A Peace Corps Volunteer Returns To Nepal To Provide Education In Mountain Communities

KATHMANDU – King Beach first came to Nepal 40 years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer. After learning Nepali language for three months in Dhulikhel, he went to teach at a government school in Gumi village, 20 miles southeast of Birendranagar of Surkhet.

 He lived mostly in the village, coming to Kathmandu only once in months for a brief stay. After returning to the US, he completed his graduation, became a professor but he was still involved in some short-term educational and development works in Nepal.

 Five years ago, he decided to 'focus more on long-term educational and development works' in a country that was his first home away from home. He is back in Nepal with a mission: help spread education in Nepal's mountain communities through Community Gonpa Education Initiative Nepal.

 Kathmandu Press caught up with Beach to know what Kathmandu was like four decades ago, and how he is planning to serve Nepal's northern communities. Excerpts:

 Can you take us back in time to show how everything was like when you first came to Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer?

 I first came to Nepal in November of 1976, and I stayed here until June of 1979.

 At that time, Kathmandu was a much smaller place --- physically as well as psychologically. The way people got around was by bicycle, rickshaw or walking.

 In Peace Corps, you get three months of language training. But then you are expected to teach high school science and math in Nepali language. So, a lot of learning actually takes place out in the village, while teaching in the class room.

 The village I chose was Gumi, about 20 miles southeast of Birendranagar of Surkhet. Gumi never had a Peace Corps Volunteer before, and nobody there spoke English except for an English teacher. The only way to get in and out of Gumi was by hiking.

 For the first six months, I was not sure if I was going to stay there or not. Everything was different than my experience. One of the things I had to get used to very quickly was the lack of personal space.

 In the country I come from, you are left alone when you are in your home or apartment. In Nepal, that's not the case. There was no privacy in the family I lived with. At first, I found that awful. But it helped me adjust, and realise that I was actually a part of the local community.

 After six months, I was clear that I was going to stay on in the village as a teacher. But at the time, there was not even a local water tap in Gumi, and people would go down to the Bheri River for water.

 I still go back to Gumi every couple of years, or so.  I am now one of the oldest people of the village. The connection remains.

What do you mean when you say Kathmandu was a smaller place psychologically back then?

 At that time, everybody knew each other in Kathmandu. Especially if you were here not as a tourist or hippie, you got to know lots of people very quickly and somebody always knew who knew somebody and so on. That social closeness has sort of gone now, also because Kathmandu has grown in size.

 Nepal was a fun country back then. What I find unique about Nepal is its social closeness, which still exists to a large extent in rural area but no longer in Kathmandu.

Tell us about your transition from a Peace Corps volunteer to someone with a long-term mission to spread education in Nepal's mountain communities?

 Even when I was a professor in the US, I was still involved in various short-term educational and development programs in Nepal. Five years ago, I decided to focus more on development work and education in Nepal.

Since my background is social science, have experience in development work and I have been practicing Buddhism, I thought spreading education in Nepal's mountain communities is a good way to devote my time now. We are now working with several private foundations and monasteries to come up with ways in which education can be provided to children of rural mountain communities of Nepal.

 In some rural mountain areas, thanks to the government, there are schools but it is difficult to retain teachers in such isolated areas. So we are trying to help these communities with education so their children are not separated from families.

 Most people in these communities send their children to monasteries in Kathmandu or boarding schools, which means they are separated from their families and community from six to seven years of age. In many cases, they never go back. Even if they go back, they go back only to visit their families for a few days. A documentary that came out last year, the children of the snow land, describes this situation very well. 

 Community Gonpa Education Initiative, which I helped found, is now developing an education program consistent with government education programs, which aims to provide education in northern communities so local children live with their families at least until they reach class eight. As a result, they will have stronger ties with their communities, which will hopefully increase the chance of some of them going back to the community eventually.

 This is a big project, and we may not even be successful. But we are implementing it step by step.

 In 2017, we had a gathering of education leaders from about 40 monasteries all over the country, here in Kathmandu. We did it in collaboration with Nepal Buddhist Foundation, to talk about education problems in northern communities. That was where we realised that nobody really knows the full breadth and depth of education potentials in these communities.

 So, we are now finalizing a national survey of Gonpa communities.

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Can you tell us about the model of your education program?

Many large monasteries in Kathmandu have very good academic schools. At these monasteries, when one once becomes 17 or 18 years of age and reaches class 10 or 12, they have to decide whether they want to go into nine or 10 years of philosophical training. For 18-year-old kids, that's a very difficult decision.

 So, what we have been talking about with these monasteries is the idea of letting them choose if they want to serve as teaching fellows for two years in rural mountain communities. After two years, they can decide whether they want to become full-time teachers, or go back to monasteries for philosophical training. At this point, they are more able to make a reasonable decision for them.

 Our idea is very similar to the model used by Teach for Nepal. We will provide teacher training and field support. But that also involves change in conception of some of the monasteries.