Any Port in a Storm - A Nepali Horse-boy's Lost Chance. Part 1

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May 24, 2013, 7:31pm

Any Port in a Storm :: Beyond the Breakwater :: Post Cards :: A Nepali Horse-boy's Lost Chance. Part 1

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Topic: A Nepali Horse-boy's Lost Chance. Part 1 (Read 794 times)

spindrift
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Joined: Feb 2009
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Location: England

A Nepali Horse-boy's Lost Chance. Part 1
« Thread Started on Feb 5, 2009, 8:43pm »

Having waved goodbye to the plane that had taken us to Jomsom (10,000ft) overshadowed by Dhaulagiri and Nilgiri (7,000m peaks)....

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we sorted ourselves out and met our team of mules and horses. We were on our way to the ancient kingdom of Mustang.

But this is not a story about our journey; it's about the small boy, Ishwor, who cared for us and our horses.

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When I met him I guessed that Ishwor was possibly 9 or 10 years old. Because of limited protein in his diet, Ishwor's growth was stunted. He was 12 or 13. The poor do not keep records of their birth dates.

Through the heat of the days and the cold nights, Ishwor was ready and willilng to help us and tend to our horses.
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Nothing was too much trouble for him. By the time we turned round and headed for home we had become very fond of him. Silvia, my friend, said she would like to adopt him and take him to England,
but finally we decided to ask him whether he would like to be educated with the chance of earning a better living than that of horse-keeper.

I should tell you now that a job looking after horses is given only to lowest castes of Nepali people. They are despised and downtrodden. Ishwor's only payment was the food he was given. He slept on rags at night. Toiling year after year over the high mountains would take their toll and he would die young.
Together we decided that he should be sent to a boarding school in Pokhara town. First we would discuss this proposal with his parents.
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Silvia had to leave for the UK so I tracked them down with the help of my Sherpa friend who translated for us. They readily agreed that their son should take advantage of the education we offered. I then set about finding a suitable school for him.

With help, I chose this school and then kitted him out with his first-ever belongings. I bought him a mattress, pillow, sheets, blanket, clothes, books - everything that we in the West take for granted.

I should mention that his parents were homeless and lived on a slab of concrete (pictured) with no possessions. Ishwor's mother had given birth to him and his 2 siblings on this concrete. Both parents earned a few rupees a day by carrying sand up a steep embankment from the Seti Gandakhi river.

For the first year of Ishwor's schooling all went well. He applied himself, was bright and learned quickly. This picture shows how well he looked.
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Then all went quiet. After several months we paid for a friend to fly to Pokhara for the day and find out what had happened to our little protege. It was bad news....for reasons we don't understand he had left the school and joined a circus. He had gone.

What a frightful dilemma. Now we are sticken by the thought that we should not have interfered in someone's life. Who knows whether we have made the future better or worse for him?

« Last Edit: Dec 6, 2011, 1:24pm by spindrift »