Working on a new building in Thamel, Nepal

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I’ve written before about how hard manual labourers work in Nepal. We were intrigued with these men in one of the main streets of Thamel, a suburb of Kathmandu. They were pouring a cement floor on the first floor of a new building. Three men on the ground were filling large, flat basins with sand or blue metal then carrying them on their heads to the electric cement mixer. They would throw their load into the mixer then go back for another basinful. We were up and down that street several times and never saw them resting. You can see the water tank supported on bricks to the left of the man in the red shirt. A scoop would come down from above on chains. The man in red would press a button to tip the cement from the mixer into the scoop. Another press of a button and the laden scoop would crank its way to the first floor. We also saw a man sawing a length of PVC pipe. We would use a hacksaw but this man was using a blade which had no handle of any sort. He was holding one end with a piece of rag. We came home with an even greater appreciation for how easy our life is in comparison to some.