The Happiest Country

The innocent smiles of the Nepalese people most touch my heart

(Translated by Elaine Ng.  Proof-read and edited by Mitch Silver.)

I remember having seen a documentary in which a Nepalese said these words – which still rings in my ears - “Although Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, I am sure we are one of the happiest.”

My experiences as a volunteer in Nepal these years confirmed those words. Every time I walked on the streets, the Nepalese people, whether old or young, would smile to me beautifully; sometimes putting their palms together in front of their heart, greeting me with “Namaste!”.

I ran into some Nepalese people on my way, and they would enthusiastically let me take pictures of them.

Even after the earthquake disaster, they are able to laugh away the troubles – such an attitude makes a strong impression on me. This is not to say that they did not feel sad or did not cry after the earthquake; nor that they were not stressed or fearful when they had to sleep in the tents during the days of aftershocks. However, I often feel they have a natural tendency to see beyond life and death – which may be due to the fact that poverty and illness easily take away lives there.

When we were on our way to Gorkha 4 days ago, there were people carrying the deceased to a funeral. There were many onlookers, and Amrit of the children’s home explained, “It is good fortune in our tradition to come across a scene like this. Our journey today will be blessed.” A traditional believe like this is incredible – usually when we come across a funeral or a coffin, we would try to run away. Yet to the Nepalese, they would get together to watch to receive good luck. I believe this is probably one of the reasons why the Nepalese people are happy-go-lucky.

The Nepalese people are always able to laugh away any situations.

Four days ago we went to Gorkha to inspect several schools that had been destroyed. I was deeply moved by the villager’s strength of character. The first school we observed was Shree Sharada Secondary School (being the only secondary school in the Khoplang area in Gorkha), with 407 students and 15 teachers. 31 May was the first day of school after the earthquake. The two buildings of the school were destroyed by the two earthquakes. Although one building remained, it had been assessed as too dangerous for classroom use by engineers, so the students were attending classes in the temporary shelter.

The campus of Sree Sharada Secondary School was destroyed in the earthquake.

When we arrived, we realized that even the temporary classrooms were not ready, and several hundred students were having classes under the trees. At first, this natural “classroom” looked beautiful, with boulders as chairs and leaves as roof. However, we could not imagine the insects, the heat and the downpours once the rainy season began. 

Temporary shelters still being built.

Students having classes under the trees.

These Grade 9 big boys had to sit on the same boulder for class.

I felt strong admiration for the teachers and the students who did not complain but remained cheerful, understanding that it was a temporary solution.

Amrit and the teachers discussing about the temporary classroom.

No desks; books in laps

Next, we went to inspect the only higher secondary school in the Khoplang area. It, being a mountainous area, this school with 750 students was located at least one and a half hours walk from the main road. We were lucky enough to have the local volunteers arrange motorbikes for us. When I saw the steep and muddy paths, I could easily visualize the students having to walk the difficult route on a daily basis.

This school had six buildings, two of which were completely destroyed, one was half damaged, and the other three were assessed as dangerous buildings. Fortunately, the school had already built some temporary shelters using tin sheets for the roof and bamboo for the walls.

One of the completely destroyed school buildings in Annapurna higher secondary school.

The local engineer explained the advantages of using bamboo to build the shelters. He recommended that we also use bamboo as the main material for reconstruction.

Even though the administration building of Annapurna secondary school did not collapse, it was quite heavily scarred.

The last school we inspected was Esthanika primary school. It was smaller, with only 40 students. They recently constructed a new building on the campus, but it together with the two old school buildings were all destroyed in the earthquake.

The Esthanika campus was completely destroyed, with the desks and chairs left in open air.

There were 5 other primary schools in the area. The campuses were intact, but as the aftershocks were still frequent, the students are still having classes in temporary shelters. We also experienced a small aftershock when we were inspecting the school.

After inspecting these schools, Amrit and I felt that they were in great need of help. Thanks to the donations from all over the world in the past months, Light On will be able to partly finance rebuilding one of the schools. I want to thank Hong Kong architect Charles Lai, who volunteered to draft the reconstruction plans for us as well as provide other assistance. However, the reconstruction work is expensive, so we still need your help. If you want to know more about our reconstruction work, or provide financial or any other assistance, please contact us and follow us on FB: Light On

The beautiful and curious students in the mountains are waiting for us to help.