It was an extremely terrifying moment for me! But first the background. The last few days I spent in Samde (Lhakpa’s current home village) and Thame at 3,800m/12,500ft. I helped Lhakpa and his family to clean up whatever there was to clean: Collecting the wood and trying to cover it from the upcoming Monsoon rain as well as fixing some of the broken stone fences. The rest has to be done by specialists, and they are very busy with fixing so many broken houses. Somehow, I must have hurt my back in the process and after having felt the pain for over a week, I mentioned it to a Nepali doctor which I met in Thame and he suggest to me to rest for a few days. Well, resting was the last thing I was planning to do, but after having realized that the pain would not go away as long as I carry heavy backpacks up and down and move around rocks, I followed his advice and I decided to go down for a few days to Namche Bazar, which is still at 3,340m/11,022ft, to recover, work on my blog and check my e-mail (Namche Bazar was the only village that had Internet connection after the first earthquake).
So it happened that I was sitting in a local restaurant on May 12 around noon, in a very old and typical stone house, and there I was checking my mail and had some lunch. All this was fine until that second earthquake stroke at 12:55pm Nepal time! It was a terrifying moment for me… I had experienced some earthquakes in California, but I was never before in an old house, were the walls were simply made out of stones and small rocks, basically, just piled up with no cement holding them together. This is the traditional way the Sherpas build their houses in this area of the Himalayas, since there is essentially no wood at this altitude (or it is extremely expensive since it has to be carried up by porters or Yaks). We were three people in the restaurant. The local cook, an Australian teacher who did some volunteer work in a village up here and myself. All the tourists had left this area since the first earthquake. Suddenly, the house started to move and we all run underneath a doorframe, and unconsciously, as we realized later, we were holding each other on the shoulder in this moment of great fear. The Nepali man was praying and I was just counting the time, which seemed forever, and my Australian friend mumbled that this was much longer than the last time. I agreed, but was more concerned what happened around us. I heard a wall crashing in the same building and about 12 meters/40 feet away from us the kitchen wall certainly had a huge crack… I was extremely scared at that moment but I felt somehow, probably instinctually, that the best thing is to stay where we were until the shock was over. But it seemed to last forever, 20, 30, 40, 50 seconds or more, I don’t know, and suddenly there were huge rocks in front of the door. They must have fallen from a wall or another pile of rocks that were out there, however, it was a good thing that we did not run out immediately. Once the movement stopped, all three of us run out the door to an open space outside of the house where already many people were standing. You could see in their eyes that they were scared as well and we all knew, that even when this small village square was relatively safe, it could not be the final place to stay. Meanwhile, we felt a few short aftershocks which did not give us much confidence in terms of leaving the place.
The house I was in during the earthquake – Wrong place at the wrong time…
The huge crack in the kitchen wall not far from where we were standing – Terrifying…
The wall that we heard crashing during the earthquake – What a scary experience
Finally, after about an hour or so, I run into the restaurant, grabbed my computer and my bag, run out again in probably less than 30 seconds and started to look for a better place to stay. Unfortunately, in order to reach such a place, I had to walk along a relatively small alley and I did not trust any house at that point. Many rocks were loose near the rooftops of several houses and they could fall down at any moment. However, there was no other way to move to the open space, so, at one point, I just run down the alley. Once I arrived at the one open space outside of the village, there were already many locals sitting on the ground, just waiting for end of this terrible experience. And fear was visible in all of us, even in the children, and that is rare. Once in while we felt some less intense aftershocks and it was clear for everybody there that they would spend the night in the open. After about two hours, sitting on the ground, just like all other people, I had to make a decision what do to next. Meanwhile, it was around 4:00pm and the temperature had dropped. My bag with the warm clothes were in a guesthouse in this village. I knew that I would need my bag if I wanted to spend the night outside, what I had to do anyways, because there was no way that I would go back into one of these houses.
Namche Bazar – Everybody has left their house after the second big earthquake
We are all in the same boat – Waiting and hoping that this was the last quake
Sad moments – Where to go from here…
May Buddha watch over these wonderful people…
After another hour or so, I made my way up to the guesthouse where I was staying, always looking for open space and trying to move as far as possible away of any house, which was, of course, not possible, since I again had to follow some of the small alleys to the to the guesthouse. Once I arrived there, I realized that the house was locked and nobody was there. Luckily, at that moment, a villager passed by and I told him about my situation. He informed me that that everybody in the village will spend the night outside on the highest point in the area, near the school building. Well, this gave me an idea where to go for the night, but did not help me to get my bag, which I knew I would absolutely need for the night. I went back to the open space where I was before, asked people about the whereabouts of the owner of the guesthouse and they all pointed to the open space at the top of the village. I knew that I would have to find these people before it gets dark, so I made my way up there as well. In order to get there, I had to cross the whole village, and I could feel how my heart started to beat faster and faster, and this was not just because of the steep trail… I looked at every wall and rooftop of all the houses I passed and tried to move as fast as possible. Finally, I reached some open space, potato fields, and I was finally able to take a short break. I was so happy to have made it out of the village. Then, I moved up higher, this time slower, catching my breath, and reached about twenty minutes later the flat area where the villagers had started to put up their tents. Everything seemed to be very well organized and I was once again impressed by the way the Sherpa people confronted this natural disaster. There was no question that anybody would sleep in the village and they all organized tents and food for the night, by quickly going to their houses and picking up whatever they would need for the night. Sitting there and just watching these efficient organization skills of these mountain people, I finally spotted also the owner of the guesthouse I was looking for such a long time. I was so glad and explained them my situation. They said no problem, since they also had to pick up some tents and sleeping bags in their house. So we went down together, I packed my things in probably less than one minute, run out of the room, and helped them to carry the tent and sleeping bags up to the open space. Once there, they would also offer me a tent and suddenly I was part of this wonderful community.
In few hours a “tent city’ was build high above the town of Namche Bazar
And the families prepared to live there for several days or weeks if needed…
And food for everybody, and this means a whole town, was organized in a very professional way
People are expecting aftershocks and the houses below will stay empty for a while
The next three nights I spent with this great people, experiencing wonderful friendship and special care, and I really admired their social skills which they demonstrated in a boundless way in this difficult situation. Some people where responsible for cooking for the whole village, other would organize the food and the owner of the land and his wife, where all these people had put their tents, would make sure that everybody had whatever they needed. It was an amazing experience for me to be able to see such a community spirit, me, that came here to help, but finally the people helped me through this cold nights high up in the Himalayas. Once again, I learned so much from these people and I am so grateful that I am allowed to experience all these. This gives me a lot strength to move on with my mission and help others as well in this challenging situation. Thank you to all these wonderful people who showed me the way! The journey goes on…
Luckily, only a few houses got damaged in Namche Bazar, compared to Thame where basically all houses will need rebuilding
Smoke to please the gods…
And the tent community is helping each other – In good or bad weather
View from the “tent town” – There are always some beautiful things to see, whatever the situation is…
Later on I learned that it was a magnitude 7.3 earthquake and that the epicenter was much closer to the area where we were than the first earthquake. In the news they called it an aftershock of the April 25 Great Quake (magnitude 7.8). But the best news is that according to the villagers no one has been seriously hurt during this quake. For me, the May 12 earthquake, was simply the second very strong earthquake I now had experienced in less than a month, and I am still scared…