My Journey to the U.S.
by Tenzin P.
Tibetan people who come to the U.S., we have to buy the Nepalese passport. The cost is Nepalese rupee 25,000 or with your own name in the passport, 25,000 or 28,000. My passport is little bit cheaper because my passport is not my own name! Some of my friends are Himalayans and they have real passports. Some nuns are visiting for teaching how to make the sand mandala, so that time I have one chance to go with the friends to apply for a visa. I request they put me in the group. One older nun is very kind, then she said, “Yes I put you in this group.”
I’m so happy and nervous. We got a visa and another friend she already has a visa! She knows that I got a visa, then she asked me, “When are you leaving?” I tell her not yet because I don’t have airplane ticket money and everything I need to be ready.
She told me, “We can go together because I need a friend and you need a friend.” Then I told her okay we can go together. I borrowed money everywhere. On May 23rd in the evening, me and my friend left Nepal taking the bus to Kolkata, India. We arrived to Kolkata in the afternoon on May 24th. On the 27th at 10 a.m., we flew to New York’s JFK airport.