The assistant professor of religion presented at a conference and then stayed to assist a friend’s nongovernmental organization with earthquake relief efforts. In April, an earthquake struck the country, severely shaking millions.
Mocko, who has lived and conducted extensive research in Nepal, knew that familiar neighborhoods and some favorite heritage sites had been damaged or destroyed. But when she arrived, she saw that many of the places were intact and life in the capital, Kathmandu, was returning to normal.
“Somehow, this was not at all what I was expecting,” she wrote in her blog.
Outside of Kathmandu, Mocko expected to help villagers move from short-term housing into more permanent structures. Instead, she was assigned to a village where the residents, demonstrating typical Nepalese self-sufficiency, had already rebuilt.
Mocko decided to stay and spent two weeks documenting the villagers’ memories of the earthquake, their sadness and hopes for the future. She called it The Tea Project.
One woman in particular held her hand and said over and over, “Thank you for coming here to my house. I had the opportunity to tell you my sorrows (dukha) in my own language, and you could listen and understand. I could tell you, and you could hear. So thank you – thank you.”