By CHARLENE PAUL
Moapa Valley Progress
Ken Paul, principal of W. Mack Lyon Middle School, had the opportunity of visiting Nepal with his son, Ben, just before Thanksgiving.
After serving in the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Ben wanted to do something to make a positive impact somewhere in the world. He contacted Love Volunteers to find a place to volunteer his services. He chose a school in Nepal. The location sounded a little exotic and not like a tourist destination, he said. (He later learned that it was a popular tourist destination for those who enjoyed trekking and mountain climbing.)
The school is a 2,000-square foot building in an impoverished area. It is run by three men with PhDs. These men work fifteen hours a day and take no money from the school. “We are simple people. We eat simple food. But we are happy,” explained one of the men.
The poverty didn’t surprise Ben. “I had seen poverty in Afghanistan, and that changed me,” he said.
Ben chose to bring in ChromeBooks and set them up on the Internet after speaking with his dad and brother, Adam. He crowd-sourced $3,500 for ten ChromeBooks and found a company willing to pay for shipping to Nepal. (All the companies he worked with requested anonymity.)
The hard part was getting the ChromeBooks from customs to the school. With corruption rife in the government, it is expensive to get things done, Paul explained. A 100% tax was required, and there was also a 15% cargo tax, a 13% value added, goods and services tax to air cargo, and a 2% miscellaneous insurance that was more than likely pocketed.
After mountains of paperwork, eight trips to the city, and five weeks of waiting, Ben was finally able to bring the ChromeBooks to the school. “It cost more money to get the computers out of customs than it did for the purchase and shipping combined,” he said.
In the meantime, Ken spoke to the students and teachers at Mack Lyon about the school in Nepal and the need for books and supplies. Through the generosity of the Mack Lyon teachers and students, Ken was able to take boxes of books on his visit.
One of the English classes wrote letters to the Nepal students who were excited to receive correspondence from the Mack Lyon students.
Ben and Ken organized the library which consisted of two 5-foot tall bookcases and about 200 books. Ken said that he hopes to continue correspondence and support of the school in the future.
Adam visited after Ken left. Together he and Ben connected the ChromeBooks to the Internet. The response was more than they could have hoped for.
Mahesh, one of the men at the school said, “In my whole life, I never knew any technologies like this even existed. Now I can know anything and the childrens will learn anything they dream.”
“The entire experience humbled me,” Ben said. “I mean, we live in a very consumer economy, and that’s not a bad thing. But it’s hard to remember sometimes money, or even being highly educated isn’t what truly makes a person happy. These people are happy. They are simple, but not simple-minded.”
It was also a very humbling experience for Ken. “To see what these three very well-educated men were trying to do for children who wouldn’t otherwise have a hope of moving from their current situations helped me remember education really is key,” he explained. “And to watch my sons give of their time and talents to serve total strangers in such a profound way touched my heart.”
If you are interested in volunteering, visit the Love Volunteers website at https://www.lovevolunteers.org/
