Nepal

Kathmandu Valley

1. Kathmandu nights

Due to India's Blockade the nights in the big city of Nepal were darker than usual. Several hours with powercuts, problems with transports, lots of local shops closed and the fear of the cold incoming winter.

2. Kathmandu days

The polution above the city force you to go out whenever is possible searching for fresh air. Even with the lack of petrol, with not many vehicules on the street you can appreciate the cloud of dirt and dust above the city.

3. Swayambhunath

4. Durbar Square

Many of the Kathmandu Valley's historic monuments, buildings and temples were either completely destroyed or damaged by the earthquake.

5. Faces: Local vendor

6. Mannequin

Shivapuri National Park Orphanage

7. Faces: Kids

I spend two days in this orphanage rebuild afer earthquake by a british NGO. The 40 kids living in this orphanage have a realtionship between them closer to family than friendship. Everyone has his responsability and everyone takes care for everyone.

8. Badminton players

9. Time for enjoy: Photobomb!

10.

11. Time for homework

12. Time for joy: Kiting

No time for bore. Grab a plastic bag, some sticks and a thin cord. Buid your own kite and enjoy.

12. 13. Time for work

14. Faces: The Chef

15. Faces: Kitchen Assistant

16. Faces: Amir

I met Amir in the early days of my journey. He is one of the most valuable people I've met in Nepal, the one who knows where to get everthing you need. As soon I told him I was volunteer in Nepal he put all his priceless effort on making my life and volunteer work easier to the point that I still feel I owe him so many "thank you"

17. On the jeep

70km in 8 hours. Thats how it works in Nepal if you wanna go to the mountains. Due to lack of petrol the buses were overcrowd and after earthquake and monsoon season a lot of roads were damage and dangerous so we decide to go by Jeep. More expensive but less risky.

Upper Rasuwa - Pajung Primary School

18. Faces: Women of Pajung

19. Faces: ChungKu

This was the first time i saw ChungKu but not the last. She hosted me in my first travel to Upper Rasuwa. She explained me how difficult was to mantein the buissness after earthquake. Syabru-Bensi used to be a place with lot of tourist looking for treekin routes and mountains. Now empty of tourist there was no enough money incomming.

20. Pajung's Primary School

A lot of villagers come to the school the day we were giving school materials and medical kits. The expectation was big because, in this small village close to the China border, the situation is very precarious, no electricty and no water sanitation were the biggest problems besides the Learning Temporary School build after earthquake was just a tin cabin with plastic cover as roof and no proper windows.

21. Faces: Kids of Pajung

22. Faces: Kids of Pajung

Photo taken during the demostration "how to use water cleaning drops"

23. Faces: Kids of Pajung

25. Faces: Kids of Pajung

26. Faces: Woman of Pajung

Ghorka - Ghyachcok Secondary School

27. Bus to Gorkha

28. Kid on the bus

One of the strange things about a "normal" travel by bus in Nepal is that as the bus is overcrowed and you are sit you should hold at least one little kid on your knees so they are not in the middle of the bus where is even really hard to breathe. At one point the bus had stop. A woman knocked my window from outside. She asked me to hold her little kid meanwhile she was trying to get into the bus. After 30 mins of ride the woman appeared inside the bus next to me taking the kid back to her.

29. Ghyachok

I met Clara, another spanish volunteer, in Kathmandu after my first travel to Rasuwa. She invited me to join her Photo Creativity Project for 2 weeks in the village of Ghyachok next to the first earthquake epicenter. All the houses were damaged or destroyed so people live in temporary houses made of tin or wood. At least in the village they didnt suffer so much the lack of petrol because they were used to cook and get warm with fire.

30. Views from Ghyachok

With arround 300 people living in the village Ghyachok is one of the most populated villages of the area. From there you see a lot of villages in the near mountains. 90% of Nepal population live in the rural area so Nepal is made by little villages on the mountains and few cities on the lower valleys. In places like Ghyachok is where you really discover and experience the true life of the nepali people.

33. The boy and the shepherd

34. Life at Ghyachok

35. Working woman

Women socio-economic status in Nepal is very poor. They are being discriminated in every aspect of the society. When you live between them you realise how important and underated the women work and life-status is. Everyday they wake up early in the morning and dont finish work untill they go to sleep. This picture shows a woman carrying food for the animals while taking care of his son.

