Nepal Post Earthquake

Nepal After the Earthquake

I returned to Nepal June 22^nd. We had a 5-day training on new safety and security issues regarding earthquakes and more information about returning to site etc. We got a new travel policy during monsoon (June-September) due to increased risk of landslides as the earthquake has shook loose much rock and the rains will surely cause higher than average landslides. Now we are restricted to only one-two days a month to travel outside our village to do banking and personal stuff within our districts only. Also for annual leave (vacation) we can still vacation outside of Nepal but not within Nepal and we must fly to Kathmandu to limit bus travel. With that said it was quite nice Peace Corps flying us to our villages rather than taking 2-3 days via bus and being only an hour flight….oh Nepal.

Before I was flown back to Surkhet we were all give the option to go to Sindupulchowk to see our host families from Pre Service Training period (this was where our first three months in Nepal were when we were learning the language and technical trainings). Sindupulchowk is also the district that had the most deaths from the earthquake but luckily most of my G200 host families did not have immediate deaths in their host families and my family specifically is ok. Their house is unlivable and they had made a structure out of bamboo and tin to live in for the mean time. It was wonderful seeing them again even though it was super sad to see all the damage. It’s amazing how resilient people really are. When my family saw me they cooked a huge meal, I brought them fruit, beaten rice, 2kgs of buffalo meat, a blanket, a solar lamp and they just replied why? Even when people have nothing in Nepal they will give whatever they can, it is really special. This was also the first time I had seen them since I left December 2013 so it was really great to be able to communicate with them so much better because my language has gotten a lot better than it was my first 3 months of learning. They cooked up the buffalo, made rice, achar, and even gave me raksi (the homemade alcohol-its probably what moonshine is like, pretty rough). After a couple hours of visiting and eating to maximum capacity, I met up with other volunteers and we went exploring through the district capital, Chautara, where we had trainings once a week. It was quite destroyed but again it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting but it wasn’t good. It would have been very scary to be there during the earthquake. Some hotels were completely gone, others tilted on the side smashed into the building beside it, huge cracks, complete fronts missing, and some half gone. Photos below.

My first view arriving in Sindupulchowk

Inside my old host family's new 'house'

outside the new 'house'

this use to have a second story, this is another volunteers house, right next to my house

my first host family and i

host mother and her sisters

sindupulchowk

completely destroyed buildings

So going back to Surkhet everything was the same. There is virtually no damage or changes. I jumped right into working on my tree nursery and plastic houses grant which should all be completed by now but I don’t know (I will get to that in a minute). It was also a proper monsoon season so it cooled the weather down quite a bit every day that it rained so it wasn’t constant heat. But also due to the monsoon season there wasn’t a lot to do. When it rains it pours. I only had just under a month at site before I left on vacation to Malaysia and Indonesia for 24 days. I had an extra 8 days to burn on vacation since the Tibet trip was canceled due to the quake.

I went to Kuala Lumpur for 3 days and met my friend Avi who works for Delta airlines so he just flew in for a short trip. Then went to Flores Indonesia to scuba dive a couple days and see Komodo dragons and then my cousin Cassie and her friend Amy joined me as we sailed over 3 days to Lombok which was really fun. Then we hung out in Lombok then moved to Gili T to do a couple more dives and partied way to hard. Then we went to Bali to Tulamben where we dived the USS Liberty Shipwreck and shark dive. After Tulamben we headed to Ubud for a night then Kuta for another night of partying. We all headed to Kuching Malaysia for the rainforest world music festival and met 5 other volunteers and we went to the fairy caves and Bako National Park during the day. Best part of Kuching was that is the cat city!!! Like cat statues everywhere and cats all over, they even have a Meow Meow Cat Café which of course had to go to! Then headed to east Borneo and went to Mabul/Sipadan for 4 days of scuba diving. Spiadan was AMAZING it lives up to it’s hype. Worth while.

So now I returned back to Nepal August 16^th and currently I am stuck in Kathmandu due to strikes. Nepal is trying to write their constitution and there have been riots and killings and all sorts of mess. This is just another set back in Nepal after the earthquake. It’s another upset on the tourism as roads are closed and shops have to be closed during some strikes as well. Basically Nepal is a mess. But I only have 2 months left to wrap everything up! 2 years has flown by! My 2 year mark will be September 8^th!! Crazy