Shezan and Binod
Tupche 2002
Across the river from Betrawati the tiny village of Tupche butts up against a steep wooded hill.
On one of my trips across the cable bridge I took this photo of two friends.
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Baby resting
Betrawati 2000
A few houses down from where I stayed, a baby rests on a blanket. The floor beneath him and the walls surrounding are smooth and a warm terra cotta color. At his feet sits an hourglass shaped stool where his mother may sit when she has a free moment.
If a baby has an older sister or brother they are usually put in charge of watching them during the day. You'll see boys and girls, some only a foot taller than the babies, carrying them on their backs as they walk about.
On a trip to Trishuli, some nine kilometers away, I passed a mother fixing up a shawl to help keep the baby on her daughters back. The girl carrying her sibling must have been about four years old. As I walked into Trishuli about an hour later I saw that, passenger and all, the young girl had beaten me.
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Shashi
Betwawati 2002
Shashi lived next door, a cousin of my host family. He's sitting on a bench built into their front porch. If you were to sit there you might see his grandmother sorting rice, a group of women singing during the Teej festival, his mother removing kernels from dried corn, or one of his sisters jumping rope after school.
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Present day, Shashi lives in Pokhara, Nepal's second-largest city.
A couple of days ago, he and his friends filled up the back of an industrial truck with bottles of drinking water, and drove them the 143km to Kathmandu. After distributing that, they reloaded the truck with more water, as well as bags of rice and other supplies and drove it the curvy 93km to Betrawati.
(photo by Shashi Lamichhane)
Ganga and Ganesh, mother and son
Betrawati 2003
My neighbors from a few doors down, I would walk pass their house several times a day.
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2011: Ganesh and his younger sister, in front of the small shop that his mother now runs in front of their house.
Sarju
Betrawati 2002
The eldest of four daughters, Sarju looks out from her family's covered front porch. The porch, and the ground right in front of a house, is really like the living area. Tasks are done here; it's where you'd drink tea with a daytime visitor. As news comes mostly by bus and foot, doing things out front is a good way to keep up on current events.
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Present day, Sarju is now a beloved primary-school teacher.
(photo by Sarju Thapa)