She told me she is part of a french funded program that offers scholarships to students that allows them to come to the city and learn skills that they can eventually take back to their village. She is studying business administration. Her village she says, is too far away and too expensive to visit, perhaps even until she is done her studies. When I asked her when she last saw her family, a slight shadow crossed her face and she said it had been a year and a half. Luckily she is living in a dorm with other girls from her village. She seemed to think that the schooling would be worth it, which I have to agree with. I hope there is a need for her skills back in the village. They only received cellphone access one year ago and have yet to get access to the internet, something that many of the world's poor cite as a valuable resource.
These are the challenges of people living in these remote areas. Her family are farmers and she has only one sibling, a brother who is going for training at a monastery. She says once a year the family really makes money because some sort of vegetable grows wild there and they collect as much as possible and then take it to the China border to get whatever price they are given. From my learnings I can only imagine how little they are receiving compared to the retail price once it finally reaches a market.
Certainly there are costs associated with transport and gaining access to this very remote region, but Luijing seemed to think that her parents really didn't know what the price would or could be, which to me is exploitive on the part of the trader.
Overall I was really impressed with her language skills and her attitude towards the sacrifice she was making to help herself gain a better future. She also speaks three other languages, enjoys sports and likes to sing. She was looking forward to the festivals so she could showcase her talents.
Today we booted around outside of Pokhara and visited a dairy run by three brothers, a goat/dairy (this dairy had two buffalo, some holstein and some jersey on their roster) and a vegetable farm. The vegetable farm was a really good visit as the husband and wife had such good chemistry. Entering their farm I really sensed love in the air. Their closing comment after the interview was that they really felt fulfilled with their career in agriculture because it helped them achieve their goals. Both their son and daughter go to really good schools in the city, and throughout the year they have no problems feeding their family.
The translator that I met through a friend of a friend is a real firecracker… she and I made a good team I think and after just this first day I am so thankful for friends of friends of friends who trust each other enough to pass along contacts and make research like this happen.
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| Goats. The goat pen is raised and all the poop falls through the crack to the room below. I suppose it makes it easy for collection. |
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| Fodder chopper. |
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| Vegetable farmers. The man is holding the polaroid I took of them for a thank you gift. |
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| She was kind of being cheeky and messing with her stall mate. |
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