Tashi Medok, at 15 is the baby of the family. She comes from a remote valley near Ganze in Sichuan. She also comes from, it seems, a challenging family situation. Her mother had her before she was married, then married another man. She then had two more children, and the stepfather had little or no interest in Medok. At 7, she was sent out to look after the yaks, so never went to school or had even held a pencil. She used to draw in the dirt with sticks. Her aunt is married to an old friend of Kristel’s and it was through their insistence that she was allowed to the school to study. She was the first girl in her valley to go so far away to study. She was like a little wild animal in many ways when she first came and had no powers of concentration or focus, which made the first few months of her studies a nightmare. But suddenly, a connection seemed to have been made between her brain and her hand, and now she is improving with amazing rapidity. She also has a heart of gold and her dream is to become a great artist so other girls in her valley will have a chance.