 Hello. My name is Gary D. Carlos, and I'm your host for Celebrate Life. This is a television program that's dedicated to humanity, the wonderful lives we all lead. I'm a strong believer that everyone has a story to tell from all walks of life, and I try to make this program kind of a little microcosm of life as it is in Vermont, in the country, in the world. And so, if you're interested in being on the show, please write me at celebratelife0747 at gmail.com, or if you have a question for the guest after the show, again, write me at celebratelife0747 at gmail.com. Today, I'm honored to have as our guest, Hamant Chasing, and he comes to us from the country of Bhutan, and we're thrilled to have him here today, and welcome to the show, Hamant. Thank you, Gary, for inviting. Absolutely. So, share with us your beautiful life, and you can start wherever you'd like, maybe as a child, and bring us forward, but we look forward to hearing from you, and I'm sure I'll have many questions to ask. Thanks. I will go in sequence. I was born in Bhutan, and I lived there for about 17 and a half years in the country. It was a time that I need to get my citizenship at 18, but due to, you know, the turmoil in the country, the voice for democracy, and he modest that our folks from Nepali speaking people from Bhutan raised the voice against the, you know, not against, but appealing the king that didn't sound really well, and then that became one of the main causes for eviction from the country. So, then I went to the refugee camp in Nepal. I stayed for 18 years, been there. The life was always top seat, there is always a dead end for everything you do, and everyone knows being as refugees means you are poor, and you are without the country. So, being only poor is a different thing, but there is another layer about being without the state. So, I was very fortunate that the US government has offered us, offered me and my families and thousands of other families through US Refugee Resilience Program, that led me to land in Burlington, Vermont in 2011. Since then, I've been living in Burlington. I love this state, this part of the country. Just because it resonates so much with the mountains that I live, I grew up in my childhood. Those green mountains in the summer and then the added beauty in the fall had really attracted me to stay in this part of the country. The rivers, the bird chirping in summer when I go a lot of hiking, those are the ones that really pulled me and that the inner self always asks me, stay in Vermont because it brings the memory that you have spent as a child in my country. A lot of times, people new to Vermont from other parts of the world have come from warm climates, Africa, Southeast Asia, and they're like, yike, this is a whole other world. But it sounds like for you coming from Bhutan and Nepal that this is very familiar, the colder weather, the mountains, so that's great to hear. The place where I was born was in the foothills of Himalayas, which is sub-tropical climate. It's very hot in summer, cool and dry winter, but it's not so cold as Vermont. But as you go to, because our low temperature is because of elevations, and as you go higher, it is very cold. But in Vermont it's about, I think it's about the latitudes that determines the temperature. So that's only the difference here. So tell me, Haman, you were 17 and a half when you left Bhutan and it sounds like part of the reason that you needed to leave was that you were outspoken for democracy, for having people have the right to say what they needed to say, do it, you know, to live a life fully. That's a very young age to have that much understanding of the world around you. How did you get to that place? Actually, as a 17 years, 60 years, a teen has no knowledge about the politics. And Bhutan is a hermit country. People didn't know, people are not aware about political process, about politics, because you are under the king. And you are brought up to be submissive and be obedient to the laws, the laws and policies that are devised by the country. It just came up because when you see that things are not going the right way, you see that there is no equal treatment. There is always a voice, whatever, what kind of country that you live in, like whether a highly democratic country or maybe a secluded, suppressive country. Voice is voice, people want freedom for themselves. They want to be what they want to be. So I think that's the cause. And, you know, as a teenager, I participated in a Peaceful Rally, which I know now is a democratic rights of any people in a democratic country. But then in my country with a Peaceful Rally, it's not acceptable. You know, you kind of raise the voice. Just think about when you like to say something, you don't have a space to tell. You know, what do you say that it will brush up someday. That was immediate cause of a lot of evictions in the country. And there are other causes because there are always, always various multi-forest causes for evicting the country. No one wished to come out of the country where they have a friends, you know. As a teenager, I had a friends back in the day. I feel very heavy hearted. I didn't care about my citizens or other kind of like properties or all that. The greatest thing that I was really affected was I'm losing. I'm disconnecting with my friends at that point. Right. As a teenager, those are everything, your friends. Yeah. Yes. Did they leave as well at some