Although the rains came late, the monsoon season in Nepal was particularly long this year as it started in the beginning of July and continued through the middle of September. During this time, Trek to Teach forged on with the Kliyu school project by forming the construction committee, which then began selecting laborers and getting quotes about materials from suppliers. To participate in these meetings and decisions, there were many long bus trips along thin, rain-soaked highways from Kathmandu to Pokhara. Once in Pokhara, the trip to Kliyu consisted of wet mountain roads and efforts to push the images of imminent landslides out of mind. We were in the thick of it and we weren’t giving up.

On April 25th, 2019, the earth once again moved under Nepal. A sense of déjà vu rippled through Kathmandu Valley in the form of three large tremors, reminding the country of the panic experienced four years prior. Unlike the earthquake in 2015, which caused “approximately 9,000 deaths, 23,000 injuries, and the destruction of 600,000 family homes,” this year’s quake caused no major structural damages, although likely left remnants of fear.