The Tamangs

This week had the opportunity to travel for my work. The trip was not a long trip but it meant that I could leave the valley and get out to a remote village. I love getting out from behind my desk and getting out into the villages. This is where I get the most satisfaction from my job.

The trip was to a small village on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley to a people group known as the Tamangs. A building was being built for the local villagers through assistance from one of our associates sending bodies. The project was very important to the local school because it would help the students. In remote areas like this it is often too difficult for young boys and girls to go to school and we wanted to support their efforts to have the priveldge of going to school. I remembered how much I hated going to school when I was little and I thought how selfish I had been for not appreciating how fortunate I was.

As I rode my bike out of town I passed a brick factory. The way Nepalis build bricks is by packing the mud in molds by hand, drying them in the sun, then firing them in the kiln. It is terrible backbreaking work. What really caught my attention was the workers looked to be around 10 years old.

Now this may shock alot of you reading this. I admit that when I first heard about such child labor I was shocked, but this is a different culture and these children needed these jobs to eat. They were able to make enough money to feed themselves and if they were not able to afford to go to school then why not work. This becomes an unfortunate necessity of life.

I finally made it to the little village where I would meet a Scottish woman who was working with the Tamangs. We began hiking up one of the steepest trails that I have ever been on. It went for approximately three miles straight up the side of a mountain. At one point we crossed a road and I was able to use one of the most important skills I learned when I used to kayak......... The ability to hitchhike. We were able to thumb a ride with a backhoe operator up the next few miles of road and reconnect with our trail near the top of the mountain where the village was located. I must admit that I have never hitchhiked on a backhoe before. This proved to be an important part of our trip because we learned about several robberies that were occurring on the trail and the backhoe operator would deliver us safely around them. We also learned that there had been a tragic accident on the top of the mountain involving some of the Tamangs. A truck hauling rocks for the project had fallen off the side of a cliff and killed three people.

We arrived at the village and were able to witness a buddhist funeral. It involved ritualistic dancing, singing, and playing drums and horns to appease the gods. Following the ceremony the body was carried to a nearby hilltop and creamated. This tragic accident had unfortunately widowed a young mother of two small children around the ages of Kody and Luke. Being a single parent in these remote villages is very tough and this loss was devastating to this young family.

The village is very supersticious. Many believe that the project should be halted because the accident was a sign from the gods that they were displeased with the work. Others were able to recognize the importance of the project and saw it as a terrible accident but nothing more than that. Either way the project would be halted for the next 13 days. This was the mourning period for the family and the village would be shut down during this period.

We met with villagers working on the project throughout the day and at the end of the day it appeared that we would be able to resume the work following the period of mourning. The project is an important link to the Tamangs. It shows them that we respect them and value them because we want them to have an education. It also shows them that we want to invest in them and expect nothing in return. Projects like this are investments in peoples lives. Anyone can give money to the poor but they still remain poor. Helping them fight poverty by teaching them how to do it themselves is a long term investment that will hopefully lead to a brighter future for the Tamangs.

At the end of the day we hiked back down the mountain. I was exhausted when we made it to my bike. The young boys and girls were able to go to school in the village but the older kids who were able to go to middle and high school had to hike down this mountain every day and then back up at the end of the day. I cannot believe how much I have taken for granted.

Posted by Jon at December 13, 2003 04:55 AM