PHOTO ESSAY
The Beautiful Faces of the Extreme Poor
If you’ve seen Meet the Mormons, you’ve met Bishnu Adikari, the humanitarian who lifts the extreme poor in breathtaking Nepal as he works with CHOICE Humanitarian. Each year Meridian chooses a humanitarian project that we work on together with our readers. Since the beginning of this year we have partnered with CHOICE and Bishnu to lift the people (about 100,000) of an entire region of Nepal out of extreme poverty. This is made possible because of leadership training and economic development.
We celebrate the launch of our new Meridian with a photo essay showing you the beautiful faces of the extreme poor in Nepal. Among other improvements, this new Meridian facelift allows us to have bigger, more stunning photo essays than ever before.
Since so many of you have helped in this humanitarian project, I thought you would love to see the real faces of these real people. Every person you see in this essay lives on a household income of less than $1.25 USD a day. You will see joy and pain in their faces. You will see pure beauty and you will see hard work written all over their faces. If you go through all the pictures to the end, I’ll include a couple of pictures of Bishnu himself!
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This woman was full of personality. She lived in an extremely remote village and loved having visitors from America. We thought we would try out a joke on her. -
She not only got the joke, she laughed and laughed…
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And laughed! What a sweet experience it was to share humor with this noble woman.
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As we left she turned her head with such understanding and love and gave the traditional “Namaste” which can be a greeting or a goodbye.
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Some people, like this woman, seem to be happy given whatever circumstances they are in.
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This man was an expert on the plow. He would hire out for as much as $6.00 USD a day to plow the narrow, terraced fields with his team of oxen and a wooden implement. The problem is, he can only obtain as many as six days of work in a month and this is very seasonal.
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This thirteen-year-old was the daughter of the plowman. She seemed content with what she had but when we asked her what her fondest wish would be she said without hesitation: “To get educated.”
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The villages work together helping their neighbors build a new home. The construction techniques are fairly primitive but they utilize the resources they have and make do.
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I loved the colors the Nepalese women wore. They were stunning in such drab backdrops.
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10- The traditional “Tilaka” or “teeka” is made from a mixture of red powder, yogurt and grains of rice. It is placed with one stroke, with the thumb, from the bridge of the nose to the beginning of the hairline.
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11- Generally, no matter which direction I pointed my big lens, people gave me a wonderful smile.
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12- The teenagers were very friendly to us. Even in their extreme poverty, most of them had cell phones.
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13- Some children knew what a camera was, and others didn’t. Some kids started crying when I pointed the camera at them.
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14- The men were gentle and welcoming to us every place we visited.
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15- The loads the women carry are extremely heavy. I saw many women carrying loads of 80 lbs. of water and others with more than 100 lbs. of grains or manure.
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16- Each load is stabilized by a strap that goes around the forehead. The women have especially strong necks.
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17- “Namaste” actually means “I bow to the divine in you.” We got so used to saying “Namaste” I ended up doing it a great deal in Oman and in Israel soon after this trip!
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18- We interviewed this woman and stayed with her for about three hours here in the village of Samibhanjyang. Her life is just work. Her husband moved to India and got into gambling and has never returned in 8 years. She cares for their five children, takes care of her home, the animals the fields, everything. Her work never ends.
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19- Each person we passed gave us the same greeting. We were certainly the novelty in each village.
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20- This woman was so very pleasant. She was just excited to have visitors to their remote village and she couldn’t stop smiling.
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21- Health plays a key role in these remote areas because every person must do her or his part.
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22- When a woman has some jewelry pieces, they are almost always part of a dowry.
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23- This gentle man really wanted to talk to us and try to figure out why we were there.
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24- When we arrived in the village of Karipu a whole crowd of volunteers helped us with our luggage as we walked a quarter-of-a-mile or more to our accommodations. When we gave them rewards of cookies and treats, they immediately started sharing them with the little children who we looking on.
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25- This teenager was curious and reluctant. The village of Karipu only has outside visitors perhaps once in a year or two.
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26- This woman was covered in layers as we were at the base of Himalaya Mountains. She walked by a number of times with huge loads of wood on her back.
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27- The older boy had to explain to the young child what I was doing.
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28- The houses in Karipu were like those you picture in the 18th Century. Many of the animals live in the homes, livestock are everywhere, stacks of split pieces of wood are everywhere to provide them with fuel for cooking.
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29- I could not get this teenager to smile for anything. She explained during the interview that her life was very hard and her family had nothing. She did know how to read and we complimented her on that achievement.
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30- This was one of my favorite women to photograph, but as soon as she saw me she waved me away. Often there are three and four generations living in one household.
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31- I found a hole in the small bamboo and reed woven fence and was able to capture a couple of images of this beautiful woman.
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32- Doesn’t her face tell so much of her life?
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33- As we were leaving her family, I turned around and took a picture of her in her setting.
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34- This young mother was beautiful and responded to the call of my voice (I got her name from her husband). When she saw I was taking her picture she immediately became shy.
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35- I loved her look as she turned away and continued to prepare her vessel for getting water for her family.
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36- This man was very happy to see us and to explain about his life. His house had burned down two years before and they were now renting a place. They will never be able to afford to build again.
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37- His wife didn’t want to say much but she felt daily of their loss two years before and knew their lives would always be hard.
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38- As we drove on the road to Jyarkhang, we saw numerous terraced hillsides. The drop off on the small one lane road was at times 2,000 feet almost straight down.
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39- We finally came to the village of Jyarkhang, far above the valley floor on a-nearly-impossible four-wheel-drive road. The family we visited here were as poor as any we have ever met.
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40- The mother of this family worked so hard and had so little she could hardly talk about it. She felt protective of her children and expressed dreams of wanting them to be educated.
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41- Here is the home of this little family in Jyarkhang. We talked to them for a long time and captured their words on film and in our hearts.
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42- As we asked this handsome father if he had any dreams, he groaned within himself and said quietly, “I dream of a day when we will not feel hungry all the time.”
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43- Bishnu Adhikari, one of the “stars” of “Meet the Mormons” is the in-country leader of the CHOICE Humanitarian project in Nepal. He is full of compassion, loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ and can hike straight up the side of a mountain like a Billy goat. He reminded us, “I am not perfect. But I am perfect in one thing. I am perfect in trying.”
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44- Dr. James B. Mayfield is the co-founder of CHOICE Humanitarian. At nearly 8o years old he continues to work tirelessly to alleviate and eliminate extreme poverty. If his plan works in this first region of Nepal, it will be replicated throughout Nepal and then be a pattern for the entire world.
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45- Through it all, there is nothing so relaxing and so bonding as dancing with the natives here in Nepal. Both Jim Mayfield and Bishnu Adhikari know how to dance–they dance in practically every village they visit. Perhaps in this simple way they are joining the beautiful natives in hoping and praying that extreme poverty can truly be eliminated in our lifetime.
Anne PrattNovember 2, 2014
Incredibly beautiful and touching!
KathyOctober 31, 2014
What Beautiful pictures! You truly captured the beauty in these people! They have a beautiful countenance on there faces and shows how hard there work and lives are. Thank you for sharing such beauty. I can not do much to help them but I will keep them In my prayers and you all that do as much as you can for them.