The Nepalese capital, Maya Gurung wears black tights under a striped knee-length dress. She is trying not to be conspicuous, but other details give her away.At 4 feet 10 inches, she towers over classmates barely out of toddler stage. At lunch, she is the only one who doesn’t need a bib. And all the other children call her Maya didi, using the Nepali term of respect for an older sister.Maya will be 11 soon and only recently made it to kindergarten. Still, it is a triumph she has come this far.Maya is not from this bustling city, which lures mountaineers aiming for Everest and tourists mesmerized by the Himalayan kingdom’s rich history and culture. She comes from a remote and rugged place not frequented by outsiders.
She is one of six children in a family that lives off the land and livestock in Kashi Gaon, a village in Nepal’s mountainous Gorkha District. Maya helped her mother with cooking, cleaning and fetching firewood and water. She was destined to be married at a tender age and grow old within the confines of her birthplace.She knew little of the world outside. Life’s possibilities escaped her.But a year ago, on April 25, the earth shook violently for a minute, and in those 60 devastating seconds, Maya’s life was forever changed.