As a gender specialist, I am quite sensitive to gender issues when I meet them in the field. In some of the villages we visited, I noticed that the men slaughtered, cooked and distributed the meat dishes (chicken or goat). One day, I was invited by a young single mother with one toddler and a nursing baby to sleep in her temporary shelter. I don’t know how she managed all the tasks she did, but her place was superbly well-kept and I had a wonderful sleep. Before the crack of dawn she was up and prepared a meal for the assessment team. As she cooked the chicken she had prepared for us, a man in the group commented that she was not supposed to kill a chicken. Why? “That’s the way it has always been,” was the best answer I got.

We had a session with Dalit (low caste) women, during which women expressed extremely low views of womanhood, because of their poor status and the conditions they experience. I asked one of the Christian men how he felt about this. He laughed and said: “Women sinned first.” We need to think a lot about biblical equality, and what “salvation” means for those suffering from inequality.

I’ll never forget the feet of children, even very small ones, as they fly down the rocky, slippery mountain trails while I struggle with each step, feeling like a big elephant. The Lord kept my feet safe on these high and slippery paths.

I am amazed by the strength and resilience of people, even though they have lost a generation of hard work, living on these mountain slopes. What with the monsoon and the landslides, this is a disaster that is still developing.

Back in Dhading besi, we visited some camps where internally displaced people are living. They are very bad; we need awareness, compassion and faith to guide us as to how we can help.

Hazel Wong