Baby Picture

A man I met as I was walking up the trail to Namche Bazaar (a Sherpa market village in the Mount Everest region of Nepal that is perched on a steep hillside about twelve thousand feet above sea level) took me to a one-room stone house near the entrance to the village. “My friend is away with a climbing expedition. His wife, Dolma, has just had a baby. You can stay with her.” And so I did. The baby was very, very new, three days old. The fireplace was near the center of the room, the chimney a blackened air hole in the ceiling. A large high double bed stood in the corner, covered with comforters. A bank of multipaned south-facing windows gave light. An extra bed was wedged into another corner; this would be mine. There was no electricity, and the pump for water was down the lane outside.