Once the rain had started it did not want to quit. To return to Nepalgunj would have taken more than an hour of driving through the rain on Krishna’s motorcycle. We decided that a better option was to return instead to Krishna’s village for the night since that was only a ten minute drive away.

Krishna lives on a farm in the village of Mayurbasti. He lives with his parents, wife and two children. His sisters also often stay for a few nights while visiting from their villages which are a few miles away. On the farm the family grows mangoes, limes, corn, and rice. They also own three water buffalo and a goat. Their plot is small so they consume all of their produce themselves and get milk from the buffalo. There is no running water, but the pump taps into a waterline with filtered, drinkable water. Electricity in the village flickers on and off during the day, but it is on enough that the kids are dedicated to Disney cartoons on Indian TV.

With Krishna’s job at COCAP he has enough money to support the family and send his kids to a private school nearby. His situation is better than most in the village, which is very poor. Farms do not yield produce of high enough quality or in great enough quantities to sell at the market, and most men in the village cannot find full time jobs.

While the situation in Mayurbasti is difficult and the standard of living low, things are improving. Five years ago the village got electric lines, and as of last year they were able to extend the lines out the houses furthest away from the main path through the village. They are building a community center now and have other plans to purchase some tools and maybe even machines to co-opt between all the village’s farms.

In order to raise funds for all of these civic activities the village relies on its jungle. Mayurbasti is located next to a stretch of forest which the government has left to them to conserve and maintain. By taking responsibility for the forest, the village also gained permission to cut down the dead trees and sell the wood. This local business has allowed the town to hire two men to work full time on the conservation and protection of the forest as well as earn enough income for improvements around the village. In order to make decisions about the community forest and income received from it, there are village meetings with an elected board to make decisions. Every month the village meets to discuss any issues that might come up.

Krishna showed me the forest and the half-built community center with pride. I felt his pride was deserved as this community based organization was clearly making great strides to improve life for everyone in the town.

On our way back to his house from the community center Krishna’s neighbors started to get more curious about the stranger in their midst. One asked if he was in some sort of trouble, many asked where I was from and finally one villager asked if I would take his picture. Before I could even get my lens cap off a crowd had gathered. I ended up with 15 or 16 villagers in the picture that had started as just the one man. When I showed them all the picture there was pushing and shoving to get a look. While I only took one shot at that time, word got out that I had a camera with me and kids were sneaking into Krishna’s yard all night to ask for more pictures. Usually Krishna chased them away before they got to me, but a few made it all the way into the camera lens.

Krishna’s kids Nitin and Nitisha were also captivated by the camera and so I let them both have a try at taking a few pictures when the neighborhood kid came around. They did a pretty good job for their first time and I was happy to be included in a couple shots with kids from the village.

All in all it was a really amazing day. To see the everyday reality of villagers was significant and to visit with Krishna’s family was a lot of fun. His kids both study hard and knew quite a bit of English, and his 2 year old nephew was hilarious. Krishna’s wife and sister cooked dhal bhaat and roti with water buffalo butter. Dhaal Bhaat is the Nepali classic meal and consists of lentils in a curry sauce served with rice. Everything tasted good and the family could not have been more hospitable.

With three bedrooms in the house, they are usually packed in pretty tight. Despite my protests they cleared out one entire room for me, leaving eight of them to sleep in the other two rooms. My room was nice and cool with the recent rain and a ceiling fan, and once I got better acquainted with the rats who were full time boarders, I actually slept very well. A 5 am wake up call was followed by a quick wash at the water pump. Once the kids had headed off to school and we had eaten another round of Dhaal Bhaat (most people here eat it twice a day) we headed back to Nepalgunj.