All the time I was abroad, even while preparing for the eventuality of returning to Nepal, I had never had a timeline. The first time I contemplated a timeline was the Summer of 2009: I gave myself five years. In February 2013, almost four years later, I decided, the time was right to return. Timing was right for a number of reasons, namely, financial, career, weariness with moving, and a little one at home.
Starting in the mid-nineties, I had the opportunity to travel to Nepal as well as live and work in the country briefly. I also traveled and trekked a great deal during that period. Doing so, I learned a great deal about my country and people. As amazing as some of those experiences were, especially the treks, discoveries I made about some of our systems left me wondering if Nepalis are second class citizens in their own country.
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!
A reproduction of a really challenging and resourceful Facebook post by a White American friend of mine for White Americans about being White and addressing racism. I hope you find this as useful as I have, in spite of NOT being white, nor American.
How much hatred must you have or feel for a people to vilify them like this?! These acts can't be chalked up to just simple ignorance.
How people are in some respects -- and also how power dynamics -- work don't change with time. Should you suffer in some way because of that, hardly any of it is about you AND as such you can't do anything about it really. And that's ok!
My attempt at inspiring students from Dolpa, mostly ethnic Tibetans, to pursue their dreams to break out of the limitations and constraints imposed on them by Nepalese culture and society.
Did the Qatar Academy administrators know about my impending incarceration? If so when?
They mostly likely did from the very beginning, from when the formal complaint was filed by the parent.
How, in fifth grade, I began nurturing a near-impossible dream because that had been the only realistic dream!
An example of how students at Qatar Academy deliberately made my life in Qatar so difficult that I hit bottom -- professionally and personally.