The Habitat for Humanity house we worked on was situated on a steep mountainside on plot of land belonging to one family; therefore, several houses stood alongside each other on a ridge.  At the base of the mountain was a stream where family members gathered to do laundry and fill jugs with water.

This photo shows the grandmother doing her laundry after she had bathed and re-wrapped her garments around herself.

Woman in Nepal filling jug with water from stream at base of mountain

Then she slowly, painstakingly, climbed back up the mountain with laundry in tow and a jug of heavy water on her hip.

Woman carrying laundry and jug of water

We watched briefly as another family did their laundry in a small body of water and then afterwards spread their clean clothes out to dry.

Family doing laundry in Nepal

On a hike we took to a monastery one day, we saw this woman bathing at the public bath. We couldn’t help but wonder how cold that water must be, yet so necessary to keeping clean.

Woman in Nepal bathing in public bath area

As we hiked further, we saw another woman finishing her bath alongside the trail.  She seemed quite skilled at bathing and cleaning herself without ever revealing much of her body.  A series of wrappings and re-wrappings helped her preserve her dignity and privacy.

Woman in Nepal bathing alongside hiking trail

For more examples of Travel theme: Clean, click here.

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