“For the past 15 years, I have lived in a rented room in Kathmandu with my husband. Now we live in this camp. I want to forget the earthquake, but even now I am scared by nightmares. I saw people die in front of me. My husband tells me not to be so afraid, but my heart beats fast even when small aftershocks come, or when people joke about the earth shaking. It was only when I got the opportunity to paint here at the camp that I became more calm. I immediately felt better. When I picked up the brush again, I remembered my school days. When I was in fourth grade, my teacher taught me how to paint the danphe [the Himalayan monal, Nepal’s national bird]. In the village where I grew up, every day started with seeing this bird. It was my friend. I used to love painting it, and my teacher would give me sweets for being the fastest in the class. But I couldn’t continue with my classes. My parents arranged my marriage when I was 13. Now, painting these pictures, I forget all the tensions of the past few months. I become lost somewhere in the hills and mountains and jungles of my childhood in Solukhumbu.”

Photo: Naomi Mihara