6 weeks later......

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Nepal 6 weeks later



Straight after our New York / Washington trip, I was straight into a week of my resettlement course. At lunchtime on the Saturday I looked at my phone and saw a text from DSJs brother Rhyd. 'HornSby welcome back' he wrote ' glad you're not in Nepal his week-earthquake yesterday'



Blimey! I thought-hope its not too bad, that would have been a bit scary! When I got back at 7pm and saw the channel 4 news, only then did I realise just how bad it really was. As I write this the death toll has exceeded 7000 and so many parts of the country are in total devastation. Reports of aid not getting through, outbreak of disease and sex traffickers exploiting the situation to snatch women and girls are heart breaking. Truly.



Looking at the pictures, I can't believe that just 6 weeks before, we had stood watching the happy man wave the Nepalese Flag outside the Kumari palace. Now it was gone. Was he? Did the man get out alive? I'll never know. Hundreds of years of history in ruins. The steps where we had our last picture completely collapsed.



Luckily Chris who had gone on to do the base camp trek was back safe in Belgium, as for the Sherpas on his trip-still don't know. The girls at SASANE Sisterhood of Survivors lived up to their name and thankfully are all ok.



I remember us talking about how fragile the buildings were, and now it was there for all to see, in the most devastating of circumstances. Why does it always happen in places that don't have a lot to start with???? The Nepalese people are so lovely, from the Ghurkas I've worked with to the civilians I met when I was over there. One of my old colleagues had recently been in Nepal making a film called MAYA about the street children. Google him or visit his website www.veemsenlama.com to see other films he has made in and around Nepal. The backdrop to which will never be the same again. Another, Bikram Malla was volunteering for a charity called the Nestling trust, providing dental treatment to villages. Thankfully he marked himself as 'safe' via the means of Facebook.



If you haven't already done so, please donate. Here is a link to Veemsen Lamas fundraising page.












https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/1245852action_object_map=%5B812555778793902%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.shares%22%5D&fb_action_ids=10205521989982444&fb_action_types=og.shares



God bless Nepal.

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