Prabin, my little studious 13-year old sidekick, the son of Saran who drives me to and from the office, was initially quite shy when I first met him back in February. As I got to know him more, I found that his English is remarkably good and he is very intellectual for his age.

One morning while I was eating breakfast (dal bhaat), Prabin, with his English-Nepali accent, asked me an astonishing question that I would never have expected to hear in rural Hetauda…

“Rex, do you know the famous Canadian “Terry Fox”?

“Um, yeah?!?”, I said looking at him with amazement. Prabin’s follow-up response almost made me spit out my food.

“Did you know Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1958 and went to school at Seemon Praser Univerbersity (Simon Fraser University)? He originally wanted to join the basketball team but his coach said he would be better to join the wrestling team. Terry ignored his coach and joined the basketball team anyways. He then got cancer in his right leg and then decided to run for cancer across Canada. He started in Newfoundland and stopped in Ontario.”

With my mouth agape I quizzically asked him how he came to know about one of Canada’s pioneer crusaders against cancer.

He said he learned it in school and then showed me his textbook.

Very cool!