Question from both Marianne and Wendy. How are your Nepali guide, Tendi Sherpa, and his family faring during COVID-19?
Christmas tends to be a time of year when we remember friends and family near and far. Tendi is never far from my thoughts as he and his family have included me within their fold. Readers of Pomegranates at 4800 Metres will be familiar with how this came to be.
With few foreign trekkers visiting Nepal due to COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions, Tendi has had no guiding work for two years. He, like many others employed in the trekking and tourist industry suffer as there is minimal social assistance for Nepal’s unemployed. These days Tendi toils with his wife Lhamu on their subsistence farm in Khamding. He never complains so, although we talk on the phone every month, I expect I don’t know how difficult the past two years have been. They have shelter because they own their farm. They eat because they plant, grow, harvest, preserve and barter their crops of corn and potatoes. A cow and four goats provide milk and butter. When I spoke to Tendi a couple of days ago, he told me that three of the goats are about to give birth. Tendi’s mum and dad have hens for eggs.
In September 2021 Nepal re-opened its land borders to tourism as most of the population involved in the industry have received a COVID vaccine. The Omicron variant is currently causing changes to quarantine rules and from which countries tourists are allowed to arrive. While adults in Khamding received the Johnston and Johnston vaccine, Tendi has no word on when the required booster will be available.
He contracts to HikeNepal.com and also guides privately, so he hopes for some trekking clients this coming spring. While Lhamu has enjoyed Tendi being at home to take on some of the never-ending myriad of farm chores, but I also expect she is looking forward to a return of more financial stability.
I plan on returning to Nepal in the fall of 2023 with three friends – Pat, Brenda and Michel – to trek from Khamding to the Gokyo Lakes, over Renjo La and return. While it’s easy to wonder if that will be possible given the variant strains of COVID that keep erupting – I’ll remain hopeful because I miss my Nepali family and friends. When I returned to Nepal after the 2015 earthquake, I found all those friends alive and picking up the pieces of their homes and lives. I’m hoping for the same this time too. Like every other responsible traveller, I’ll be watching the Canadian and Nepali government travel advisories and complying with whatever regulations are in place at the time.
Meanwhile, Tendi’s oldest son, Tsheri, has graduated from university in Sidney Australia and is working there while he continues onto a master’s program. The second oldest son, Rinje, pursues his life as a monk. Tendi’s daughter, Phulu, and youngest son, Nima continue with their education in Kathmandu. Tendi has an unfailing determination that his children receive educations and seek meaningful employment. He does not want them to follow his footsteps into the hard trekking-guide world. As I write this, he’s helping Phulu get her passport and apply for a visa to follow Tsheri to Australia.
They are holding on, positive, self-reliant and resilient, an example I strive to emulate.
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