Traveling to Nepal has been a joy. Meeting our friend Chet’s wonderful family — and living with them like part of the family (although we are never allowed to lift a finger!) — has been an extraordinarily happy adventure. Chet’s brother Shree has taken us to some of the most important places in Kathmandu. Today we went to a sacred Hindu cremation site on the banks of the Bagmati River. The sky was thick with smoke and creosote and the microscopic floating particles of lo

Sumitra is tall and model-thin with waist-length black hair and large, almond eyes. She’s 16, a beautiful, studious girl who speaks Nepali and English fluently. She loves biology and discusses it at length with Chris, bringing schoolbooks to him on the family’s balcony to further their conversation. She and her girl relatives are among the luckiest in Nepal. The female literacy rate here is 41 percent and only 38 percent of girls are in school after the equivalent of 8th

We are in Bhaktapur, Nepal, an ancient town near Kathmandu, with our friends Chet and Annie. Chet is from Nepal and we’re staying with his family. Thirteen people, spanning three generations, live in the house, and now they are hosting five of us, including Annie’s mom, Linda. We have come here for Chet and Annie to be married in the family’s old village, a 13-hour bus ride from here, but landslides in the countryside last week have made the trip impossible. Chet is mull