LOWE: Instructor puts students in the driver’s seat
There are infinitely more enchanting locales than the Access Nova Scotia parking lot in Bayers Lake Business Park. But that’s the spot where Kesabi Dhungana-Bhujel’s asphalt aspirations kick off.
“My dream,” the 28-year-old says, “is to drive.”
Dhungana-Bhujel is a Bhutanese immigrant — slim, soft-spoken and a whiz with a turn signal.
“I like to drive the car because I have children,” says the mother of an 11- and a two-year-old.
“They like to go everywhere. And sometimes, the bus, it’s a half-hour away, an hour away. It’s difficult, no?”
Dhungana-Bhujel uses the Access Nova Scotia parking lot to practice backing into parking spots under the counsel of instructor Abdul Abawajy of Adde Zem Driving School.
Steel-nerved Abawajy is the granddaddy of Halifax’s newcomer driving scene — student accident-free since he started up in 1999.
Abawajy cranes from the passenger seat of the moss-green Nissan Cube before Dhungana-Bhujel fires up and slips the transmission into drive.
“Don’t get scared,” he tells me.
After a close call with a median leaving Access Nova Scotia, Dhungana-Bhujel heads west on Highway 3 and into the residential neighbourhood around Ridgecliff Middle School in Beechville.
Abawajy directs Dhungana-Bhujel with near-ceaseless monotone repetition. And the occasional steering-wheel grab.
“Turn your head and check. Turn your head and check. Turn your head and check.
“Foot on the brake. Foot on the brake. Sow down. Slow down.
“Straight your car. Look at that car. See that car? Stop, stop, stop, stop. Go, go, go, go.”
“Abdul,” Dhungana-Bhujel says later, “he’s the best. Everyone says.”
Today is Dhungana-Bhujel’s fifth hour behind the wheel.
“First time, I came and start to drive,” she says, “I am very nervous. Now, a little bit, it’s OK.”
Dhungana-Bhujel and her family — eight members in all — came to Halifax in 2009.
“I like the cold,” she says, smiling.
“I went ice-skating last (winter). I fell five or six times. I like to learn new things.”
Few folks — men or women — drive in Bhutan or Nepal, where Dhungana-Bhujel lived for 18 years. People use buses or bikes, mostly.
Her lessons with Abawajy have been Dhungana-Bhujel’s first time behind the wheel.
“I like to go straight,” she says, giggling. “Otherwise, it’s difficult, no?”
Dhungana-Bhujel’s biggest challenge, she surmises, is backing into parking spots.
After our Beechville jaunt, Abawajy directs her back to Access Nova Scotia to work at it some more. He has taught Dhungana-Bhujel to stop perpendicular to the spot she wants to take and line up the car with the spots beside it.
“Remember how we count?” he says. “One, two, three — that’s where we stop. Hold the steering. Now let it go, let it go, let it go. Straight the steering. Good, good, good. Annd stop.
“Annd go.”
Soon we’re back out, trolling around Washmill Lake subdivision.
“What’s the speed limit here?” inquires a zen-like Abawajy, eyes ahead.
Dhungana-Bhujel locates a sign “70.”
“You are driving 40. You have to concentrate.”
Her face, her torso, her poking-out elbows says she’s doing nothing but.
Dhungana-Bhujel hopes someday to have a car and to drive to work. In January, she started weekends as a housekeeper at the Chocolate Lake Best Western. Her husband, an English teacher, works maintenance.
After 10 or 15 hours with Abawajy, Dhungana-Bhujel should be ready for her road test out at her parking-practice haunt.
And after that?
“Sometime, I’ll go shopping,” she says. “I will not wait for the bus.”
Lezlie Lowe is a freelance writer in Halifax. Follow her on Twitter @lezlielowe.
The More I Hear The Worse I See
Submitted by geo on August 3, 2012 - 7:52am.
Every time I read stories about driving and driving instruction, it makes me wonder why, over the past few years, as the amount of instruction increases, our drivers get worse. I've driven from Texas to here, was formerly a heavy vehicle instructor, and we have quite a collection of drivers in this province.
Brings back memories - But what of the emissions?
Submitted by BSacamano on August 3, 2012 - 9:32am.
Dhungana-Bhujel's experience brings back memories of my own days in driver's ed. Gave me a chuckle, though, as it reminded me that one of my classmates hit the 'Reserved for Testing' sign in the parking lot at the very end of the road test. Hitting things is, apparently, an automatic fail. While I wish all the best to her (especially since she knows how to use a turn signal!), I'm going to call attention to a small detail Lowe noted about her life in Nepal and Bhutan: "Few folks—men or women—drive in Bhutan or Nepal, where Dhungana-Bhujel lived for 18 years. People use buses or bikes, mostly."
That is the crux of why immigration is an environmental issue--something the Lowe-style left would rather not discuss. I suspect we can all agree that the carbon footprint of a Nepalese biker is a fraction of that of a Canadian driver. The addition of people to our North American lifestyle has a far greater impact then what we save by all the recycling, offsets, green power, biking, etc. Exactly how are we supposed to get our carbon emissions to the Kyoto target of 20% below 1990 levels when our population has increased by 7 million people since then?
That truth is inconvenient.
Submitted by shawnino on August 3, 2012 - 12:28pm.
But don't expect much discussion on it.
If there is not much
Submitted by CapeHalifax on August 3, 2012 - 4:15pm.
If there is not much discussion about glib remarks regarding Kyoto in a piece illustrating the challenges of immigrants acclimating to Nova Scotian society via the metaphor of a driving lesson, it is probably because one has nothing to do with the other.
How about just thanking them for coming to Nova Scotia, wishing them well in their new lives amongst us, and making a light hearted encouraging comment about the trivial challenges of learning to drive as a metaphor for being a good neighbour regardless of their race, creed, sexual orientation ...
Something like, thanks for the effort to be productive and participating member of our community, your positive example is very much appreciated. Good luck with your future here, neighbour.
Just because you have a pen
Submitted by hav2b on August 3, 2012 - 12:01pm.
Just because you have a pen and a clean piece of paper, doen't mean you have to write.
This week: person learns to drive.
Submitted by city mouse on August 3, 2012 - 12:49pm.
Don't miss next week's thriller: farmer milks a cow.