Tenzin is an 11 year old boy, who is physically disabled and can’t talk nor move properly. When the earthquake struck Nepal, he was in his family’s small tea house very near Langtang. The avalanche fell on top of them and his parents, three bothers and two younger cousins died immediately, but he was alive. From where he was he could see his mother at his feet, but couldn’t move to help her. Next day a boy came down from Kianjing Gompa, saw him and told him not to move and that he would come back with help as soon as possible. He left him a bottle of Chang so he could drink while the help arrived. During two more days rocks fell and it was very dangerous to be in the Langtang area. They had seen many people die and didn’t dare leave their shelters. The third day the avalanche of rocks stopped and some men decided to go up to Langtang to look for their loved ones. Dawa Tamang, the boy that had crossed Tenzin two days before went up with the group. he hoped to find the boy alive. Luckily, he was and the boy had survived during three days among the rubble. They got him out of there and a helicopter then took him to the Yellow Gompa camp in Kathmandu where the rest of Tibetan refugees are. His sponsor then came to look for him at the camp and took him to a special school where he will be well looked after. Many children are not so lucky as to have a sponsor who is willing to look after them when something like that happens.

Tenzin explained to us later on in the refugee camp that the first day he had a bad time, he was very thirsty and his back hurt a lot where the rock hit him, but that the second day after drinking the Chang that Dawa gave him, he was able to sleep all night very comfortably without feeling any pain. Chang is non alcoholic drink they do there very similar to beer but done with maize.