I've been in Nepal for 12 days since the 25th and have been staying in pokhara since the 15th. I'm here on a 21 day yoga course/retreat. It's really nice and calming etc....well it was. The 25th was a day to remember for more then one reason - first the last day of my 4th cleanse - second the biggest earthquake to hit Nepal in over 80 years.
I just finished doing my gastro intestinal cleanse with 3 other girls at the retreat. We finished around 11am and were so ready for our first meal in 4 days. We were tired, mentally and physically. Upon huffing and puffing up to the 5th floor of the yoga center I'm sitting there with two of the three girls and we are awaiting our soup which is the first thing to be eaten after this enduring cleanse. All of a sudden the whole building is shaking like mad. We're on the top floor and we pretty much grab each other's legs in a panic mode. I didn't know how to react, it's like that feeling where you are dumbfounded....like what do you do except pause for 15 seconds and feel the building shake and wonder if you are going to collapse in a matter of seconds....
Well thankfully - we finally came to our senses after 30 seconds or so and we stammered down the flights of stairs to the bottom. I'm carefully grabbing the hand rails and walls so tightly and trying to hang on and continue to hope the floor beneath me doesn't collapse! Finally we make it to the ground level and everyone else at the center is standing in the garden area which probably isn't the safest area since if the building were to fall, it would fall right on us! The shaking lasted for about 3 minutes I reckon...not the entire time was it as strong as when I felt it on the top floor.
After the shaking stopped, I stand there, not scared really, but just thinking, oh my goodness did I just go through an earthquake? Surely it wasn't that bad because the building is still standing and everyone is alive in front of me? After the quake the Internet went out for 2 days at the center so I wasn't able to read the news except hear it from other people who had Nepal cell phone plans. Some people were staying it was about a 5.0 earthquake and then I finally hear someone say it was 7.9.
7.9!! Holy shit. Well actually I don't know crap about earthquakes I'm this Midwestern girl who doesn't have to endure catastrophic events like earthquakes, hurricanes, monsoons, etc. but what does 7.9 really mean? Yeah it means bad!!! Soon people where getting news updates on their phones saying how hundreds of people have died, soon after that it was thousands, and more. Kathmandu was struck really hard. The city is old, the buildings are old and the infrastructure isn't great. Many famous sites collapsed in kathmandu. It's so unfortunate and surreal that I was just there only 12 days prior!
So these are my feelings in the short. I could go on but details could be a bit boring for the average reader. Since the big boy hit on the 25th around noon, I've feel many many aftershocks and tremors. They wake me up at night and it's not a comforting feeling. It's not 3.5 days after the big boy, and the tremors are stopping. I haven't felt one in about 20 hours.
Nepal is in serious need for help now. I'm considering after I'm done here at the yoga center to do a few days of volunteering before I leave Nepal. I will leave on May 12 and not rush out of the country like my mom wishes. Sorry mom! It's too crazy in Kathmandu and that is the only point of exit in this country as it's the international airport and no land borders are really accessible.
