Khumjung/Phortse/and the Magic Yeti Library Project
As part of my ongoing work with the U.S.-based Alex Lowe Foundation and The Magic Yeti Library Project, I was able to conduct recent assessments of three of the organization's libraries located in the rural Solo Khumbu Region of Nepal. While conducting my assessments, which consisted of working with the community and key local players involved in the project, I also had the opportunity to visit some of the small local schools that the libraries are affiliated with. Many of the schools in the Khumbu Region fall under the guide of the Himalayan Trust, the organization for established more than fifty years ago by Sir Edmund Hilary (the first Westerner to climb Everest) to give back to the local communities that made his historic feat possible.
The Khumjung School
The Khumjung Secondary School was the first location established by Hilary; it has grown to be one of the best government secondary schools in the nation, with high school standardized testing scores well above the nationwide average, a full computer lab, an art school, and a truly dedicated and proactive Headmaster, Mr. Mahendra Kathet, who I had a chance to sit and talk with on a sunny afternoon in his small office. The Khumjung School also houses a small community Magic Yeti Library, which has been improved upon and has grown to include copious English literature, English magazines, local literature, and many other educational resources for the students and community of Khumjung to access.
The Headmaster wishes to integrate the library more into the school curriculums, a topic that I stressed repeatedly, to increase the effectiveness and usage. He also wishes for the library to grow, and to add technology to help close the much-discussed “Digital Divide.”
I also had a chance to sit and talk with the computer teacher, Furtemba Sherpa, who is a proud product of the Khumjung School; the computer lab currently possesses 15 machines, generously donated two years ago by the Korean Alpine Club. While there is no available, feasible internet access at the location (an issue that I am also currently working on), the machines are used to teach typing, photoshop, and general Microsoft Office skills that the students will need to compete for modern jobs both in the region and in the nation's capital. Furtemba is also attending a training this winter in Kathmandu to learn more about computer hardware, so a local solution can be found to computing issues in Khumjung, a marvelous idea! His goals include adding more machines to the school; the current 15 are often doubled/tripled up upon during classes, which hinders educational progress.
Phortse Primary School
I also had the opportunity, in visiting the Phortse Magic Yeti Library, to meet and talk to the Headmaster of the small Phortse community school, with which the library is affiliated. The small school has an enrollment of 35, with 3 teachers covering all subject areas. In visiting the school, I was extremely impressed by the resourcefulness of the teachers, who get minimal support from the government, in turning the building into a great learning center. The walls were covered with posters and artwork; the materials were meager, yet sufficient, and well-loved. The village of Phortse is a small, traditional farming community located at about 13,000ft in the Khumbu, surrounded by the tallest mountains in the world. It is a hard days's hike the regions headquarters at Namche Bazaar, and certainly feels like stepping back in time when one glances its stone walls and majestic gompa (monastery) hovering over the village. The village was the beneficiary of an exstremely generous British soul, referred to as “Papa Tony,” who contributed a mini-hydroelectric plant, a new school building, a new gompa, and a new community center, amongst others, after first visiting in the 1980's and being moved by the people's subsistence lifestyle. The community center that was donated now houses the Magic Yeti Library, an amazing resource for the community, which I was there to provide an assessment. The Headmaster and other community members who I met stressed the need for technology; one computer could open worlds for the local children. The Project will hopefully be introducing this to the library in the coming months.
Pictures to follow!
