Less than a day after he arrived from Nepal, Navraj LamiChhane wheeled his suitcase into a classroom at Skyview High School, pressed his palms together and offered a greeting: “Hello! Namaste!”
Skyview student Richard Lu walked toward him and shook his hand. Although the two young men had never met in person, they have written to each other online many times over several months.
Standing nearby, Lu’s English teacher, Beverly Questad, smiled.
When an April 25 earthquake in Nepal left hundreds of thousands homeless, Questad, Lu and LamiChhane worked together to purchase and deliver 20 tents to provide emergency shelter.
Questad had told Lu about her idea to send tents, but Vancouver is 7,000 miles from Nepal. How could they help? Buying tents locally and shipping them to Nepal wasn’t feasible.
First, Questad sent email in English to a Chinese tent manufacturer in proximity to Nepal, but she received no response.
Lu, the son of Chinese immigrants, speaks Mandarin at home with his parents. He enlisted the help of his father, Di Lu, who speaks Mandarin fluently. Di Lu phoned the Chinese company and arranged to have 20 tents delivered to Nepal. The Chinese woman who answered the phone was so touched by the idea that she donated half of the tents and sold them the other half at cost for $100. Air delivery cost $307, Questad said.
The missing piece was having someone in Nepal to pick up the tents at the airport. That’s where LamiChhane comes in.
Questad met LamiChhane, now 23, at Bright Horizons Children’s Home in Kathmandu in the summer of 2013 when she was volunteering at Nepali schools and orphanages.
But when LamiChhane arrived at the Kathmandu airport, he was not allowed to receive the tents. A deluge of international donations arriving in Nepal had created a thriving black market. To ensure that donated goods were delivered to those who needed them, government officials confiscated the tents and distributed them.
Although Questad, Lu and LamiChhane were disappointed that the tents were confiscated, they are hopeful that the tents reached people displaced by the earthquake.
“The most important thing that came from this is that I got to meet Navraj,” Richard Lu said.
LamiChhane, an orphan, continued living at the school for two years after he turned 21. He attended two years of college and taught music classes at the orphanage to earn his keep.
Questad paved the way for LamiChhane to come to the U.S. to continue his education. She paid for him to take the SAT and the challenging TOEFL, Test of English as a Foreign Language, a standardized test of English language ability for non-native speakers wishing to enroll in American universities.
On Monday night, LamiChhane arrived at Portland International Airport with everything he owns stuffed in two suitcases, plus his guitar. He endured four grueling flights that took about two days. In January, he will begin classes at Washington State University Vancouver. Questad has opened her home to LamiChhane.
Both young men are musicians. Lu is a cellist and pianist who plans to minor in music at an Ivy League school.
“We should have a jam session together,” Lu said.
But their first order of business? Dinner.
