Here is my long awaited journal entry from the night we experienced the 7.3 earth quake in the mountain village 3 hours from Kathmandu and only 20 miles from its epicenter:
Today is another one of those days that you know you will never forget, yet you are still currently living in it. It all still seems so surreal and a day that only happens in dreams or movies. Such a beautiful normal night overlooking a beautiful view of the Himalayas, enjoying the new life of some baby goats on a mountainside with cute, local children. Yet this beautiful end of a day shows none of the terror and fear and destruction that the day held. Within the past few hours, so much had changed and all control was lost. Nothing that was planned or expected had occurred or was going to occur. The only security and stronghold we had was God, and I think that peace, hope, and joy was felt as we watched those last rays of daylight pass over the mountain.
Today started as a fairly normal day too. Sure we were moving the debris of what was once a church in the middle of the beautiful mountains of Nepal, which doesn’t happen every day, but as far as World Race standards go, it was fairly normal. It was expected and planned. We knew what we were doing and why and how long. Even lunch was pretty normal. Rice and potato curry with lentils cooked over an open fire built on one of the terraces of this mountainside. After lunch, I was still a bit hungry, so Anna and I were going to make some pbj. As I stood up to go help her grab the materials, the WHOLE EARTH SHOOK. It started with a couple rumbles and soon enough I felt like I was playing electric football. Everything beneath me was violently vibrating to the point that I had no control over where my feet went. Everyone went straight to the ground to gain stability. Right before my eyes I saw a house just three terraces below us crumble to the ground in a cloud of dust. Looking around the whole valley I saw puffs of dust go up in all different parts from houses going down and landslides. Screams of women and children were heard lifting from the valley. Terror and uncertainty filled every inch of the atmosphere. All buildings around us were already down, but the terror of the rubble landsliding down into our camp filled me. Prayers and scripture were going up from our camp from my squad mates. Psalm 46:2 was my prayer and hope that we shall not fear through earth quakes and mountain trembling. Through the fear and the devastation however, I was excited. I had never felt so humbled through disaster. The whole earth shook beneath us. By Gods will and power the mountains were moved and I experienced it and saw it. I had never felt and earthquake or any of the aftershocks before, and now I had just lived through a 7.4 earthquake with one of the most beautiful views of the Himalayas. Of all places to experience an earthquake, I would choose this one, where just minutes before I was just sitting in the awe and splendor of the majestic Himalayas. Then I got to see them shake and move. And we all survived it.
But immediately we went into help mode. We heard the screams and saw the house collapse in the valley, and even though the earth was still intermittently shaking, we ran down the hill to see if there was anyone to be saved. I had just made it past the house I had seen collapse, when Dustyn came running behind us. He told us to go back to camp and pack up. We were leaving. It was only our first day here and we still had three more days to help move the rubble of this church and rebuild. But the call was made and we needed to pack up. There were all kinds of emotions at the camp. You could hear people crying and people praying and people questioning why we were leaving. A lot of people were still in shock, but we had to stuff all of our belongings into our packs and head up the mountain to flat ground where we would be safe from landslides and debris falling down into our camp as we had just seen happen throughout the whole valley. Bags all packed, we started the half hour hike up the mountain. As we were hiking through the very hobbiton resembling villages, we heard it again! Before you even feel the earth move, you can hear this very deep crunching of the earth beneath you. A booming sound unlike anything else. It stops you in your tracks as you know that immediately following that rumbling, the ground is going to quake. Quickly we check our surroundings to make sure there is nothing that could fall above us, then crouch to the ground so the shaking doesn’t knock you over! We hear screams and terror come from the surrounding villages again, and the whole scene seems unreal, from a movie. Hiking up this mountain to reach flat, safe ground with 30 lbs of camping gear on our backs through one of the most scenic villages you could ever imagine overlooking the mountains, while being constantly aware of every leaning or crooked building because you don’t know where you will be during that next aftershock! The one bought that kept hitting me as we were walking through these villages with houses toppled and faces of shear terror of the unknown, was that we COULD leave. This wasn’t our life, our homes, our families, our neighborhoods, and our livelyhood. Sure, our lives were crossing at this moment and this was where we were at this current moment during this earthquake, but we were able to pack all our belongings in a bag and seek refuge. His wasn’t possible for these people who had built their whole lives here. Everything they owned lay amongst the rubble of these villages. The only thing they could do was build a separate shelter of tin to keep them dry wait out the next couple aftershocks and earthquakes until they dared attempt to rebuild in this earthquake prone region. But for us, we had the option of going up to safety, or even fleeing the village back to the city. Once we reached the road at the top of the mountain, we were directed even further uphill to a large field that had been cleared and on it were constructed huge white refuge tents by the World Food Program. This tent will easily shelter us and keep us out of danger for however long we need to stay up here until the road back to the city becomes safe enough to drive. You wouldn’t want to be caught on a bus during a quake on one of those tight hairpin turns with a 50 foot drop off into the valley!
Once we stashed all of our belongings in the tent, we were given a few options. We are still here at this point so we might as well be effective. Many people are still struggling with the trauma of the quake, so they chose to stay in the tent on top of the mountain and pray and praise, while others were given options to go into the village deep in the valley where we heard terrible screams during the initial quake and see if there were bodies to be saved. I chose to visit and pray with the locals in the nearby village near the top of the mountain. As I walked through the village, it seemed so strange to me how normal life was. We had just experienced a huge earthquake, and seen houses collapse and heard screams, but life up here seemed so perfectly normal. Everyone had been living outside for the past two weeks anyways because of the last earthquake. So as I walked down the street, all sorts of people were out and about. Old men were sitting on the side of the road having a cigarette, a women with a baby on her back was preparing dinner over a fire, kids were running around chasing each other, men were gathered around a small radio probably listening to the news in Nepali. Not knowing where to start, I sat next to the old men with their awesome traditional Nepali caps on. I just love hanging out with these guys drinking chai and laughing about how we don’t understand each other. I find the best English speakers in these villages are the 13 to 18 year olds. A young lady comes to me speaking perfect, American English and I assume her to be in her young 20s, but she informs me she is only 15! She has just become my translator for the older folks in the town. Although a few houses fell today in this village, most of the stories I am told are from the disasters two weeks ago when the first, unexpected quake hits them. I am told in very somber, slightly unemotional tones of the passing of family members and destructions of houses and property. They almost seem deadened to it. I’m not sure if the time has healed the emotions or if they are unemotional people. A young man of 23 with a New York Yankees baseball cap takes me under his wing. He wants to show me the people of his town and the destruction of their homes. As we walk down the street, I find many of the people are looking for someone to tell their story to, and when asked if they want to be photographed, they earnestly agree, as if they wanted the memory and story of their home and family to be told and remembered. So that they are not forgotten. I am taken to one ladies house and she points out where her daughter died, in her bed just two weeks ago. I am shown where a baby suffocated in the rubble. I am taken to a house of a woman who lost her husband and is now responsible for all of the upkeep of their land and rebuilding shelter. As we were taken through this village and down the mountainside to visit and pray for people who had been effected by he earthquake, we didn’t see a single house that remained intact. Every house was completely caved in, or missing a wall, or with a huge crack in the middle. There were even a handful of homes that I remember seeing intact just yesterday when we first arrived, that today were no more.
On such a beautiful evening it is weird to think back on all of the events of today. I could just sit here and breathe the fresh mountain air and look upon the fading outlines of the mountains in the dusk sky and life could feel completely normal. But life changed again for so many people today and a fading fear was reintroduced for so many people. Pray that the people of Nepal will find peace and security in the one true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
