disaster

Today was another emotional roller coaster here in Nepal. The scenes of devastation we saw seemed straight out of a WWII movie. The village of Sakhu appeared to have been bombed in an air raid; residents were sifting through the rubble trying to salvage what little is left of their possessions. But on a much higher note, we were able to bring 125 families here a week’s rations of rice and lentils. Nepal has a very long road to recovery ahead. However, for months to come our local native team will continue to serve these who have lost everything. If you have not already done so, please consider making a contribution of any size to Peace Gospel‘s Nepal Earthquake Relief Fund using this link. It really will make a difference.

We started the day searching for rice and lentils in the city. We had to call dozens of shops before we located one that had stock available. Then we made our way out to the Sakhu area where we distributed rations in two locations.

Here are some shots from the first location. We used a makeshift tent some families have been sleeping in as our distribution point.

Some of the children who were playing around while their parents waited in the queue for rations…

Life inside the tent where these will be living for quite some time…

As we then drove and walked across the village to get to our next distribution point, these were some of the shocking scenes we discovered…

You can see where this resident is sleeping out on a mattress in front of their home. While the home is still standing, it will need to be torn down because it’s no longer safe to live in…

We then reached the other side of the village where we found a much-needed calming view…

When one of the women in the field saw me, she came up to me explaining that her house had fallen down in the quake…

My friend Cody helping unload the mini-cab into our distribution point, this time, a local church building…

As we waited for the families in need to gather, I had the chance to take some portraits of those who were arriving…

These boys made their own swing set using some cord they had found in the rubble…

Now the families had arrived and we began to distribute the rations…

On the walk back to our truck, we assisted in whatever ways we could as the residents tried to salvage what they could out of their homes. This family was fortunate in that, although condemned as a tear-down, their home was still standing, making it easier to rescue their belongings. Cody was able to help them get some furniture out…

I’ll leave you with more scenes of the catastrophic devastation we witnessed as we departed. This is our Nepal director Bimal surveying the aftermath…

Catch up on why I’m here in Nepal and how you can help, too, by reading my previous post if you haven’t yet seen it. Today we made our way to a tiny village in the Sindhupalchowk District, pretty close to the China border. Bimal has a friend from that village who reported that nearly all the village residents had lost their homes, were sleeping under a long goat shed and desperately needed bedding supplies. So yesterday we scoured the markets in Kathmandu for what little supplies were available, and managed to come up with enough foam padding and blankets to get them a bit more comfortable arrangements while they are in the process of rebuilding. We set out at 6am for our journey to reach them…

On our way, we witnessed a quite bloody motorcycle accident. I have photos but I’ll spare you because they’re quite gory. We applied first aid and loaded the two victims into our truck. Bimal and our friend sped them off to the local hospital while Cody and I got to know the villagers and their amazing foot bridge you’ll see below. In this first photo (check out his t-shirt!) you can see the crowd still assembled around the point of the accident… (note that you can click or tap on any of my photos to see a larger size)

Before we knew it, Bimal and his friend had returned from the “ambulance” run. So we were back on our way to Sindhupalchowk, and these are some of the scenes of devastation we encountered…

The juxtaposition of such destruction against a backdrop of breathtaking beauty was surreal. I am not quite sure which two peaks these are, but this range runs along the China-Nepal border of Sindhupalchowk District. The peaks are just about 30km from where I took this shot (at Irkhu). Typical elevation of this range is around 7,000 meters, or 23,000 feet.

We then finally reached the village where we conducted the supplies distribution. The people, especially the children, were humble, grateful and precious souls. We first began by unrolling our huge sleeping pad material and cutting it into pieces for distribution…