So what did you do last week…
Nepal started as very peaceful and welcoming…good accommodation in very
nice, cheap and popular guest house, good food and specially meeting friends
from our hometown in Israel.
The Leb family
Actually it is going to be month full of friend as another family of
good friends from our hometown is coming to meet with us later on
Well after "boring" start, things got little changed to the extreme...
At this stage, normally I would write you details about the places we stayed, about the beautiful nature and great mountain view you can see only in Nepal, the great hospitality at the guest hose and the nice village people along our trek
But as the old sentence says: People plan and god lough…
We have been through an Earth Quake !!!
After week of preparations, buying gear , warm clothes, we finally
headed to the trek. Since we have small kids, we planned a not so difficult
one.
The 7 hour ride to the sayberu besi, the town from which we are going to
start, was very bad, nothing to write home about.
last one before we f to the trek
We have only started to trek early in the morning around 7 am
it was a beautiful day, we stopped by the river for some swimming and tea...
And then, at about noon
PA PAM, BLrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr STAGADAM,
(soory no pictures we were little busy saving our lives...)
The earth moved. To say moved is a very big underestimation
The earth, moved, shacked all around, rocks falling down around us, land
slides…and we are in the middle of the track.
We quickly ran to the center of the valley, away as much as possible from the falling rocks, gathered everyone.
It sounds simple but at real time
- Time froze, first your mind sort of understand what's going on
- I look around, if something going to fall on me
- I look for my family, : wife and 3 kids
In the back, about 10-15 meters behind me I see Shira and Shefa (our eldest son) , running together towards the water, I look ahead and do not see Goni and Anna…I know they are ahead of us, but they past a curve in the track and I can not see them, instinctively I start to run forward towards them…
After few seconds (5 sec or maybe 20, 30 sec) I see both of them running
towards us, I look ahead, looking to see if rocks are falling down towards them
, I gather them and leading them to what seemed to be "safe" area in
the middle of the valley.
After few more seconds/minutes we all gather together (2 families, 10 people + 4
porters)
We hug, we cry, we breath…
minutes after the earthquake, couple of meters behind us
The first shock was long one, almost 2 min, but the earth did not stop to move…
A Huge cloud of dust started to surround us
We evaluated our situation, and decided to go ahead to the nearest village to see if we can get a shelter, to get some information of what happened.
We got only to the first house in the village, saw a family sitting in the field, and sat with them, trying to start and relax, calm down the kids.
This place looked pretty safe, the valley was little wider at this point, and we were far enough and safe even if some rock decide slide and roll down.
After a while we started to evaluate our situation, nobody really knows
what happened, and what's around the corner…but rumors and some information
start to come
Roads are blocked, we can not go back, or continue…rumors about
Kathmandu are saying that there is a big mess.
We understand that we have to stay the night, and maybe more in this
place, so we asked the family if we can stay with them in their hut
This family has a new house already, but apparently no one wants to
sleep in it, all the village people sleep outside… at night we find ourselves
with about another 20 people at least sleeping
in the smoky hut
In the first night the earth did not stop to shake, we didn’t sleep good
that first night.
First morning after the quack we wake up , exchange the night
experience…
Trying to gather more info , and maybe contact home, some of us goes up
to the village.
It’s a mess, most of the houses are ruined completely or partly, the
people village staying and sleeping outside in a temporary shelter they set up. We buy some food that
will last at least couple of days, some noodles, vegetables, biscuits…
We try to call and make any kind of connection with the outside world,
but no success, no telephone, not cellular network, no internet, nothing, in
the next couple of days we will continue to try with no success.
We feel safe, we feel and decide to stay out, no hurry to go back, since
the situation didn’t finish and we do not really knows what going on outside…
Time went by, we shower…play football, or passing time with the kids..
On the third day, after not getting any connection, a local guy suggest
to me to come along as he is going up the mountain to the next village where
there is a chance to connect with the cellular phone.
I jump on the bike and we start to climb hill, what started as a ride up
to the next village, became a 20 min ride up the mountain, which after we stop
the guy tells me we have to go another 20 min by foot along the mountain (just
to remind you that some of these mountains had major rock slides…)
To make things short, I have succeeded to call our contact in Kathmandu
and advise were we are, and safe and forward massage to our family.
Another story, is what went on back at home. It seems that our relatives
and friends gave a big push to find and rescue us…
Ana share her painting pages with the local focal kids
Playing with the baloons
Even had time for short footbal game...
cooking breakfest
After I came back, it seems things started rolling…just when I came,
couple of soldiers came and said that an army helicopter might come tomorrow
with supply, and will be able to take us…
Although we felt safe in the place we were, it started to feel that its
time to go on.
Next morning we started to gather our things and prepare to leave. We did
not even finish breakfast when we heard a helicopter…from here things got going
pretty fast
We gathered our stuff quickly and went to the landing area, the whole
village was there, and surprisingly it was a private chopper that the insurance
companies hired, we were greeted by two Israeli teem.
The ride on the helicopter was more frightening for me than the last
three days were, but that’s me…along the flight I saw the damage in the
mountains…
So many people lost their homes, many people died and wounded
This is the entrance to the guest house we were sopose to sleep in...
The local temple completly collapsed
ruined house
the people of the village are sleeping out side under temporary shelters
We were Lucky !
this is the head of the family that hosted us
Shira's (my beter half…) probably would describe everything in much more
details as well dramaticly..if you want to read her side…Click here
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