Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Cory Grogan | Nepalese army Maj. Suraj Lamichane pauses for a photo during Exercise Shanti Prayas-2...... read more read more
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PANCHKHAL, Nepal - Nepalese army Maj. Suraj Lamichane, a trainer at Exercise Shanti Prayas-2, describes his feelings of being a peacekeeper and a father through poem.
A little boy misses his father and is too small to understand exactly why his papa is gone, but what that child may not know is that his father misses him even more. His father is a peacekeeper on a mission far away. He can only hope his little boy may understand why he is gone, why his mission is important, and why his papa does it for the world. The little boy is wearing a t-shirt that says “My Father is a Peacekeeper“ and even though the boy is small he seems very proud.
These are emotions that inspired Nepalese army Maj. Suraj Lamichane to write a poem called “My Father is a Peacekeeper.”
The first words from the poem written by the Nepalese soldier in English say:
Son: Mama, mama where is my father?
Mama: He is far away from home in unknown land.
Son: Why is he there and how does he sleep and what he eat?
Mama: He is a peacekeeper fighting with devils to bring a peace.
Lamichane says he writes poetry because the Nepalese have been peacekeeping since 1958 and the pride he feels about that work elicits deep feelings.
“When I go through photos from some of my Nepalese brothers and sisters, my father, and some of my relatives, it brings motivation with me,” Lamichane said. “They have been on missions and done so much, why can’t I do that on the next mission I’ll be deployed for.”
Lamichane was a trainer at Shanti Prayas-2 at the Birendra Peace Operations Training Center. The Nepalese army led the two-week peacekeeping training exercise, March 26 to April 7, as part of the Global Peace Operations Initiative, a U.S. State Department program executed in the region by facilitators from U.S. Pacific Command.
Much like service members on military deployments, peacekeepers deal with the stresses of being away from family from six-months to a year at a time, feeling the paradox of being a soldier where pride and pain are often interwoven.
Lamichane explained peacekeeping is no longer a secret because every country and everyone is working together.
“When I walk around in the mission area and come to the people who are suffering from the pain from conflict it makes me feel like it’s our duty to guide them, to lead them out of conflict,” he said. “That is my feeling from the inner heart.”
He said he not only wrote the poem for his child but also because he has so many friends who might be thinking about their children on missions.
“There is a pride that comes with being a father and a peacekeeper,” Lamichane said.
He mentioned the poem could also say my mother is peacekeeper, my grandfather is a peacekeeper, or anyone for that matter, and anyone deployed who feels deeply about their family.
“The poem is for all the peacekeepers serving in a mission area,” Lamichane added.
He said his son was very young when Lamichane wrote the poem, but that he felt the boy — on some level — had an emotional connection to his circumstance. The boy would say “papa, papa” and Lamichane knew he was trying to express something he could not yet say in words.
“My son was only one-and-a-half, and he didn’t speak much, but I just thought about what he must be feeling from the inner heart,” Lamichane said.
Here is the second verse of his poem:
Son: No mama, I want my father here.
Mama: He is a hero with a blue beret fighting for peace.
Son: No mama, call my father here.
Mama: He is a man walking with blue flag asking for peace.
Lamichane is asking peacekeepers to bring it from their heart and to not just do it for their country, but for everyone in the world who is suffering.
With 23 diverse nations working together at Shanti Prayas-2, Lamichane again felt compelled to express his emotions through poetry with a poem called “Peacekeepers Endeavour for Peace” about Exercise Shanti Prayas-2.
“I am inspired because this exercise has brought them together for a common cause,” he said.
Lamichane said peacekeepers are soldiers, but they love helping people and are working for peace. He has a message for peacekeepers.
“Don’t keep down your spirit; your spirit has to always rise up,” he said. “When you’re in the peacekeeping field, it’s seven-days and 24-hours.”
Lamichane mentioned that though there are people from 23 different countries at Shanti Prayas-2, with different societies and different cultures, there is a common cause of peacekeeping, and all the people are curious to learn from each other.
“This exercise is for the world and for the people who are going on the missions in the future,” he explained. “This training is going to help them — it’s going to guide them — it’s going to make them more successful on the mission.”
"Everyone at the exercise wants to share ideas and knowledge," Lamichane said.
“What I’ve found is that the common cause for all the soldiers here is peacekeeping, so that is what has motivated me to write the poem.”
Shanti Prayas-2 aims to build and maintain capability, capacity, and effectiveness of peacekeepers deploying to United Nations missions.
“Peacekeeping is a soldiers job, it’s the prime duty of the soldier to be a peacekeeper,” he said. “We are not all just working for a country, we are working for the people in the world suffering from pain, suffering from conflict throughout their life.”
Lamichane said he wrote “My Father is a Peacekeeper” because he wants those on peacekeeping missions to remember that their families are proud of them:
Here is the final verse:
Son: Dear father, my great father you are my hero; you are my hero.
I feel proud of you.
I love you papa.
I love my friends’ papa and all the papas working for peace.
Really, father, I feel proud to say,
“My father is a peace keeper.”
Perhaps his poem about that little boy wearing a t-shirt that says my father is a peacekeeper will inspire that child, and possibly others like him, to write about their sons and daughters while on a peacekeeping missions in the future.
| Date Taken: | 04.06.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 04.22.2013 01:36 |
| Story ID: | 105572 |
| Location: | PANCHKHAL, NP |
| Web Views: | 429 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, His father is a peacekeeper, by SFC Cory Grogan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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