After our long travel day and no sleeping the night previous, our contact gave us a day off today to rest and re energize. Of course, a few of us take that as an opportunity to go out and see this incredible city and observe some of the rubble of the recent natural disaster. Up until this point, the earthquake damage was hardly noticeable to us. After the earthquake, all you saw on the media was the rubble and the death tolls and the destruction of the earthquake. An outsiders perspective of Kathmandu is that the whole city was leveled and that life was close to impossible in this devastated city. 8 million people were effected by the earthquake either by death or injury of loved ones or loss of property and there is an overall sadness that lies over the people as they mourn and recover. However, during a drive through the city from the airport, I was amazed at the lack of wreckage I saw and how normal life seemed. If you hadn’t seen the news or all of the military and relief provisions at the airport upon arrival, you might not have even known there was an earthquake in this city within the week. I didn’t see any of the toppled buildings or rubble or desperation seen in the news. It is still a very serious situation here, but it just shows me first hand how much influence media has on people’s perceptions. I fully expected to see rubble and destruction and houses toppled everywhere, but didn’t even notice any earthquake damage my first day here. And that is why today was important, I had to go in and see first hand all of the damage and devastation of the earthquake that was portrayed in the media.
Durbar square is the main tourist area in Kathmandu with all of the old temples and buildings. When we first were planning our trip to Kathmandu, I was constantly looking at photos of Durbar square in anticipation of the photos I would capture there! However, the earthquake really took its toll there. Our taxi dropped us of about a mile from Durbar square. So we had a mile walk to get to the actual square through some winding backstreets filled with mini temples and shops. Little earthquake damage was seen even through these winding streets. A few cracks in the road and a few old brick walls or power lines knocked down, but not much beyond that. However, when we turn the corner and hit Durbar square and saw it for the first time, our hearts sank. This is where he photos were taken of huge piles of rubble and temples cracked and people being pulled from the destruction. The buildings that were still standing were cracked in half or missing huge portions of their roofs or walls. There were huge plots of land which once held a temple that were completely flattened to rubble and indistinguishable to ever holding such beautiful architecture. There were armed military everywhere and huge refuge tents and dust being blown through the streets from the rubble causing everyone to wear masks to save their breathing. It really felt like we were in a war zone… Next we walked the surrounding streets the sprawled from Durbar. Every block you would see rubble just caving out from a building that couldn’t handle the 7.9 quake. You might find a water tank cracked in the streets from its fall from the roof, or arm chairs and couches spilling out of the rubble of an old apartment. As we made our way over some rubble on the edge of Durbar square, we met a couple that lived right next to the destruction. Their front door opens straight to piles of rubble and destruction. They gave us a firsthand account of the day of the earthquake and how their front door was caved in by the rubble, so the only way out was jumping from the second story window into the rubble. The sweet old lady sustained some injuries to her leg from this jump. We talked to them for a while to get an understanding of what it was like to live through that and be so closely effected. So after today we have a much better idea of the damages of the earthquake to Kathmandu and had many conversations with shop owners, home owners, and just people on the street of how they were effected by the earthquake. It was very sobering to see and hear about the effects the earthquake had on the people of Nepal and see firsthand the destruction it caused. Thank you for your prayers and support and I will keep you updated on our work here as our ministry officially starts tomorrow.
