CMAT Emergency Alert: Nepal Earthquake – Update #7

May 30, 2015 – Takukot, Nepal –  With special thanks for this contribution to Jill Allison, Logistician with Team 3!

 

“Long journey from Kathmandu to Takukot in Gorkha district. We drove for ten hours on roads that grew ever narrower, on steeper cliffs and higher up the mountainside. We passed through villages where nearly every house was a pile a rubble. We passed houses with cracks and sagging rooflines and missing backsides. We passed trees laden with flowers in front of scarred walls and crumbling porches.

 

And everywhere the Nepali faces are aglow with smiles . Everywhere people are rebuilding with remains of old house and stones and brick. Back breaking labour and beautiful dispositions as children shouted “Namaste!!” We came upon an impromptu market in the middle of the road as people were bargaining for sheets of corrugated metal roofing recently delivered. Eventually our driver conceded defeat and would go no further. We began an hour long walk uphill with our tents in our packs as dusk approached.

 

People with their metallic burdens destined for new rooftops laughed and joked as they made their way alongside us on the road. Rain threatened and thunder rolled. We arrived in the dark and made camp hastily, welcomed by the second CMAT team. After a wonderful meal of dal baht we have settled in to our little camp community. We are looking forward to the coming days. There is no sound like the thunder in the Gorkha hills.”