Pema Chokyi
Pema Chokyi (12 year old girl) Special Opportunity Class
Pema Chokyi is from Gorkha district, a region that lies in the north of Nepal. Her part of Gorkha is called Nubri. It borders right on Tibet. Like all Nubri people, Pema Chokyi's mother tongue is a dialect of Tibetan (Nubri was Tibet, less than 100 years ago). If asked, Nubri kids always say they are Tibetan.
Pema Chokyi just started school this year. She'd had no previous schooling (most Nubri people have no access to school. The nearest roads are at least a week's hard trek from the villages.) Pema Chokyi has been placed in one of our three Special Opportunity Classes which are especially for older kids coming to school for the first time.
Pema Chokyi's younger sister has been at SMD for several years, and is now in Class Four. Pema Chokyi doesn't mind this: she says she's just happy to be here. (She looks thrilled.) Here's what she has to say (translated from Tibetan),
"I was so happy when my mum told me I was going to go to school with my sister in Kathmandu. This school is good in every field and it's helping everyone a lot! Everyone here is good, they all help when someone has a problem. I'm really lucky to be here, because when I was in my village I had to very hard all the time. Here I've got some time to play. I like basketball.
I am very interested to learn the Dharma (the Buddha's teachings). And when I finish school I want to go back to my village to help people there."
