Like most things in Nepal, the mountainous country’s transport is colourful. All along the highway that runs between Kathmandu and Rasawa (close to the border with China), elaborately-painted trucks make daily delivery routes feel like parades. Alongside pictures of flowers, landscapes or movie stars, most trucks are adorned with written quotes about love and loss.

As I travelled this road, one passing truck pronounced, ‘I spit on you, life’ in Nepali. Another mused over a lover’s betrayal: ‘She took my heart and stomped it into the ground’. Some, though, were more upbeat: ‘My heart for you always’ and ‘Forever yours’ and… ‘Facebook’.

Facebook?

As well as trucks sporting painted tributes to the social media giant, I also spotted a taxi whose entire back window was taken up by an artistic interpretation of the ‘Viber’ logo.
There is little wonder why. Everyone I spoke with in Nepal mentioned the role of social media in the response and recovery to the April 25 2015 earthquake which took the lives of more than 8,000 people.

Read full post: GSMA blog