Daughter of a diplomat father, Paige spent more of her childhood in Asia than in the U.S. As a teenager in India, she met a Peace Corps Volunteer who influenced her to take that path to deep learning of another culture. She joined Peace Corps Nepal at 21 with a degree in Biology and a spirit of adventure. “Shaligrams” describes her experience of a pre-industrial society: the extraordinary set of skills Nepali villagers had evolved to sustain life, their practice of ancient traditions, and the winds of change that, in the 1970s, were just beginning to free women from a life of servitude. Paige went on to make her home in New Mexico, another place of ancient and vital traditions, and pursue a career in hydrology and environmental advocacy. She has a son and daughter, and helped her husband Neil Williams to raise three stepsons. As grandchildren have entered her life, she has asked that they call her “Muma,” borrowing the name from her landlady and close friend in Chiti Tilahar.