23 CH : 22 Gurkha

22 Gurkha

Henry was already left for the Gorkha region now and he had already given Sajit $100 in advance so the man wouldn't be too worried about his family.

Gorkha region was relatively close to Kathmandu, however, the terrain made the journey longer and was downright inhospitable to most transportation.

Henry had been advised by Sajit to rent a donkey-drawn carriage for them to use in traversing the narrow and bumpy roads that led to Gorkha, and so only the two of them shared a peaceful journey together as they rode the slow cart that rocked with the road.

Sajit had already been told by Henry about the purpose of his visit to Gorkha, this led to Sajit's relaxed mood today as he had been worrying about the orphans of his tribe for a while and was rather happy that Henry came and now with money was willing to take care of the orphans.

Gorkha Tribe was a tribe located in a considerably remote mountainous region. Due to this, they are nearly isolated from civilization. Sickness was considered a very serious thing for natives of this area.

If once one became sick, many more get sick since the medical practices of the Gorkha were old fashioned and their medical facilities were practically nonexistent.

These people were not the type to stick to conservatism and were rather open to ideas. It was just unfortunate of them since only very few visitors from the outside ever come and visit them.

Since then, the Gurkha tribe had been considering learning from outside their borders about new ways on how to make their lives better.

This led to many many young men like Sajit to go outside the tribe in a hope to stop their people from living in such a backward civilization forever. Sajit had gone out of his tribe nearly 10 years ago, but he still occasionally came back to visit them every 3 years or so to see how the tribe was doing and tell them about the things he had learned of the outside world.

Sajit kept thinking about these things as they rode the cart in silence, hoping that Henry could somewhat alleviate the suffering of his people for better.

The journey keeps going as the Sajit tribe is still far away and Henry could feel the insurmountable boredom as he found nothing entertaining for him to do in the small carriage that only held Sajit and himself.

So he figured out that the only way to entertain himself is just chatting with Sajit about various things.

He told Sajit about how the United States looks like and Sajit describes everything about Gurkha, a basic conversation about the good and the bad things.

Henry soon found himself interested in the topic at hand as his ears perked up upon hearing the various details surrounding the Gurkha Tribe.

If he was going to recruit these people, after all, it would be better to know them well, down to the last detail. As this way it will easier to win their trust and loyalty showing them he was just like them and willing to learn more about them.

After hearing the majority of what he needed to know, the topic slowly lost Henry's interest as it could not match up to the insurmountable heights that the mountains of his boredom had peaked upon.

As Sajit soon found that Henry had lost interest, he shut his mouth and kept the carriage moving in the silence between them.

The mountains hummed with life, trees swayed in the wind as their leaves rustled, birds sang songs as their wings fluttered. The rivers glistened as they flowed from the mountains and to the rest of the plains in the distance.

The golden specks of sunshine caressed Henry's cheeks as they peeked through the canopy of leaves, leaving a warm tingling sensation on his skin.

Yet Henry was still bored out of his wits.

Henry was still unsure of what to do with himself until he came across a dilapidated Nepali house where a family was living in it, singing songs as the children ran barefoot, crunching along a carpet of dead leaves, where a woman was washing clothes on the nearby river as it gushed with the comforting sounds of running water.

Henry remembered his house and imagined living with his wives, their daughters run around in circles, roasting turkeys on Thanksgiving, all the good stuff. Henry just shook his head in embarrassment as his cheeks flushed red.

Henry was still preoccupied with himself but later found himself caught at the sight of a massive Hindu temple.

Nepal is heavily influenced by Indian culture, leading to many aspects of Nepali culture having contained some trace of Indian influence.

Hinduism is very strong here, maybe even stronger than in many places in India.

As Nepal was surrounded by mountains, it acted as a natural barrier. Many people do not even know what or how the outside world looks like as many places still do not yet have electricity. So this caused Nepal to have a very backward civilization compared to its peer country now.

Henry immediately realized the extreme poverty showed throughout the journey, the dilapidated houses, the rocky road, the lonely temples.

Henry saw how beautiful the place was. It was teeming with resources that were left to rot on the side when they could have developed into so much more. No wonder the likes of Sajit go outside his tribe.

This discovery made Henry a little relieved as he felt it will be easier to recruit people, yet his shoulders feel heavy as he can't help about poverty here, at least not now as his wealth has not yet reached where he can squander it on things that did not directly benefit him or his company.

His career has just started, he needs a lot of money to support it. He is not some saint that helps without considering anything, on the contrary, he is a greedy capitalist. Not the kind that sucks people's blood till their death, but in essence, Henry is still a capitalist nonetheless.

Maybe when his wealth reaches adequate height, he will be helping those in need. But now his purpose for coming here is to recruit the Gurkha.

If Henry helps those in need here, many people will soon know it. Henry's wealth would not be enough to squander if the whole Nepal knows about it. Even if Henry helps out a few people, other people that don't get the help will be envious of those who got it..

