ALUMNI GUEST WRITER: A Memoir of a Special Home
My name is Jayang Wangdue Gurung. I hail from a tiny, isolated village in the Tibetan border regions of Dolpa, a district in the north Western region of Nepal that lacks broad access to schools, health services, and modern transportation. As a young child, I lived there with my young widowed mother and five siblings. I was told that my father had passed away a few months before my younger brother was born, leaving my mother destitute, and shortly after I was admitted to Kailash Home at age 7, my mother also passed away. Like many other children, Kailash became the only real home I’d ever known.
Through the Kailash Home Visit program, I and many other children who had no direct contact with their families, got a chance to return to our villages and reunite with family.
A photo of my younger self (2008) taken by a support staff who escorted me on my visit.
From left, my sister Kalsang, a neighborhood girl, my sister Tsering, and me.
During my time at Kailash, and even today for the children who now live there, our lives were filled with a variety of activities primarily geared toward building health and strength, as well as the acquisition of practical skills, independence, confidence, and self-worth. We were always surrounded by cultural and educational influences, plus many opportunities that we would have had no prospect of experiencing had it not been for Kailash. Over my time at Kailash Home I learned many valuable lessons and skills, for example discipline, and the power of positive behavior patterns.
From the moment I came into Kailash until the day I left, I had to make my bed by myself, and I would be assigned once on a weekly basis the task of making sure the dormitory was cleaned before we left for school. I didn't know the importance of making my bed until recently when I read the New York Times Bestseller book Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven where he explains how small things like making your bed can change your life and perhaps the world. Our tasks at Kailash also emphasized cooperative and collaborative attitudes by having us operate in longterm group projects like the Kailash Bakery and Kitchen Farm from where some of our daily foods came from — breads, rice, and vegetables.
All smiles after a successful corn harvest from our kitchen garden. (2009)
Cakes being prepared for a birthday celebration in our bakery, an important part of Kailash home operation. (2013)
We lived by bells at Kailash Home, and the first bell of the day sounded at 5:30 in the morning. By 6:30 most of us were in the common study hall studying while some did the assigned duties of cleaning the dormitories and others attended music or dance classes. Another valuable contributor for my overall development were the numerous extracurricular activities - like marathon running, rock climbing, and cycling - that we were encouraged to partake in. These taught me perseverance, dedication, goal setting, planning, delayed gratification, humility, and the mindset to never quit. We at Kailash don't start things and not finish them.
Academic life was always a serious business at Kailash Home, and I fondly remember how every evening all of us children would gather in the common hall for supervised study. Kailash taught me that education is the great equalizer and that my best chances for successes later lay in pursuing academic achievement in the present. Such a sense of personal competence, confidence, security, stability, reliability, self-worth, and seeming permanence has helped me to achieve much and arrive at where I am in this present time. I left Kailash Home over 6 years ago, and I am still counting the blessings. In having the everlasting support, trust, and commitment from my sponsors and HYF community, I have been able to take balanced risks and make calculated life decisions that have fundamentally altered the outcomes of my life. Through this unceasing generosity, I have been able to travel to India and pursue my Undergraduate studies in Bachelor of Optometry. At present I am interning as a Consultant Optometrist at two well-known Hospitals in India namely Justice K.S Hegde Charitable Hospital and AJ Institute of Medical Science and Research Centre. I am in the final months of my internship period and will be graduating soon.
I can only believe that heaven chose to wish me well in coming this far and becoming the first generation in my family to have the privilege to receive formal education, and I hope that I will yet be able to help lift my family, my siblings, as well.
“Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them.”
Many Kailash Home Alumni, I among them, would like to thank all the donors and well-wishers of Kailash Home and HYF, and would like to encourage you to stay involved!
By doing so, you are not only helping an underprivileged child have a life, but in the wider picture you are helping a family as a whole. You are helping a child progress, move forward, graduate, and attain his/her dreams. You are supporting a child in changing their destiny and that of their family. You are helping to prepare a child to become active contributors in a wider society that needs them. Thank you.
A dream comes true! Watching my favorite club Barcelona play against Roma. (5 August 2015)
A ride around the city of Sant Julià de Lòria, Principality of Andorra with dad.
Linked with all these, my life at Kailash Home and after Kailash Home, is the person dearest and closest to my heart, with whom I shared a bond so special that I will never be able to explain in words, and whose departure from this world has left a void in my heart that will last forever.
Remembering him fondly today, my source of strength, smile, identity, and security, my friend, my sponsor, my godfather Òscar Ribas Reig (26 October 1936 – 18 December 2020). I remain indebted to him for the life he has blessed me with. His Love is still my guide.
