After walking for hours and passing hundreds of houses, we
still haven’t seen a single house that is intact. News reports aren't
kidding when they say that 90% of villages in Sindupalchowk have been destroyed.
In fact here it is probably closer to 99 percent, even when you look across the
valley to villages on the other side, you see only broken ruins. Yet, all
around us the views are stunning and magnificent. At one rest stop, I pause to
admire the view of the Himalayas in the distance. How can a place that creates
and inspires so much beauty also be the source of so much destruction and pain?
Nepalis are resilient people, though; you can see it in the
lines of their faces which have been hardened by a lifetime of hard work. The
people here are mostly subsistence farmers. By the World Bank and United
Nations standards, they would qualify as “living below the poverty line” without
any regular income. Issues of health, education and nutrition most likely
existed in these villages long before the earthquake. And the aid that has only
recently come flooding into the area in the wake of the earthquake (which still
hasn’t reached certain places) has served to highlight some of the larger
development problems of the region. The
needs of village people here cannot be met by short term emergency relief, what
is needed is a longer term commitment to improving health, education and
quality of life in the region.
We were lucky to get a bus going as far as Tipeni where a
local group has set up their base for distribution of food and supplies. There
are also two medical teams stationed there with enough medical supplies to last
for months including an RV with a generator which can be used as an operating room/ambulance.
However, the medical teams are leaving tomorrow and the food distribution won’t
last forever either. What happens after the sense of emergency fades and the
desire to help burns out? Moonsoon is just around the corner and without proper
shelter and a dry place to store food, the village people are going to fall on
even harder times. We may not have had any outbreaks of disease yet, but that
could change once the rains start.
The road to Melamchi was bad but the road to Tipeni could
barely be called a road. The bus had to do some serious off roading through
landslide areas in order to get to our destination. We almost got stuck a few
times and at one point some men had to dig in the mud to make enough room
for the bus to pass. From Tipeni we started walking. Radha hasn’t been back to
her village in a very long time. As we walk, she points out the high school
where she used to study. The school is also collapsed. One building which didn't
sustain too much damage is being used as a camp. Radha used to walk 2 or more
hours to school every day. She is one of the few people in her village to
complete her class 10 exams. I wonder who will rebuild the schools in villages
like these and how long it will take before kids can go back to school.
When we arrive in
Radha’s village, we have to pick our way around fallen down houses to reach her
family’s shelter. Her family has built a shelter out of wooden beams and metal
sheets used for the roof. The shelter is too low to stand in and you have to
duck to get through the opening (there is no door) though many people hit their
head on the low beam going in and out (including me). They have straw mats to
sit on. The cooking fire is in the entrance which keeps the shelter warm but
also really smoky. When we
arrive it is already dark and we are exhausted from the long day of traveling.
The family offers us a bit of rice with a fried spinach-like vegetable (saag).
We are given a tarp to sleep on with a mat and a blanket. Shortly after lying
down to sleep the rumble of an aftershock passes under the shelter. I look up. I
am sleeping directly under the main beam holding up the shelter. I sure hope it
the shelter is solid.
The next morning everyone wakes up at sunrise. Radha leaves
to go visit more of her relatives. I am left with the Grandma who is blind and
sits in a corner and the kids. The older boys have tied some string around a
rock and they are twisting the string to make the rock spin like a top. The
kids are all filthy with snot running out of their noses. It reminds me a bit
of my village in Cameroon and how I used to play a fun game called “lets wash
our hands and face” with the little ones when they would come to my house
(especially Djibirila who always had green slime all over his face and
down his belly). After a while I get bored and go for a walk. All the women are
out tilling their fields. They watch me curiously as I go by. I don’t think
they see many foreigners in their village. I find the water source and wash my
hands and face. By now, I am almost as filthy as the kids. Unfortunately, I
wore my white Himalayan Adventure Girls t-shirt but it isn't white anymore. I
hope I will be able to wash the grime out…
During my walk, I think about all the things I have to do
before leaving. I only have one week left and my heart breaks at the thought of
leaving this place. I am reminded of how hard it was when I had to leave
Cameroon and I don’t want to go through that again, but I now I will have to. I
feel like I am abandoning the people I came to help all over again. How can I
leave my friends when their houses are in ruins? I walk back to the shelter
with a very heavy heart.
When I get back, Radha is waiting for me. Her family is
cooking rice but they have nothing to eat with it, they will eat it plain. Radha and I want to get back quickly to Tipeni because we don’t want to
miss the bus back. We figure we can get food in either Tipeni or Melamchi. The
walk down is much faster than the walk up. We arrive in Tipeni around noon only
to find out that there are no buses going back to Tipeni that day, but if we
wait around we might be able to catch a ride with one of the trucks
transporting aid materials…Otherwise we will have to walk. It’s another
scorching hot day. Walking to Melamchi would be brutal in this heat, we decide
to wait and see if there are any trucks going by.
While we wait, I talk to one of the aid coordinators. He
tells me that they have received enough rice and have been able to provide
almost everyone in the district with rice; they have even been able to help
some of the neighbouring districts. However, he complains that they received some
donations which were non-essential – things like boxes of biscuits
and chocolate bars. Although these are nice treats to give to kids at
times like these, there are not enough for everyone and it creates conflicts.
It would have been more useful to spend that money on things like dahl, cooking
oil and salt to go with the rice. When we first arrived in Tipeni there was an
awful smell of dead animals which were still trapped and rotting under the
fallen buildings. The coordinator says that they started removing animals
corpses the day before and they will continue again today although many
volunteers are already starting to leave and they need a lot of help. It isn't
easy work especially for big animals like ox which they have to carry and bury
somewhere. It is also dangerous work because buildings can still collapse or the rubble could shift and someone could get injured. This is why
rescuing people trapped in their houses and recovering bodies is supposed to be
done by specialized teams, but in most remote areas, villagers had to do that
work themselves because no rescue teams ever came to the rescue.
The air is
suffocating in the tent, but outside there is no shade to hide from the sun. Radha and I
still haven’t eaten anything though volunteers give us some juice boxes. I don’t
like to take from the relief supply, but if we don’t eat or drink something we
will pass out in this heat. Eventually, a truck goes by and we beg a lift to
Melamchi. Turns out the driver is going all the way to Kathmandu and Radha
talks him into driving us back. When we finally reach Melamchi around 2:30pm we
stop for a cold drink and a quick lunch of chowmein then we hit the road again.
The ride is really bumpy so it is impossible to sleep. Radha nods off a couple
of times only to be brutally awakened again when we go over a bump and she hits
her head against my shoulder. I know I am going to
have bruises when I get home. By the time we reach Kathmandu I am covered in a
layer of dust so thick, I’m not even sure my mother could recognize me.
The first thing I do when I get home is jump into the shower. The trip was
really exhausting but worthwhile if only to gain a better understanding of what
is happening on the ground in terms of relief efforts to remote areas in
Sindupalchowk. After we get some rest, we will see what steps we will take next
and how best we can continue to contribute to that effort.
Photo credit: Radha
Photo credit: Radha