point or are they still there? Most of them stayed back in the country. And some of them came along, you know, with me in the refugee camps with their families. Yeah. It's all divided. The whole Nepal ethnic community, the generation of the communities were all divided. So we have some relatives back in the country. And we have some here. We are all divided for all this. But, you know, the sad part of the story is since we were evicted 32 years ago, none of the single Vietnamese were entertained to go back to the country, even as a US citizen, even as a US citizen. So one part, what I see on this, I see my life meaningful by, you know, listing out the positive aspect of what I did throughout my life, you know, being as a citizen of this country, that is the greatest joy I had. It's funny to tell you, Gary, I was born in my country. And that was the age I was not eligible to get my citizenship. You know, you need to be 18. You need to refugee camps and live another 18 years. And then, you know, you are a stateless. The first country I ever got my citizen is the United States of America. Wow. I'm an organic citizen of this country. I was born there. You know, I'm not, it looks like I went to the naturalization process. But I didn't have a document that I belonged to that country. I didn't have a citizenship up to. Interesting. So you're not, if you're from Bhutan, you're not a citizen until you're 18. Yep. Yep. And you left at 17 and a half. Correct. Wow. That's amazing. And when did you become a citizen here? What, how recent was that? It was in the spring of 2017. Okay. That was the greatest in my life. I can believe that I'm becoming citizen of this great country. You know, I'm becoming citizen of not just, you know, unknown country in the world is number one country in the world. And I'm the citizen. I'm empowered. Being as a citizen of this country that has brought me a lot of confidence in myself. Now I can probably say with that. And when it comes to patriotism and love towards this country, I think the patriotism and loyalty to the country does not bore me. What I feel is does not or cannot be measured just by, you know, how many years that a person spent here, you know, but how much, how much service have you given to the community, to this nation? I think that counts. So as any other regular, you know, patriotic Americans, I think if you measure that level of patriotism, I have a strong sense of that because I never had a country before. Yeah. And, you know, we are a great country in part, because you're here and you're part of it. And that's what makes us great is we're a very diverse country and an accepting country. And I'm just thrilled to know that you're a United States citizen. Thank you, Gary. Tell me about your family. Do you mom and dad and have any brothers and sisters? Where are they? Oh, as a U.S. Resilient Program, we come as a family. They don't want to divide. I think that's the beauty of U.S. Refugee Resilient Program. We all came as a family. We were originally the family of five when we came out from Bhutan and then went to refugee camps and I have two siblings, younger siblings, one brother and a sister. And both parents, we live there together and got married. And then I have three boys who are here. My brother has two children, boy and a girl, and my sister is married. She had a son. In the process of being refugees, you know, I lost my mother in 2008. She applied for refugee resilient program to come to the U.S. So while in the process, she couldn't make that up. She got sick and had to leave the family. The other incidents in the life that we had was my brother passed away in 2019 in Vermont with a sickness. That was a sad part of the story, but the good part of the story, as I said, is that we count the positive aspect of life. And that's what it makes meaningful, you know, moving forward. You know, we have sons. We have a younger generation of my family's in it. So those are the happiness that makes me move forward. Although the past was, you know, we honor the past, but we are making up some hopeful future, making the future for our kids. That's wonderful. You're an optimist, I can tell. And it sounds like your dad is here as well. Yeah. Oh, that's great. And so what are you doing? What kind of work do you do? Come on. Yeah, I work as an education counselor at BISAC. Wonderful. I was a former teacher for the last two years, and before that I was working at Burlington School District for around eight years. I was a former teacher back in refugee camps. And it was an accident, I should say, because as a young person going to refugee camps, you know, you have a lot of dreams, but the dreams cannot be fulfilled because of the situation as refugees. The main factor for the refugees for that, because all refugees are poor, and then it's not possible for the parents to afford higher educations. But somehow I went through that. But when I come back to being as a teacher, you know, when we went to refugee camps in early 90s for my family in 1992, there were lots of people together in the same small area. And there were a lot of children without the schools. So I did my, you know, the sophomore year, and then they call it school living certificate. You have to do the board examinations and then you get into, you pass through that, you know, the board exam and go for higher educations for that. With the 10th grade, after I graduated, I have to be a teacher