When the smoke clears Durango donations help bring stoves to remote Nepalese villages Head Sherpa Pasang Nuppa with but a few of the 150 stoves that were recently delivered to the Bhotkola region of northeastern Nepal. The stoves, which totalled $500 each, were paid for through donations from the locally based Bhotia Foundation, run by Himalayan Restaurant owners Karma and Jyamu Bhotia./ Courtesy photo Missy Votel - 02/18/2021 We’ve all heard the old adage, “where there’s smoke there’s fire.” But the reverse is also true: where there’s fire, there’s smoke. And soot, irritated eyes and constricted airways. This is something Durangoan Julie Korb learned firsthand during a 2019 trip to Nepal. Korb, along with her husband and three children, friend Stephanie McGee and her husband, local herbalist Deb Swanson, and Karma and Jyamu Bhotia traveled to the small country as part of a service trip with the nonprofit Bhotia Foundation. The group visited Jyamu’s home village of Chyamtang to discuss women’s health issues, something that is often taboo there, as well as offer up herbal remedies using Swanson’s expertise and Korb’s background as a biology professor at Fort Lewis College.