Hasta Bhattarai and friends tend crops in the Global Garden Refugee Training Farm.
By Erin Strybis It’s summer in Chicago, and the air is thick
and balmy. In the Albany Park neighborhood, rows of lush, green plants—daikon, cucum- bers, zucchini, carrots—bask in the heat. Hasta Bhattarai, who has gardened there for five years, walks through his family’s plot, showing off what they’re growing. “Americans would think of this plant as a
Gathered
weed, but for us, this is food,” he said, pointing to a tallish plant with light green, springy leaves that indeed looks like a weed. Earlier that day, Bhattarai’s wife Chandra served it sauteed in a traditional Bhutanese dish. Originally from Bhutan, the Bhattarais find that
their plot, and the community they’ve found at the Global Garden Refugee Training Farm, bring warm memories of home, a place they fled years ago. Until the early 1980s, Bhattarai said, people of
all ethnicities were treated with respect in Bhutan. But his people—farmers of Nepali origin—began to be seen as a threat to political order because of their different language and traditions. “[Those in power] raped the women, people were beaten. They seized the bank accounts, the crops—it all became the government’s property. They threatened us,” he said. “We had to leave the country or face death.” Gathering up food, clothing and blankets,
Bhattarai and his family abandoned their farmland and walked for days until they reached India.
34 SEPTEMBER 2016
AT THE garden Photos by Will Nunnally
They then made their way to the southern part of Nepal, hitching rides on trucks transporting goods around the country. “We had a small group there. In the beginning people got organized and raised voices in the international community, and we started to get help from the United Nations,” he said. “From there we started the camp. “In the beginning, we didn’t know anything
and we were really hopeless,” he said. “But when we started getting some help from outside, that gave us some hope we could rebuild our lives.” As time went on, a school was organized and
Bhattarai started teaching. There he met his future wife, a student. “At the time, I didn’t even notice her,” he said. Later, when he was working at a school out- side the camp and needed a science teacher, Chandra stepped in. They reconnected and fell in love.
A new life in a new country In 2008, with the help of the International Organization for Migration, the Bhattarais were given the opportunity to resettle in an approved country of their choosing. In the 17 years they spent in Nepal, they had tried more than once to return to Bhutan, which remained unsafe. Ultimately, Bhattarai said they chose to move
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