Still warm broken bricks from a recent kiln burn are hauled away.
The kiln's smokestack looms large over the workers as they load a truck with discarded bricks.
Sun dried bricks are hauled into the kiln.
Special workers supervise the building of the kiln and the subsequent coal-fired burn.
Brickyard justice: a dog has been killed in retaliation for destroying freshly formed clay bricks.
A female worker displays tokens earned on a busy day outside the laborers' brick-built shanty dwellings.
Fire tenders add coal to the active kiln buried under the sand surface. The burns last for days and must be maintained 24-hours a day.
The surrounding landscape is dominated by the kiln stack, clay extraction, and finished bricks.
Workers at the Gadawari kilns south of Kathmandu earn one Nepali rupee per load of brick hauled. On a busy day they can earn $3-4, which means hauling up to 450 loads as red dust from the still-warm brick covers the workers and fills their lungs. This labor is provided mostly by internally displaced persons from remote villages of Nepal who live on the site of the kiln in primitive shelters. A NGO supported by the Maryknoll Society provides health care, counseling, childcare and education for these workers, in addition to supporting several other self-development projects with Nepali partners.