It was 6AM. I had just woken up. Sabita had been up since 5AM. She corralled me as I came out of my room. “Uh…bahini [little sister]” she began. “Sahil [her eleven-year-old] has a fever again. I need to take him to Gorahi [the district center]. Can you cook food?” I hoped my face didn’t register shock. Most of the women in the village were convinced that I didn’t know how to cook, but here was Sabita up and leaving the morning responsibility to me.

My ideas of resources and urban survival were made to look like first world problems when a pastor’s daughter in a village I recently stayed in commented to me that she spent six days camping and fishing (in the cold damp Kailali winter!) all by herself by the river sixteen kilometers deep in the nearby jungle! She came back one day for church, but her father took her right back out to the river after the service was over!

I love my job. Literally, no day is exactly alike. Trying to explain to people what my work actually involves can be difficult though.