because there were a lot of kids and there were no teachers because all the people were not educated. We come from the agrarian society, and our people know about, you know, cultivation and raiding the cattle. Just imagine about, you know, the rural Himalayas, if you have been to Nepal, it's the same bell going towards the east in Bhutan. Our rural is really rural, you know. Vermont is a rural state, but for us, it's a 21st century city, you know. You have all the internet, everything else, you know. There is no less as compared to Newark or Los Angeles. We have our own beauty in it. But our rural area is so rural that one house sometimes be about four or five hours distance. Wow. We come from that, from that perspective, from that area. So coming back to education, you know, you can imagine that, you know, people living in the remotest part where they are struggling for the livings can think for education because education is not primary, you know. In those people, that's not a priority. The priority is survival. Yeah. So I became a teacher at a very young age and then that's how I got involved in teaching and then I became a vice principal and I have an education degree from, I did my doctorate from University of Vermont on education leadership. Really? You have a PhD from an educational leadership? Or it's an EDD? EDD. Yeah. EDD. So, oh my goodness. So from an agrarian culture where farming and living off the land was the way of life there, you moved to refugee camps, saw a need for teaching of children who had no formal education and tell me how you got into the world of education and my goodness, you've gone all the way up to the top of the ladder. It was a need in the refugee camps. That was a need and I just jumped in on the younger kids at least. Not as exactly a teacher but sort of like a caretaker for the kids. Sure. But as I started, it was very, I started as a low key and then, and I got really attached with the kids, emotionally attached because they have been deprived from their country and then they don't have, the basic needs to live for themselves and I feel that as a member of that particular refugee community, I felt this is my responsibility because I know a little bit about education, about certain subjects. So I just jumped in and I taught with them, played with them, hit together with them. It was sort of like a small family and then I really got attached with being as a teacher. Since then, I started in 1994. Since then, some of our others, I was involved or I've been involved in education. Today, I work at BISAC and I meet some of the high school seniors and adult students from different parts of the world, from United States, coming and looking themselves that they see their futures to education or trainings. Yes. Wow. Amazing. My goodness. How many languages do you know? I know few languages. One is Nepali. That's my ethnic language and my tribal language is Tamang. I know a little bit about it. Regional-wise, India has a lot of influence in South Asia. So my country is a neighboring country to India and Hindi is another language that I know. National language of my country, I know a little bit about it. That's a dialect called Bengali. I know a little bit about it because I went to India for higher education. I was lucky enough if I see with my peers that I got a scholarship to go to India and I had some higher education. And I want to add one thing, Gary. I think to become me as today, the Jesuit fathers are the ones who had really contributed towards my personality development because I went through their colleges. I worked with them as an educator, as a vice principal or assistant principal. Later in my refugee life, I went to the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu. I worked there as an assistant principal to one of the top schools in Nepal. Wow. My goodness. With the Jesuit priest, is there someone in particular that saw something in you that they wanted to make sure that got nourished and grew? Yeah, there are some miracles that I have in my life. I don't know how people perceive me. Sometimes I see that they really see me what I am today with all those five words that I have shared with you. Simple, kind, compassion, self-motivated, caring, and helpful. I went from refugee camps to number one schools in Nepal as a refugee. I had enough educations to qualify being as a teacher, as an educator, and also as an assistant principal. But one thing that was always behind me was my thinking on the back. Having that low self-esteem being as an educator for non-refugees or citizens of that particular country and as a person, as a teacher, without a country makes a lot of difference. Education actually was a breach to make yourself who you are and bring that up yourself to challenge in those course of time. So the miracles and sort of I was lucky in a way that I was promoted to as an assistant principal after serving there for one year. What makes me so amazing and so surprised was there were a lot of teachers who had been working there for 20 years, 25 years. Who knew the school much better than I did because I was there for one year. And I have to take this challenge to become the assistant principal and then there were kids, for 1900 kids in the school, about 100 staff. And the next year on, you are in charge of looking for the welfare of all those staffs and the students. I took the challenge because as a refugee is living in all scarcity