_______ I wanted to come back to Nepal for two reasons this year: to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the association I am a member of, which organizes a humanitarian trek every year and sponsors and helps financing the building as well as the renovation of schools in a VDC (Village Development Committee) comprising a dozen villages around Laprak, one of the villages that were nearly completely blown down by the 2015 earthquake, whose epicenter was just a couple of miles away, in the Gorkha region, west of Kathmandu. The second reason was actually to see how the villagers and the whole country had recovered from the terrible earthquake that also destroyed houses, facilities and temples in Kathmandu and the two other former capital cities of Nepal: Patan and Bhaktapur.
________I took this photo on Sunday, April 14th which was actually New Year's day in Nepal,(Bisket Jatra in Nepali) the very first day of the Nepali year, namely the first day of....2076 !!! Along with a couple of fellow trekkers, we went to Bakhtapur, packed with people celebrating the New Year in the hustle and bustle of crowded streets and joyful smiling Nepali people from every age, and much to my surprise, the numerous scaffoldings here and there for the reconstruction of the Bhaktapur Durbar Square ( the old city center with magnificent temples) pointed to an active and fast rebuilding and renovating process, sponsored by several countries, such as Japan and Germany,among others, which generously donated substantial funds, but the names of individuals from all over the world were also listed next to the renovated temples, a moving sight actually.
________The lighting of this photo, along with the peaceful smile of this woman from Bhaktapur, with her little daughter, epitomizes for me the dignity and tender-heartedness of this courageous people who taught me a lot on life, observing them and sharing invaluable moments with them.
_______Thank you so much for your comments on my former Roman photo ...Have a nice sunny weekend! Zoom in for the details and the atmo!