
What’s the first thing you see when you look at this picture? The giant gold Buddha? This enormous sculpture is what I stepped out onto my homestay balcony to greet this morning. But something else caught my eye. A woman (on the left side of the photo) was hauling water out of the courtyard well with a metal bucket attached to a rope. It was early; the sun had barely risen. I was struck immediately by how mindlessly I would have turned on a faucet or flushed a toilet if this morning had been spent in the comfort of my Colorado home. Many things require more effort here, but I’m certain hardly a drop of water is wasted.