with the minimum limited resources that I had, I think I learned that I should cope up with different environment and also learn that with the limited skills that you have you can make a maximum outcomes with that. I think more of that is my humanity and my networking and relationship with different kind of people that I live with. I think make me successful with that. And the other thing also, like coming to the U.S. the Flynn Elementary School is one of the best schools in the school district. As I came in, I was attracted to education sector. I didn't want to go work anywhere else because that's my comfort zone. A week ago I went and met with Mr. Clark then the principal at the Flynn Elementary School. There was no space, there was no vacancy at the school and I came back and waited. I have not known what my next step would be. I came home with my family after a week there was a white man outside the door and then my family was so scared because there's a white man coming here for some reason. I immediately remember who that man was but I was not sure who that white man was. As he came to our living room and then sat together in our couch then he offered me the job. Then I was very surprised. This is the second time I've been so lucky that I've been getting this job to work in this great country in the school district. The third was as soon as I graduated from UBM I defended my dissertation but I was not graduated. I was supposed to graduate in December 2019 just before the pandemic and my current supervisor went on finding out someone from education department and met with my advisor, Professor Cynthia Reyes who is also my mentor. I think I'm very lucky to have her as my mentor as well. Through her, the current supervisor was trying to meet with that. That happens to be my appointment actually happens to be at Starbucks. I got a job at Starbucks to work at Bisac. There are some instances that I'm really happy with that. I feel myself like when you put yourself when you truly believe yourself in what you are doing being as simple and compassionate people will just find out who you are and what kind of people they want to. Those are some the skeletons of how I went through. Wow. Amazing. So can you take us back to those days in the refugee camps and give us a sense of what life was like there? The first year I went to was in the fall of 1992. You went there and you got a small plot of lands in which you are going to be a hut and we were first of all grouped about about half a kilometer half a miles away from where I was assigned to make my house hut and the first challenge was carrying the bamboos. The bamboos are really long plants. You carry on that with we were resettled in a place where it was a plantation before and there were a lot of roots on the ground many times and you plucked out so many nails from your toes. We built a house that particular fall there was a heavy downpour if you have been to South Asia we call it Mansun Mansun is so terrific. We call it sort of like a hurricane in a heavy downpour and then we are my family was given a plot and we just put on the bamboos as a support to build up the house and we got a tarpaulin to cover up the roof and one of the nights there was heavy downpour with heavy winds my dad my brother and me were holding the edges of the plastic towards the direction so we can save our belongings getting wet that was the first challenge I had and I was thinking how long I am going to stay in the refugee camps that's one and also in the initial period in 1992-93 I have seen that a lot of dead bodies were carried out towards the river site for cremations we didn't have the basic because we are all new and also there were so many people compact in a small area change of climatic conditions or lack of medications proper preventive care a lot of people died in the initial part of the camps later we came to know each other although we came from the same country we didn't know each other who the neighbor was or where and as we went on you see beauty within itself because you see the other refugees as you there is no rich and poor everyone is going through the same process same thinking the victims of the same regime all that makes us together there is some later we have health centers the digits were controlled and then there were a lot of schools that were established and there were teachers there were numerous numbers like thousands of other teachers that were graduated and thousands and thousands of students passed out and that's how it went and you have friends and the refugees now you are dealing with another set of friends by then you are gradually forgetting your memories back in the country because we have adopted to a new land with a new set of friends wow that way we got involved I was involved in karate so the karate I learned 32 years ago I am practicing now wow amazing so I now have 17 kids that I teach karate at a core the AALB building yep I did karate for kids so it's a second generation of karate we do fantastic and then currently I am the national karate referee that I go under the United States karate federations and in the meantime what I did in refugee camp was soccer I played soccer and I have refereed soccer and currently I am the USS soccer referee as well I am doing that since I came into the United States wow so what I am doing was whatever I did in the past in refugee camps especially the memories and experience in the refugee