Lessons from Mountain Children

I spent some time in the mountains recently and had the opportunity to help out at a village school. The children were so adorable and I found myself going back to the photos I took of them again and again. It was not so much just about their smiles and their tiny cold hands but they kept me thinking about what's ahead for them.

In the mountains, there are Primary and Secondary schools. School hours are usually from 7am to 11am. What that means is one to three hours up and down the mountain tracks to get to school and another one to three hours home, just hungrier on the return leg. If city kids with air-conditioned school buses that provide door-to-door services prefer to sleep in and skip schools, imagine the mountain kids' motivation to really skip school. School drop out rates are high in the mountains, with significantly more female dropouts compared to male. And even if some make it through the village schools, for higher education they will need to travel to the main towns and cities which could mean more than 300km away from home. Education is free for them but with the challenge to afford city accommodation and food, less than 1% will make it to this stage of education. Considering this is a young nation and about 15% of the population are living in mountain villages, so many children are caught in this vicious cycle. Many end up helping out at the farm at home or work some menial jobs that are within reach. Even so, no villagers are beating their chest on how unjust a card life has dealt them; instead you'll find them joyful and grateful. I spent just over a week living among them and they have taught me much.

They find joy in simple things. With access to little resources, everything is accepted with gratitude. A pencil, a tiny notebook or a small plush toy, brought so much excitement to the little ones.

?They are resilient and hardworking. I saw children in school uniforms, after walking hours from school, helping their parents in the farm, tending to house chores. I saw the cutest kids, probably aged four to five, using brooms with just enough hair left, sweeping their porch.

They have great sense of community and empathy. The adults share what little they have and support each other through harsh living conditions. The children mimic the adults. When I was distributing toys out to four year-olds, one boy did not want to take it from me and pointed to a girl behind me. I then understood that he already had one and the little girl did not.

They are resourceful and adaptable. It is ingrained in them to work with what they have rather than stall with what they do not. I saw a two year old happily playing on a cold single digit temperature morning butt naked saved for an over-sized sweater. I was told that with his uncontrolled peeing, his mother cannot keep up with the washing.

The human brain and its ensuing trait and character is a curious thing. We talk of nature versus nurture but here in the mountains, the nature nurtures. The mountain people do not seem to have a notion of lacking, it was just my city brain talking. They have what they need, generations after generations, grateful and joyful.

Coming home and back into "civilisation", I have a heightened sense of the differences in my world from theirs. In conversations and interactions, I was more aware of my society's sense of entitlement, lack of gratitude, lack of appreciation of hard work, lack of empathy, inability to cope with change and adversity and so on. Mind you I grew up in conditions not too different from these mountain children albeit no mountain was involved. After decades of "progress", I have forgotten the mountain mindset. And if I am capable of not having this mountain mindset, how then would our next generation even fathom any of these mountain traits? They read, they know these words but they would not be able to live and breathe them. It is not their fault that they were born into abundance.

Everyone, and especially a leader, would do well to have these mountain traits. One can start off by being aware of them. Talk about it at home or at work. You do not really have to go to the mountains to see first hand how this world can teach you a thing or two about these traits. But for me, I have found my mountain.