36. Faces: Memories of Ghyachok

Everyone you met in Nepal has a sad story about the loss. This man told me about the loss of reality. After living all his life in the village now he coudn't recognise any of his memories like real, the place where it happen nevermore exists. Everything had change. This photo was taken at his father's full destroyed house.

37. Shepherd taking a nap

38. Working woman

The sales of yak's wool blankets, ponchos and other clothes are one of the money incomes a family needs. Usually the oldest woman of the family will work hard everyday sit in the same position for hours.

39. Faces: Sisters

40. Working woman: Rebuilding

Women work in the fields, in the house, take care of children and whenever they have free time they help in rebuilding.

41.42. Faces: Ghyachok

43. Working woman: Cooking

44. Faces: Ghyachok

45. 46. Faces Ghyachok

This couple live in a self-sufficient traditional way in a farm close to the jungle. They only go to the village to buy/sell animals, clothes or rice. They don't care to much about money because they can get what they need to live from the nature.

47.48. Faces: Ghyachok

49.50. Faces: Kids of Ghyachok

51. Kids of Ghyachok

From sunday to friday the school starts at 10am. Some children must wake up early in the morning and walk for 2 or 3 hours to arrive at time to school.

52. Working woman: Herding

53. 54. Faces: Ghyachok

55. Working woman: Farming

56. Faces: Kids of Ghyachok

57. Working woman: Tailoring

58. Working girl

The only day the children dont have to go to school must help the family on work duty. Every saturday the children work in the fields or colecting fresh leaves for the animals.

59. Faces: Ghyachok

This man is the groundkeeper of the Ghyachok Secondary School. He rings the bell, fix the broken forniture and colects the garbage. There is no waste collection sistem so he, like everyone, burns the garbage. For that moment he uses to put a fresh leave in his mouth to avoid the toxic smell of the burning plastic.

60. Faces: Kids of Ghyachok

61. Faces: Kids of Ghyachok

62. Working woman

63. Working woman

64. Rebuilding

63. Rebuilding

Most of the population in rural villages lived in houses made of stone or mud bricks. Mostly every house in Ghyachok was destroyed or highly damaged, so first thing before start rebuilding was demolishing and selecting the materiales still viable for being used again.

64. Faces: Kids of Ghyachok

Lower Rasuwa - Betrawati - Shanti Bazar

65. 66. Faces: Betrawati

67. 68. Faces: Kids of Betrawati

69. Faces: Kids of Shanti-Bazar

First day of the social-education camp we developed in Shanti-Bazar Primary School. We made some games with the children to present ourselves and make us closer to the kids. One of the activities was face painting. The shyness was out of the game.

70. Working Woman: Rakshi

Rakshi is the local alcoholic drink of Nepal usually made from kodo millet or rice. Its a very strong clear drink like vodka or gin. This woman was hitting the millet to separate the grain and seed from the leaves and sticks.

71. 72. Faces: Kids of Shanti-Bazar

73. Faces: Kids of Betrawati

74. Fisherman of Betrawati

75. 76. Fishermen of Betrawati

77. Faces: Shanti-Bazar

78. Faces: Volunteers

"Gabri" was in Nepal when the first earthquake stroke. He didn't hesitate on going back to help those who at one point saved his life. Like Gabri, I met many others volunteers who felt in doubt with the nepalese people after earthquake. Were they afraid? Of course but they managed to put their fears away becoming a very good example of what solidarity means.

79. Faces: Betrawati

80. Faces: Shanti-Bazar

81. Faces: Shanti-Bazar

82. Faces: Kids of Shanti-Bazar

83. 84. Faces: Betrawati

85.86. Faces: Betrawati

87. Faces: Volunteers

88. Faces: Betrawati

89. 90. Faces: Betrawati

91. 92. Faces: Betrawati

93. Faces: Kids of Shanti-Bazar

94. Faces

95. Betrawati

Tihard is a five day hindu festival. This family invited us to celebrate with them this festival introducing us as new family.

96. Working woman: Farming

97. 98. Faces: Betrawati

Upper Rasuwa - Thulo-Syabru

99. 100. From the river to beyond the mountains

101. 102. Faces: Temba & Mingmar

We went to Thulo-Syabru to help this family to demolish their damaged house so they could start rebuilding. Working in exchange of food and lodge they made us feel like home since the moment we arrived. Days of hard work and great satisfation on our duty. We lived with them, work with them but above everything we enjoy every minute spent there with them.