camps I am trying to activate here I am bringing them back to the current life and then try to present that to my sons and generation from the committee so you are taking all the good that came from a very tough time and using it now with your family your friends and kids that are in the neighborhood correct I think refugees there I think it was not really a good experience for anyone else who goes to refugee camp it's not a good experience it's not a good place but that makes the life so meaningful that makes you learn what the life looks like being as a poor being as without a country you become more human by being the part of that kind of life so whenever I see I resonate myself you know with poverty that makes me emotional that brings me together I think I should jump in for the cause of those who are in need because I went through that I just don't want to forget that I had it and I don't want to remember that but there are thousands of millions and billions of people who are living under the poverty or maybe having the emotional distress like I went through and I was I'm constantly thinking about how can I be a good listener how can I be kind enough to make sure at least I can give a hope that's what I'm doing here yes it sounds like that experience shaped your purpose in life it's to help other people who are in a similar situation today whether they're here or other parts of the world correct impressive so is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself, your family life about the dreams for myself you know I feel that I fulfilled my dream of being you know getting a degree that I had and the work I'm doing at the BISAC are the kind of thing that as a part of my dream but the greater dream I'm seeing is through the achievements of my voice, three of my voice one of them is UBM senior the two of them are still at the elementary school so that's what I see as a part of my dream as a community as a community leader and a community of goodness refugee I want to see that this community really flourish really develop well and well integrated and become well integrated to us to the American society and be a contributor for this great nations you know help the nations to be strong and better I'm thankful for those who have fought who have preserved this country and make it as number one in the world I look forward that my community will add up some more strength to this country and become and continue to remain as top one country in the world with compassion, with the kindness and caring country all through this process that I went from my being as a you know citizen of the country and being a stateless and being as a citizen of this great nations the life has been up ill and up and down over the time what I learned is family is so important you may not need to have a country but if you have a family very strong by your side always standing for you I think that's where life makes so meaningful and then I learn other lessons when you become a refugees you must learn to adjust and you should fit into the system, not break the system which is already working so I always feel that somebody had done the great jobs to make that thing work so you are in this country you are going to put an oil and polish that which is already working but don't try to change everything what has been working for majority of the people the third thing I know about this education is so important for anyone else for refugees it's so important because you don't have a property you don't have a country and you don't have enough wealth or you have no wealth about your own but the most important thing that carry on is education much of this relate to myself because as a refugee I didn't have enough money my properties but I was fortunate enough to have my higher education I had my degrees back from India, from Nepal before I came to the US because of those I had some license to go forward challenge myself to get the American degrees so I went through I got it because at the time when I was in refugee camp I had so much interest to do so many things I had that aptitudes aptitudes and attitudes to achieve so much but I didn't have my because I was dealing with my own survival then my parents could not afford that so I felt education has brought me up to this place it let me connect with so many people it let me make me happy it make me a good father to parent my my sons and my community members so I think that's very powerful that it's so important it's a two key words aptitude and attitude got you far and then adding having the aptitude and the attitude allowed you to still have optimism when things were pretty tough I mean sounds like the refugee camps were survival mode at best I think one funny thing is after I had my degrees in my education leadership I I thought of what am I left with because yesterday I was living in poverty what did I miss the most I was thinking all about going to Karate going to soccer back here in the US make me think about I'm recalling now what did I miss when I was a teen I was a young man I'm recalling that so lately because my mother was a nurse over 40 years she was a nurse in Bhutan and then she came back to refugee camps and served a lot of refugees until the last day that she got sick and she passed away and then I thought about my mother did so much for for the people around her and she made a change she was a change as and people still remember in the community and