After Henry leaves, those people that receive Henry's help will be robbed of the things that Henry gave to them by the people who were not able to receive it.

This is not helping them, instead, it will harm them. If Henry wants to give help to people, it must not be in the form of money, food, or physical things as it is just one-time help.

As the old saying goes "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man fishing and you feed him for lifetime"

A backward country like Nepal did not need just one-time help either, they needed something that can benefit all people but it can continuously provide it. The one that will help them is Education, Transportation, Health Care, and most importantly Ways to earn money, Jobs, and many things that will provide them with sustainability in the long run. If Henry wants to help like that, his wealth is indeed not enough right now.

And this was the same for most of Asia and Africa even in the worst circumstances.

The carriage kept going steadily as poverty showed within such a short journey was breathtaking.

All the people begging for help, the orphans whose parents died in the wars, the widows that dragged heavy baskets of firewood to sell. The elderly and the sick that were laid on the side of the road, waiting days for a cart to take them to the nearest hospital across the mountain range.

Henry swallowed his thoughts to himself and closed his eyes in a struggle to make the voices stop as he couldn't imagine such a helpless way of life. Would that even be called living, that was the question.

---

<3 Days Later>

Henry and Sajit finally approached the tribe. Now the position of both of them is deep in the Himalayan mountain range.

To reach here, one must go through many difficult terrains. Even in the last 4 hours, Henry and Sajit must ride the poor donkey to reach the tribe as the carriage can't go anymore.

After 4 hours of riding, Henry finally saw a village on the side of the mountain. The deep parts of Himalayan are snowing, so the village is coated by white sheets of cold snow. Under normal circumstances, people would be tucked away in their blankets in this kind of weather, yet Henry can still see many people busily walking around.

Perhaps it was because the people were not afraid of cold, or that it was warmer now in the afternoon that they arrived, Henry did not know.

Sajit then instructed Henry to stop right there as he must talk with the tribe as Henry is an outsider.

Sajit then enters the village riding on his donkey and Henry just sits there waiting.

Henry saw the villagers come to surround Sajit and talk to him. Henry was a little nervous right now, fearing that the villagers may not welcome him.

Henry can even see Sajit be surrounded by a number of burly men and quarrel about something as they kept yelling at each other, their voices even reaching as far as Henry was standing.

This makes Henry a little nervous. But after about 10 more minutes of arguing, the commotion stopped.

Sajit then approached Henry and following him was an old man from the village.

"Henry, this is the village chief Ahupathi. I already told him your purpose, but he said you must pass their test if you want to recruit them." Sajit then introduces the old man beside him "Of course not a physical test, but a series of questions."

Henry then relaxed as he feared they would not welcome him if he was too tense.

"Greetings, Chief Ahupathi, my name is Henry William." Henry then greets Ahupathi with the few words he knew in simple Nepali language.

Ahupathi then talks in the Nepali language. Henry did not understand most of it, but he could faintly perceive that Ahupathi commanded him to go to the village. Then 3 of them quickly went inside the village.

Then Ahupathi brought Henry that resembled an old building like a village hall with open space.

Henry could already guess what was going on.

There was a big table and many chairs in the center, Ahupathi then took the middle chair. Many people had already surrounded the hall as they looked curiously at the new visitor of their tribe. Even Henry can see many guardsmen here had a kukhri strapped to their waist.

Sajit told Henry to sit opposite the Ahupathi and that the test would begin soon.

Sajit would act as a translator between Henry and Ahupathi so the test could go smoothly.

Ahupathi then began to talk slowly and Sajit was quietly listening to him. Then Sajit quickly translated it to Henry.

"Ahupathi asks why would you like to recruit children from the tribe ?"

Henry then calmly answered.

"To train them as bodyguards. Tell the chief to not worry as they would never be used as a war tool. On the contrary, I will treat them better and shape them into an elite better than any soldier of any country" Henry replied honestly.

Sajit then translated Henry's answer without cutting anything.

Ahupathi then went silent for a minute before asking the second question, which Sajit then translated back to Henry.

"Ahupathi says he would like to know where you are going to take them."

"I will take them to the United States." Henry answered. "I have already made the necessary preparations for their training, education and residences."

After Sajit relayed the message, Ahupathi immediately shot Henry a sharp glance and spoke.

"The Chief says the children are the future of the tribe, so if you are going to take them, how are you going to ensure the prosperity of the tribe?" Sajit politely translated.

Henry then contemplated for a little bit before he answered.

"Tell the chief that if they want, I can take all of the tribe with me to the United States."

Sajit then translated it to Ahupathi, making the elder silent for a few minutes in contemplation.

After what seemed like forever, Ahupathi closed his eyes and looked at Henry straight in the eyes.

Henry did not waver and steeled his gaze to meet Ahupathi's eyes.

It did not take long before Ahupathi smiled at Henry.