ARCHIVE of Earlier Stories
Pemba Sherpa's Story
Pemba is a Sherpa from Sankhuwasbava district, on the borderland of Nepal and Tibet. He got some education when he was young, but the village school only went to Class Three. And that is as far as Pemba got with his education although although he speaks several languages fluently and is extremely capable. Like most Himalayan children, he was very young when he started work. When he was was fourteen he started high-altitude expeditions and treks.
He was so outstanding at his job that in 1997 some clients invited him to the US as their guests. (And again in 2006, some clients flew him to Holland and Switzerland.) Newspapers have put Pemba on their front pages and he was invited to dinner by media celebrities such as Tom Brokaw and Michael Keaton.
2006: Pemba In Holland (note SMD brochures he'd just delivered)
For ten years, Pemba was able to earn a decent living but his father's death
in 2000 left his mother and two younger sisters without resources. By this time,
Pemba had a wife and three children to support. In the Sherpa way, he cheerfully
shouldered the extra responsibility of his mother and his little
sisters.
The war began on a small scale in 1996. The appeal of the Maoist party was clear to poor, uneducated villagers. The rebels promised what villagers needed: education, clean water, health services and an end to caste discrimination. In the early years, they delivered on those promises, winning widespread support. Support was especially strong in the poorest areas. Pemba's mother and sisters lived in one such rebel stronghold, Sankhuwasbava in north-eastern Nepal.
When the war got worse in 2000, trekking and guiding had fallen off badly. It wasn't possible to support everybody, so Pemba decided to come to Kathmandu to find a job. He found work as a taxi driver, which is how I met him. At the end of that taxi-ride, he asked me if he could put his sisters on the Waiting List for Shree Mangal Dvip School.
I was so struck by Pemba's open-heartedness and his honesty that I agreed to put his sisters Tukmo and Lhamo on the Waiting List and promised that if they could live in Kathmandu with him, I would find sponsors for them as Day students. Over the next two years, we occasionally met. Pemba often told me that he wanted his sisters to have the chances he hadn't got.
In winter of 2002 I told Pemba he could bring Tukmo and Lhamo to school in April. He came to see me a couple of months later, looking downcast. When I asked what was wrong, he explained that the girls and his mum were trapped by the fighting. Sankhuwasaba was a rebel stronghold, and the army was trying to starve them out, so they'd imposed communications, travel, food and medicine embargoes.
When I suggested that Pemba go to fetch them, he looked stricken: it was impossible. If the Maoists caught him, he'd be pressed into fighting, if the army caught him, he'd be used as a human shield. Adding to his distress was the fact that he had no way to know if his mum and sisters had survived the fighting and the hunger.
At that point, I told Pemba I'd hold a place for his sisters for next year. He surpised me with a counter-proposal: would I take his own two children? Explaining that boss had been forced to sell the taxi (no tourists coming) and as a consequence Pemba had to take Phutika and Sonam out of school. The whole economy was failing. Of course I agreed to take his kids.
As he was turning to go, I noticed Pemba's goretex jacket had been mended and re-mended and realize it would be useless in wet conditions. That jacket told the story of the war and the he dying economy. I caught a glimpse of the bleak future facing this good man. Struck by inspiration, I offered him a job so Pemba joined our staff as the driver of our tempermental old pickup truck.
Pemba stayed with us for about a year, then he got back on his feet. He started to lead treks outside Nepal, in Ladakh and Sikkim, so he went back for higher certification. Pemba is the sole breadwinner for eleven family members. He has opened his own trekking company and over the years has never forgotten SMD School...many of his clients become sponsors or donors. You can reach Pemba at: jeba@mail.com.np
Shirley Blair
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