This will be a very short story (even though due to the LANGUAGE BARRIER it actually took an eternity to suss out what we were seeing, and I’m still not sure we were able to understand some of the nuances regarding these hundreds of small mirrors), but what I do know to be true is that we were traveling from Kathmandu towards Lukla by car. The roads were unpaved and we were on steep and sharp mountain switchbacks. These terrifying one-lane roads required a great deal of maneuvering and negotiating, and were not for the faint of heart. There was a certain cliff side window I taught myself not to even look out of, unless I wanted to trigger another pointless panic attack.

My knuckles were white and my teeth clinched as we constantly rounded corners to meet other vehicles coming at us head on, traveling in the opposite direction. No sooner had we all just commented on how terrifying and death defying this journey was shaping up to be, when we started seeing the entire interior cliff face was covered in hundreds (if not thousands) of small, travel-sized mirrors.

The sad fact emerged that the locals started hanging these mirrors here to both memorialize and bring awareness to the untold number of people that had died on this harrowing stretch of road. The mirrors were impactful and mesmerizing, but for me, the only reflection they gave was that of an impoverished and inadequate Nepali infrastructure that was incapable of building roads that were safe for automobile traffic.

There were many things like this in Nepal— things that were dangerous and deadly due to a lack of any money or means to properly establish or maintain them.