I thought I'm the son of that great mother dedicated mother towards the sons towards the children and towards the community members and I thought okay what should I do to make the legacy continue then lately since I'm not doing I'm just doing work at the BISAC I was thinking okay to carry on the legacy of my mom I want to become a nurse so at at the current time I'm taking two pretty good nursing classes just to remember and honor the legacy of my mother so that's what I'm doing now what a wonderful thing my goodness you're not you keep growing and you keep becoming all that you are it sounds like and you're reaching back and pulling forward trying the best what major is your son at UVM what is he studying he's studying biomedical engineering biomedical engineering wow he's a senior at the UVM hopefully he's planning to go to medical school someday but I can guarantee that with the teens you know it keeps on changing of course does he play soccer like his dad unfortunately he's a captain for the ultimate at the UVM currently he didn't go for soccer he tried for basketball well he was in high school but in the college he's doing ultimate and he's a he's a captain currently wow that's fantastic good for him good for him well what an amazing life my colleague Ann Lisak had referred me to you and I can see now why is there anything anything you want to say that we haven't talked about so far something about dedicating who I am was primarily my mother and later my academic professor professor Cynthia Rays I think she is she's the department head in one of the education section at UVM medical University of Vermont and the great people that I came through in the US pretty much the same because we are all human society it's all the same but there are some cultural differences with that you know people come with so much knowledge from out the refugee people come in here with certain life experiences more than their academics or formal educations like a lot of Americans have but they have the real hands on experience in their life what I personally feel now although I have a degree but I personally feel that you know the life that I've gone through had taught me more than the degree that I went there for some years people you're talking about have a PhD in life yes and that's probably worth a whole lot more in many ways than a degree in school yeah other thing that I want to talk about for young people or the American is you know it's a great country you have a lot of support system in this country you know if you want to become anything else I think you can become you can make a dream come true in this country that's why you call the American dreams you know when I came in here and being as refugees I can see so much opportunities in this country that I can grab if I was too young or if I was young to come to this country I would have been in another place whole lot of another place you know in 1992 going to refugee camp in Nepal if I happen to be in the United States at that time then I could have done so much better I'm happy with what I'm doing here but you know the aspirations if you talk about self motivation and aspiration I have when I went to refugee camps and now as a young man then I'm the same aspirations same motivations to do with that I've never lost because I'm physically fit I can run you know few miles you know I can do running then walking then hiking I do a lot of winter hikings in Vermont we went to Adirondacks in summer and we went all the surrounding mountains in the Stowe area and then to the northeast kingdom you know all these mountains we did both you know all seasons hikings so what I'm coming back to the point is in spite of complaining for certain things there are certain things that you can fix because you have that ability you have that resources in the area in this country try yourself you can always define every time that you go through because you have a lot of resources in the system you have responsible government in the place so another thing that I knew was as a refugee was you have to adapt to the situation the situation won't adapt with you like feeding the system the system will not actually make a fit for you you have to shape yourself and then policy yourself to fit in the system this is because when I was you know citizen of the country citizen in a way that I didn't have passport but I was born in Bhutan and then I went to refugee camp my family and a lot of other family had to adjust ourselves we have to set back and adjust to the refugee life then we stayed there for 18 years we survived then we came to the United States it's another war for us we moved a little bit and then moved forward and then we adjusted ourselves or in the process of adjusting in the transition we are adjusting so all this has made me think about is if you have a good families on your side I think you can live in Antarctica whatever you have because you need the love and support yes that's a wonderful message to give families first and with the support of a family you can do anything correct and that makes perfect sense absolutely well and tell me about your wife a little bit where did you meet your wife that's the interesting story so we meet in the refugee camps we went to the same schools one of the refugee high school in 1992-1993 the schools were funny in a way that the school buildings were under construction my first school in refugee camp was under the tree and there