Prabin
Prabin
Betrawati, November 2002
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Prabin
Betrawati, November 2002
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Sister and brother
A small town somewhere between Betrawati and Kathmandu, 2000
With my school closing for a week, I was heading south to Kathmandu.
The five-hour bus ride always made one brief stop along the way, in one of a handful of sixty-meter towns built around a dozen or so restaurants.
Taking the chance to stretch my legs, I walked by another bus and saw this sister and brother looking out of their open window. I namaste’d them and then went to shake their hands. One of them shook my hand and the other turned my hand and gave it a quick kiss, making me laugh in surprise. I asked if I could take their photo and they said yes. I wish I had gotten their names, but the whole interaction was probably over in less than 30 seconds. I never saw them again.
I am so glad that I got their photo,
and I feel that wherever they are today, that they are doing great things with others.
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Ram Bhakta and a friend
Betrawati, June 2011
Next to the small temple.
Beyond the orange-colored blossoms of the tree behind, a view of the Falakhu.
All around, the timeless roar of the Trisuli.
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A photo, from 2000, of the temple that lies just a few meters away.
A young Barsha is on the right.
Pundewoti
Betrawati, November 2002
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Children by a bridge to Tupche
Betrawati 2000
On the road to Trishuli Bazar lays another bridge to Tupche. More recently built, the planks on this one are uniform pieces of metal grid instead of weathered wooden planks. Near the other side of the bridge lies Tupche’s school.
The vines in the top right of the frame hang down from an enormous tree. Passing the tree you might hear children giggling from someone high in the tree, but be unable to see them for all the vines.
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The tree is a popular place to play.
Some of the giggling children that have climbed up into the tree.
Bibishah, Reshnah and Binitah
Betrawati, May 25th, 2005
These three were neighbors of my old host family. This was the first time I got to see them when they weren’t babies or stranger-shy toddlers.
When I took this photo in 2005, many of the children I knew when I volunteered had since moved to Kathmandu. Some of the others who remained in Betrawati, tiny when I first met them but now much much taller, still ask to be picked up and swung around when they saw me.
In 2005, Kathmandu provided both the possibility of better schools, and at least the idea of a more arm’s-length relationship with violence from the Maoist rebels.
When I was first in Betrawati in 2000, there were a handful of uneasy but resigned young police who took turns keeping watch with heirloom rifles.
My second visit in 2002 saw the police gone. A wall of their stone-walled station all but removed by a Maoist socket-bomb.
In 2005, the structure sat abandoned, and a family was using it to store dry grass for their buffalo.
The Maoist civil war ended with a peace accord signed in November of 2006. I was so relieved to hear it.
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(the image above is from a rather smallish scan of the photo. I had to enlarge the image a little, which is why it may look a little blurry/pixelly)
A girl washes at a spigot
Betrawati 2000
A young girl cools off under a spigot near my school.
Out of the frame on the left, a large electrical tower was being built to bring more power from Trishuli Bazar's hydroelectric plant down river.
Out of frame on the right stands a house, half of which collapsed during my first visit to the school. Dozens of us worked for an hour or so to save the family cow that was pregnant and trapped inside. The cow, once rescued was hot and exhausted but I believe both the cow and the unborn calf survived.
Nepal, being Hindu, holds the cow as sacred.
The cow was also one of the family's most important assets.
"What about the bull," I asked my brother Binod, "…sacred?"
"No."
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Here is a shot of the partially-collpased house a few days after it happened. The aforementioned electrical tower was still being assembled, so it cannot be seen yet.
Here is a shot of the house taken about two months later.
You can see the now-completed electrical tower in the background.
The tower can also be seen (from the vantage point of the school up on the hill) behind the children playing in this photo.
Samjana and Santi
Betrawati, 2005
Santi and her daughter Samjana live in a house that hugs the valley slope. In addition to small strips of terraced crops, a fruit tree stands nearby.
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Anup
Betrawati, November 2002
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Santoshi
Uttargaya Secondary English Boarding School, Betrawati, 2000
[text below from a postcard I wrote on Tuesday, October 24th 2000]
"A few days ago during lunch I poked my head into one of the school’s class rooms. There, in a dim empty room filled with only six bench/desks and the sounds of one hundred children playing outside, sat a small girl.
Her arms were folded on her desk, her little face resting upon them. She seemed neither outwardly happy nor sad, but more resigned as if this was where she would be most comfortable—a warm bath in a cold house.
“Wouldn’t you rather play outside?” I asked her. She shook her head.
“We could play…”.
Again, she shook her head.
“Okay” I said smiling at her. I leaned across the bench/desk separating us and shook her hand goofily."
[from a postcard two days later]
"Yesterday I stopped by the orphanage on the way back from Trishuli Bazaar and for the first time I heard Santoshi’s (san-toe-see) voice. Since the day I found her alone in that class room at lunch, I’ve made it a point to walk into her class, say hello and shake her hand. I walked up to her today at the orphanage, said
“Hello Santoshi!” and gave her a goofy handshake.
She smiled, then laughed, then asked (in English) “What is your name?”
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Santoshi running across the rock-strewn football field to class.