Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 3 | Page 67

Behind the scenes:
Working at The Bricks Café

The women telling their stories. Photo: RMT.

Four of the women staying at Kiran Namaste work at The
Bricks Café. Here they help in the busy kitchen and keep
the place looking good for the customers. Life hasn’t treated
them well, but Kiran Namaste has provided these single
mothers with the opportunity to get on with their lives and
bring up their children single-handed.
The Bricks Café in Kupondole feeds groups of hungry
trekkers, locals wanting a nice meal out, be it lunch or
dinner, and anyone dropping by for a drink and a snack
after a hard day’s work at the office.
Laxmi Magar has worked for a year at The Bricks and has
been living at Kiran Namaste for the last eighteen months.
Having spent the last ten years in Kathmandu, though she
misses her village, Sandani in Sindhuli District, she finds
Kathmandu a good place to live, offering plenty of amenities.
She has her hands full though, with two young sons aged six
and eight, both attending a local school.
Tulsa Sharma comes from Pyuthan District in the west
of Nepal. She has lived in Kathmandu for the five years
she’s been at Kiran Namaste. She has two sons and two
daughters, aged between eight and nineteen, all attending
local schools. She started working at The Bricks Café soon

after it opened nearly three years ago. Though she liked
village life, she also enjoys in Kathmandu.
Bimala Khadka comes from Chantara, the district
headquarters of Sindapulchowk to the north east of
Kathmandu. She’s lived in Kathmandu for the past decade,
staying at Kiran Namaste. She also started at The Bricks
Café just after it opened nearly three years ago. As another
single mother, she has had her hands full raising a son (16)
and daughter (14).
Maya Thapa comes from Damauli the district headquarters
of Tanahu District, on the way to Pokhara. She has lived at
Kiran Namaste for the eighteen months that she’s been in
Kathmandu, joining the staff of The Bricks Café a year ago.
As a team, the four ladies keep the place spick and span, and
help when needed with kitchen work like peeling vegetables,
washing up and so on. When they started, they were trained
– first by watching the other staff and then working with them
to do all the various tasks expected of them. The hours can
be long – The Bricks opens its doors at 10 in the morning
and doesn’t close till 10pm. However, working six days a
week, they take turns working until 5pm sharing the work
out between them, changing shifts as required.

ROYAL

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