were huge rocks which were just laid under the trees for the construction those are my tables and chairs and in that locations in South Asia I already talked about the rain, the monsoon and the heat of the sun is so intense you can't stay for long so you need a shed as you sit in the classroom under the tree the earth moves and after a few minutes you are under the sun and you find the shade so it's like a mobile classroom around the trees around the tree so I met I was attending my school in refugee camps with my spouse I've never met her back in the country she was from a different part of Bhutan we met each other and we married in 1992 very nice that's great is she enjoying living here too as well she has a different experience sitting she has some educations but not so much as I did because she preferred to look after the kids and give a give a valuable parenting to our boys she has a different perceptions being in this country may not be so much in respect to motivations in respect to the dreams that she had so the dreams comes true and it becomes more and more resonating only if you see or if you experience that particular life as being having some educations that you go through so she has been a very important part of the families for the development of the families and the meaningful growth of our boys and the families so more than me she had a lot of contributions to the families that's wonderful that's great well so we're just about at the end of our interview is there anything final words you'd like to say being to this country I'm so proud I'm repeating that again because I want to tell it again I want to tell it repeated again and I talk to a lot of people these are some common statements if you listen to other maybe presentations somewhere else be it at UVM sometimes I go to UVM to do guest presentations or in public forums I never stop saying that I'm so proud of being this country it's the first country I have with my citizenship I don't want to go away time and again I thought myself with a lot of things going in the United States we lived in the country where we were born we were disowned by the country and I had to go to refugee camps without your country separated from the family members and friends that was not our home in the refugee camps we knew that that was not the home that we were going to have it grow the kids and we happen to be in the US through US refugee settlement program we are in this country as we came in here this is a great country but there are a lot of problems issues with regard to racial discriminations and so many other political issues related with so many group of people sometimes I feel I have a citizen I have a passport I have the license to live in this country will this be a repeated cycling story that because you were born in the country you were disowned by your own country and now you are adopting another country it constantly keep me in thinking are my kids or me going to stay here forever though as I said I have the equal sense of loyalty to this country and love to this country that's a big question behind how it goes I just have to watch for it in addition to that Gary I always wanted to become the army officer back in the country when I was in Bhutan and then I thought about after I graduated from UBM I thought about how can I be a contributor to this great nation I thought about oh well in my schools in my country I wanted to become army officer is there a way that I can become here I try to go through the websites for national gods I'm too old to become the national gods so that's a sense yeah you know I'll say this in a parting way that America in many ways is a young country and unlike Bhutan where you were asked to leave because you spoke out with a peaceful demonstration this country needs people to speak out to help shape its future and I really think that your family, yourself and others by contributing your thoughts and ideas and inspirations will help make us the country that we can be now we talk about creating the perfect union and we're not there yet but we're walking towards that and have you and your family be a part of that conversation will help us and I hope you consider continuing to do that and staying here because we need you sure girl towards the end I personally and my family personally thank this great country all the American people who felt you know giving a life another life for refugees in this country with a great feeling and affections I should thank for them and all those who were involved in bringing refugees here and giving a life I think it's it's not a bad idea it is one of the noble services the America can give it for someone who lived in refugee camps especially those kids without educations we are a leader as a nation and we should continue to help the people around the world including refugee restaurant programs and I'm I'm so much happy that that I always feel that I have a lot of a lot of you know debt that I need to give it to this country so I'm in the process of giving back to whatever way I am because I involved in my city activities in the city of Burlington I try to work beyond my beyond a scheduled work you know try to help the people so some ways I'm looking for a more greater platform but not a politics but a greater platform in which I can serve better serve better for the American people thank you Gary for inviting me thank you and it's been nice spending time with you Amad