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.