On February 12, 2013, feeling ready to return to Nepal, I turned down a job offer. All through my student life in Nepal as well as when studying, working, and traveling abroad, I had been doing a number of things in preparation for that eventuality to really fulfill a dream.
In February 2013, I had a job offer paying several thousand dollars a month. I either accepted it and continued on with my international teaching career or, as I had been contemplating for a while, turned it down and returned to Nepal to pursue a new career. I choose the latter.
Last January I decided to drastically cut down on my social media activism in Nepal. Additionally, I also decided to cull my Facebook friend list and make my Facebook posts viewable only by friends. Four months later, I came across yet another reason to do that.
Two observations about how the lives of my group of close friends from school in Nepal have unfolded. They didn't unfold as we thought they would, not surprisingly.
Leaving Nepal, I discovered a number of things about myself -- such as my versatile tongue and the exoticness of my facial features -- many of which I probably would not have, had I never left the country. Here are a few of them.
I have resigned from COMMITTED and will now start yet another phase in my life. After over fifteen years of international teaching, followed by five of social work, what will be next?
Retirement celebrations were a big deal in the our village of Tangbe in Mustang District. But before 1990, even with a sizeable number of the people living in Pokhara, I don't think many held their celebrations in the city because of the shame they felt in being ethnic Tibetan. Things have changed a lot since then. Here's a glimpse into a celebration that I attended last month.
An incident last October brought back memories of the untimely death of my dear maternal grandfather (the same year my classmates ostracized me at St. Xavier's Godavari School). But determined not to let the same tragedy befall the cousin who had suffered a fall that October night, with help from his older brother, I defied the rest of the cousins to do as I saw fit.
Violence against children in Nepal, in homes and schools, was routine in the seventies and eighties when I was growing up. Results of surveys show it to be so even now, more than two decades later.
Instead of raising children, who have to recover from their childhoods, we should and we can raise them to be kind and compassionate human beings!
I used to really feel uncomfortable introducing myself as "Dorje Gurung" to fellow Nepalis as a young student growing up in Nepal in the eighties.
I still do...but for the exact opposite reason!
I may just have found a way around it thoug!