A KawaaDi, Teku, Kathmandu

That's not a typo in the title, but the standard way of marking that D as a retroflex--as opposed to dental--consonant. (By sound I think the standardized spelling should be KhaawaDi, but my Nepali tutor says otherwise..)

Anyway, Aaron and I spent yesterday fishing through kawaaDis--junkyards--in the industrial neighborhood of Teku for parts to build this ridiculous washing machine with.

All I could think of was how beautiful a lot of these piles were--and how the only people who would think so are those of us for whom replacement parts are easily had, who have the privilege to visualize a pipe outside of its ability to carry water or a conduit wires, who can see a bag of seized bearings and be happy that someone knows they're worth saving, that they'll be useful for something.