learned to love the culture. The first thing I noticed about teaching here was the lack of "troublemakers" in the class room. Not one kid exists at this school who is taking his/her education for granted. What is wrong with American students these days? Are we too involoved with our itouches and gameboys to appreciate the gift of education? The lack of motivation among so many students in America, even college students, astounds me. Being around students between grades 7-9 that voluntarily assign their own homework every night, truly is a rather motivating sight. Two nights a week I was assigned to help the boarding students witht their homework, and I would see my math students working on problems that I never assigned them. They just wanted to practice what I had taught them in class. The difference between here and America is that every student here understands the immense opportunity they've been given. Not only do they realize education is the key that can open doors to life possibilities, but they internalize it. The most common question I am asked from kids here (even from children less than 10 years old) is "What is your aim in life?"  When I reply, "I don't really know yet, I'm young," they look at me in astonishment. I am not saying I think American kids should be more focused on their "aims" or careers at all. I'm just trying to make the point that too many kids feel entitled to their education and don't realize the infinite possibilites literally being handed to them. After all, if I would not have been lucky enough to have an education, I would not have gotten the possibility to travel here on a grant from my school.
Apart from the children's great respect for education, I love their buddhist rooted philosophy of sharing and caring for others before yourself. A couple weeks ago, Emma, two senior girls from SMD (Seniors here are graduated students that are taking a year off to apply for universities), and I had to make dinner for the 25 other seniors in the appartment with a budget of 400 rupees (a little over $5). We spent 3 hours making chickpea burgers and french fries. Later that night I found out from Emma that while everyone was eating, she had walked into the kitchen and saw that the two girls that had helped us make all the burgers were now making instant ramen noodles. Apparently they had handed out all the burgers and their were not enough left for them because some people wanted two burgers. Instead of taking a burger from someone that wanted two, the girls just made instant noodles and laughed over the whole situation. Somehow, I don't think this situation would play out similarly in America.
Over the past month, SMD and Kathmandu have become my home, and I am sad to leave this beautiful place (Kathmandu is beautiful in its own way). Tomorrow is our last day and an important one for the school because it is the Karmapa's Birthday. The whole school will go to its sister monestary for religious ceremonies then we will return to the school for a talent show. Emma and I somehow got dragged into a group to perform Soul Sister by Jason Miraz. Emma is participating in a "fusion" ensemble of Nepali and Western instruments performing a set of 3 Nepali folk tunes. Assuming we are able to get our trekking permits today, we will depart for our trek in the Everest Region. We are no longer planning on the Annapurna Circuit trek for various reasons. Instead, we will be embarking on the Gokyo Lake trek. We thought about doing the Everest Base Camp trek, but we hear the base camp is just a bunch of rocks and quite polluted, so instead we will be trekking to Gokyo Lake where we can get the similar close up views of Everest with better immediate surroundings. At best the trek will take us 12-14 days. By some miracle Bishnu recieved his passport and will be joining us when we return from our trek in Katmandu. For readers who do not know Bishnu, he is a bhutanese refugee who lived in the refugee camps in Southeast Nepal until two years ago when he was granted acceptance to the refugee resettlement program in America. My sister met Bishnu two summers ago when working at the International Refugee Committee in Atlanta. Since then Bishnu has become my brother and has lived with us off and on over the past two years. This will be the first time he has come back to Nepal to see his family. With not enough time to express all my thoughts and experiences, I will leave it at this...
Thanks for reading.