BondingNepalese love their children. The children are completely integrated into every moment of the day - in the fields or in the house. They are all the more precious because one in five does not survive.
During my trek in the Ganesh Himal, we were sometimes several days from the nearest clinic, in mountain villages reached only after arduous climbs. That meant parents could not bring their children to check with a doctor early into an illness. Only a severe health crisis could warrant such a journey. By then, of course, it was often too late.
One day I held in my arms a child on the edge of death. The tight bracelet around her wrist had caused an infection that had now spread through her system. She lay limp against my chest, the expression in her eyes already dead. A shot of penicillin probably would have saved this little girl's life. Her mother begged me for help. We found some iodine and bandages - small comfort.
My life was deeply changed by that trip to Nepal. It's one thing to gawk from a tourist bus at the trappings of another culture. It's quite another to walk the same paths, drink from the same stream, sleep in the same fields, and swat the same bugs.
Then you discover the meaning of "the family of all humanity."
 "The Red Sling" Nepal |
|
  "Mekong Fun" Laos |
 "Grandpa's Boy" Kenya |
 "Balinese Madonna" Indonesia |
 "Khatmandu Streets" Nepal |
 "Hill Tribe Madonna" Thailand |
 "Samburu Madonna" Kenya |
 "With Daddy" Nepal |
 "The Yellow Cloth" Kenya |