Durga Bahadur

Durga Bahadur (54) wasn’t injured in the main earthquake on April 25, but on the powerful M7.3 aftershock on May 12. He started running when the earthquake hit, but a nearby house toppled over and a sheet of PVC tin sliced his index finger off. It was just dangling by his skin. When I spoke to Durga, he was waiting in line for more pain killers at the Health Clinic. I asked him “How is your house?” and he replied:

“What house? It’s gone. I don’t even have a single rupee. How will I get 50 rupees for a single tin sheet. Because of my hand, I can’t even rebuild my house.”

Krishna Bahadur Pariya

On April 25th, Krishna Bahadur (46) jumped from his porch onto the fields about 7 feet below him, to avoid the rocks as his house collapsed behind him. He has several bruises across his legs.

“He has a wrist fracture,” a medical professional from the Health Center told me. “We are giving him pain killers, and also moov to help reduce the swelling.”

Shiva Bika

Shiva is 12 years old. He fell down and broke his left arm when he was trying to escape falling rocks from his home.

It’s been more than 3 weeks since the earthquake, and Shiva still hasn’t had an X-ray and doesn’t have a plaster yet. The nearest X-ray machine is in a town called Melamchi, which is a 3 hour drive away.

Several villagers around us were visibly disappointed by Shiva’s father for not taking him to Melamchie for an X-ray and a plaster yet. Melamchi is nearby, and they can go there and come back to the village on the same day. The villagers said:

“Don’t you care about your son’s hand? What are you waiting for?”
“He’s going to have to work with his hands to earn a living his whole life.”

His Dad replied: “But where will I get money from for the bus ride?”

Maila Lama

Maila Lama (50) is an entrepreneur. He’s standing in front of the building he had worked towards his entire life. His family of 6 used to call this place their home. He also had a grocery store, and a travel lodge in this building.

I peeked inside through the exposed wooden beams and could see what remained of a beautifully painted door and window. I can’t imagine what Maila must be going through. I could imagine what it looked like beforehand. It was a beautiful lodge, which he cared about deeply. “Tourists from Kathmandu, and doctors from Dhulikhel Hospital would stay here when they came to town,” Maila told me.

Maila Lama: It will take 50 years to get back to where we were.
Villagers nearby: Probably more.

I didn’t get her name, but I recognized this woman from my visit 10 days earlier. She’s not very fond of having her photo taken, but has a great sense of humor.

She recognized me and said, “Hey! You are back. Don’t take photos of the house. I haven’t cleaned up for guests yet.”

“Give me to me straight doc.”

Let’s be honest. You and I both know that Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. This country already faced way too many challenges even before the earthquake, and these villagers weren’t too far above the poverty line.

They didn’t have much. But they had something.

They had their homes, made of stones and wood glued together by mud. They had a few sets of clothes, which were passed down from one person to the next, or given to them by a traveler. They didn’t have to worry about where they were going to rest their head after a long day in the corn fields. They knew they could go home, be with their family and neighbors, cook a simple meal and repeat it the next day. And, if they had a particularly good harvest a year, they could even save up some money for a new shirt, or a new pot for their kitchen.

Unfortunately now, the little that they had was snatched away by the cruel earthquake. Their homes have turned to rock and dust. The few sets of clothes they had are under the rubble, and possibly ruined forever. They used to sleep on a bed with a thin bed sheet and a blanket, but now they’re sleeping under a plastic tarp on a thin mat.

The biggest strength of Manekharka is that they have each other. People have lost whatever little they had, but now they’re looking out for each other more than ever.

Despite the tragedy, Nepali grace and hospitality shines through in every village I go to, they offer me tea and biscuits. It’s in their culture to care for each other and their guests. But I think it’s a little more than that right now, they really appreciate that someone shows up to the village and cares about them enough to talk to them and do what they can to lend them a hand to stand back up.