The Story of a Nepali Girl

Hello, everyone! I am a twenty-year-old girl (in 2017 AD), Deepa Bohara, from a small village of rural Nepal in Surkhet, a mid-western part of Nepal. I was born in a small family and we were three little kids like chickens from a hen at one time. I live with my mom and two brothers. My dad works in India as a security guard. He comes to visit us once a year. I miss him so much when he is not at home with all of us. My mom has a tailor shop where she works every day and makes beautiful kurtas for me as I wish. My older brother is a computer teacher at the Kopila Valley School. My small brother is in high school. I am a student of science focusing on biology. I just passed 12th grade in the first division but am waiting for my 11th-grade results because last year, I failed physics and chemistry.

Every day I cook dinner for my family. I love drinking delicious with cardamom and pepper in it at least twice a day. I don’t like to go on walks, but one of my big dreams is to travel the world someday. I enjoy playing with kids at school, taking their cute pictures and posting them on social media. Recently, I have started tutoring one of the students at Kopila Valley who is from Kalikot and is struggling with English. Every Saturday, I give spoken word poetry workshops at Kopila Valley and the American Corner, each of which is two hours long. When I am free, I write non-fiction stories and poetry. I am most passionate about writing and sharing poetry about girls and women living in rural Nepal. When I write, I put my pain into words and share my reality that I am passing through. I feel my pain and troubles disappear on the page. Here, young people can have many problems and I want other girls and women to know that they are not alone. I believe that when I write and share my poetry, I can inspire more girls and women in rural Nepal and around the world to speak up for their realities. I have even started a “Word Warriors Surkhet” page on Facebook where I post my work every Saturday and many more about the spoken word poetry workshop. I love working as a facilitator and teaching as many students as I can about spoken word. I love working as a facilitator and teaching as many students as I can. Everyone deserves a platform to express their happiness, pain, eagerness, struggles, and joy. Young people have so much to say, and their voices are not often heard. This is not something a student does for a grade or for homework, but something that will give them creative expression and a way to share how they feel about traditions, their lives, and their realities because life can be so hard here and they need to feel empowered.

The Story of a Nepali Girl

My aim is to reach out to other young people and to give them inspiration and an opportunity to explore their own voices. I thought spoken word could be an amazing platform for their creative expression, and I help each of them learn how to do that. My objective in writing this blog is to let the world hear my voice and get people’s support to bring about changes because I want to be a change maker and I can’t do it alone.

My dad was in the Nepali Army but my parents always struggled with their economic situation. He always dreamed of sending the three of us to the moon but never realized that touching the moon would be hard for all us. With little money, every year he managed to send the three of us to boarding school- never government school. My dad had a dream to make our future bright and he wanted especially to see us speaking English. He knew he had to buy everything. We didn’t have enough land where we could have grown crops and vegetables every year. But, still, he kept sending me to a good school because he didn’t get a change to go to school. He knew life can be so hard if we didn’t get an education. He didn’t want us to pass through the same struggles that he went though. I am very lucky that my parents never discriminated against me because I am a girl. Instead, everyone loved me so much because I was the only daughter. I got every change that my brother got. We started at the same school since nursery and stayed together until I was in 8th grade.

The Story of a Nepali Girl

I was in 8th grade at the JP school. I never imagined that I would come to Kopila and learn in the best English environment. For the first time, admission was open at Kopila from nursery to 6 class. There were so many people gathering together. I was very surprised to see the crowd and see white people in Surkhet. That crowd made me curious to see what’s going on. When I went there, I saw everyone registering their name so that they can give the entrance exam to study at Kopila Valley. My eagerness to see how were questions I decided to test myself. Then, finally, I got selected both in the written test and also interview. My dad really thinks forward. He told me many things about studying in Kopila Valley. I didn’t really want to go to Kopila in 6 class because I was going two years back, while the rest of my friends were taking their DLE. I was sure that I would regret my decision later. But, my dad convinced me to go to KVS. Everything was going so well. I was happy to meet the American volunteers and to get to speak to them in English and take the classes that they gave. Sometimes I felt jealous of my old friends because they were studying for their DLE.

In the middle of the year, I got very sick. As I changed schools, my life became very twisted. My legs got swollen, butterfly rash on my cheeks, my hands split open, my legs cracked. Sometimes this, sometimes that. I hated my life. We did Jhakari (witch doctor) and offered many cocks, went to many hospitals in Surkhet, in Nepalgunj, Kathmandu, and Lucknow- but, nothing seemed to work. People took pictures of me. One doctor said, “this is so sad for you to get this disease at this young age!”. I thought, “am I going to die?”. I felt like I was in the last stage. I was admitted in a kidney hospital in Lucknow. Every day, I had an injection that cost 1000 NRS ($10 USD). My dad couldn’t afford anymore treatment in Lucknow- there was no money left. We escaped the hospital and came back to Surkhet. Maggie’s sister Libby was here and Tope Uncle provided some money for us. We returned back to the Army hospital in Kathmandu. The doctor started to test my blood, give me injections and medicines. Wherever I went for check-ups all those different doctors have me different medicines and that made me so crazy.

The Story of a Nepali Girl

I ate through a tube connected to an injection, only liquid for two straight weeks. The doctor did a kidney biopsy with a long needle. They took out a piece of me and tested it. After admitting in the hospital for two months, the doctor in Kathmandu figured it out. I was suffering from SLE, or systematic Lupus Erythematosus, which is a chronic skin disease that can be fatal or harm other organs in my body. When I as small, I didn’t want to take medicine which tasked like a bitter gourd and I was afraid of needles too. I never took medicine when I had a fever, stomach pains, or headaches. But, in a serious case my dad used to state at me and didn’t let me go until I had finished it. Sometimes I used to throw it instead of taking it and I would act as if I took it, gulping down a big glass of water. I grew up with these behaviors. But, now look at me, I am living with a chronic disease. Medicine has become a part of my life. Every day, I take 10 pills. I have to take it until I die. I couldn’t go directly in the sun otherwise I get a butterfly rash on my cheeks and other skin infections. So, I put lots of sunscreen on my face when I go out and I always carry an umbrella with me. I went to Kathmandu for regular checkups every two months for the last 6 years and now it has been one year that I only have to go once every three months. And, luckily, every time I went to Kathmandu for doctors’ appointments with my mom for treatments, Kopila Valley paid for me and they still do. My dad doesn’t have to worry about the cost of my treatments. I am much healthier now- I definitely look healthier. Now, I realize that it was luck that brought me to Kopila and making me a special part of BlinkNow. I am thankful to get a chance to go to school and all those great opportunities I got while I was a student there. Because of Kopila Valley, I am what I am today. My world would have been completely different if I wasn’t a Kopila Valley student. I am thankful to Maggie, Tope Uncle, and all of the amazing people that I have met in my life. To my dad, when he hears my English poems, he doesn’t understand the language, but he can feel my emotions. He is proud of me and he shows it through the sacrifices that he makes. When I passed through hard times this year regarding my health, I thought of becoming a doctor. But, with the passing of time you get more mature, you understand more and you might be interested in other stuff. You really enjoy or love doing other things. Now, with all these realities that I have been passing through, I want to speak up about these realities, raise my voice, and let the whole world know about it. I want to be a poet, bring change.