A Burning Desire: Grandpa Goes Back to School

December 31st, 2016

Awake Goy

Senior citizen pursues his dream of getting an education.

Poverty prevented Durga Kami of Nepal from completing school when he was a child. The 68- year-old widowed father of six and grandfather of eight is now acquiring his education. “Before dying, I wanted to get some knowledge from school,” he said.

All of Kami’s children have moved away from home, and his wife died 15 years ago. “To forget my sorrows, I go to school,” he stated. To obtain his education, Kami first attended a primary school where he re-learned to read and write with classmates who were seven and eight years old. He left school after finishing the fifth year level with his 11-year-old classmates.

Kami was born into the lowest level of Nepal society, a group previously known as “untouchables”; almost half of the people at this level live below the poverty line. Kamil lives about 155 miles west of Nepal’s capital in a one-room home. The roof leaks and there are frequent power outages.

A teacher at the local secondary school invited Kami to return to school and provided him with a scholarship to cover stationery and school uniform. Now, six days a week, Kami brushes his white beard; dresses in his school uniform of gray slacks, white shirt and blue-striped tie; and, with the aid of his walking stick, hikes laboriously for more than an hour to reach his school.

The 20 other students in Kami’s tenth grade class are 14 and 15 years of age. They have nicknamed him “father.” One of them said, “I used to think, ‘why is this old man coming to school to study with us?’, but as time passed I enjoyed his company. He is a little weak in studies compared to us but we help him out with that.”

Kami said he hoped his experience would encourage others to ignore the obstacle of age. “If they see an old person with a white beard like me studying in school, they might get motivated as well,” he said. His goal is to become a teacher and teach others in his social class.