Quick Note
After posting this, I realized that the write date and references to "yesterday" are confusing. I started writing this very early in the morning on May 13 Nepal time (GMT+5:45). However, all of the dates on this site are shown in GMT; that put the GMT write time of this article just before midnight on May 12. Since I am only showing the day and not the time that I started writing each post, it appears that I am referring to the earthquake happening on the 11th (it happened on the 12th). Fun with time zones... I am considering adding the write time to avoid this problem in the future.
Yesterday
There was another really large earthquake yesterday. I haven't heard what magnitude but it felt strong enough to tear the building down around us. Everyone here is scared but, from what I've heard, a lot of it is more superstitious than based on experience; there have been suggestions that Nepal is being punished for bad karma. Although I don't share that belief, I can understand why it might feel like that to everyone who has lived through two of these massive tremors and countless smaller ones. As far as I know (I haven't had a chance to look this up yet), having two such large earthquakes hit so close together is extremely rare.
The Day
We didn't get much work done yesterday. I doubt anyone would blame us though. The day began as any day does. Waking up to the sounds of the village in the morning - people starting their day and animals chattering in the ways they do - there was nothing special or notable in the air. That lack of difference from the normal, the lack of special insight of the coming disaster or of a bad omen hanging in the air is the thing that differentiates reality from fiction. It is also what makes these kinds of events so terrifying - the pure, unpredictable randomness of all that death and destruction.
We had some coffee while we discussed the coming day and then breakfast as normal (although now I can't recall if we had dal bhat or whether it was something else). I had agreed to help Ama with her fundraiser for the day and we had been up in her living room since after breakfast. The efforts had been limited to frustrations trying to deal with PayPal issues that had been stopping her from being able to collect money for the village. We were banging our heads against some random problem or another (I don't remember exactly what) when the shaking started. It is amazing how something that feels incredibly important and aggravating can become trivial and irrelevant in a heartbeat.
Earthquake
When the shaking started everyone stopped and was silent. Having been dealing with daily aftershocks from the last big earthquake, everyone had learned to just pay attention and wait for the shaking to calm down before continuing with their activies. After two or three seconds, it was clear that this time it wasn't calming down - it was getting stronger and quickly. At almost the same moment everyone had the same reaction.
Oh shit.
Before we had even gone down one floor it was at maximum strength. The room we were in is on the 3rd floor of the building (using American floor numbering - it was the 2nd floor above ground) and everyone was moving as fast as they could. The building wasn't shaking so hard that it was impossible to stand but moving quickly in a straight line was impossible without holding the railing of the stairwell.
The world sounded like it was growling. The building surrounding us was creaking and groaning and there were rumbling and crashing sounds from outside. While the eartquake was going, I couldn't hear any sounds other than those - all normal sounds of life, animal and human, were silent. Maybe that effect was just the contrast between how the world sounded then compared to before and after though.
I stopped right by the front door and put on my boots while Ama was shouting for me to just get out of the building as quickly as possible. Even though we all knew that the advice is to not run out of a building during an earthquake, in the moment it is almost impossible to follow that idea instead of listening to the small, deep part of the brain that says simply, "run." After a few seconds to half-tie my boots, I ran out to everyone else.
The Aftermath
In hindsight (even this close to the event), it is hard to remember how long it lasted. It felt like minutes but it probably didn't even last one. It was so hard to get a sense of time with that much adrenaline pumping through my body. All I remember is the motion of things my brain said should be still, the sound of unfathomably massive objects moving against each other, and fear.
Everyone in that part of the village had fled their houses collected around the big, lovely tree nearby; a few women were crying but everyone looked like they wanted to. Ama's house was still standing and a few of us decided to get some important things as quickly as we could. We went back inside to get clean water while Ama's filter was still running and any blankets we could. I also grabbed my two phones (US phone and international phone), my wallet, and my passport. I would have wanted more things but those were what I would call essential; I could have left the country with just those things if I needed to.
After getting the water and blankets out to the people I went up to the temple to see how everyone else in the village was doing; the path from the tree to the temple goes through most of the village and from up by the temple most of the rest of the village is visible. One older man was partially trapped under rubble but he was in the process of being freed by some soldiers; I'm not sure how badly injured he was. Everyone else very scared but unhurt. Many buildings, including the outer structures around the temple, were visibly more damaged but luckily very few new buildings had collapsed; the first earthquake had effectively taken down the very fragile buildings and the still-standing ones were more stable. Another large tremor would likely bring down many of the remaining structures though.
Everyone was sitting far away from buildings - just waiting. A few people were listening to news on the radio. I joined the folks by the temple and sat with them for about an hour before people started moving around and evaluating how bad the damage was. It was shortly after this that the first big aftershock hit. I'm still bad at guessing the strength of earthquakes but it felt like it was at least high 4s if not 5. The aftershock really scared people. New bricks falling from buildings and crying out could be heard from all around the village. As soon as it started, everyone ran away from the nearby buildings and sat back down to wait.
I couldn't bear sitting any longer though. I went back down by the Bhattas' house and started clearing more rubble. After less than a minute, Ashim and Anis joined me; Kamal arrived not long after and joined us as well. Although we didn't get much done, I think it was good to not simply feed into the feelings of fear and helplessness; continuing the process of recovery puts the focus on a better future and what can be done now to get there. The earthquakes have made it hard for people to motivate themselves but they definitely seem to quickly get past that when they see others doing the same.
The Night
By this point, it was getting late and there was the issue of what everyone would do overnight. Ama was adamant about no one sleeping in any of the houses last night; few people disagreed with her. Despite this though, a few of the children did end up sleeping on the ground floor of her building with the doors all wide open so they could run out quickly if needed. Ama's house has cracks all over but all of the pillars and main walls look undamaged. Several Nepali who do construction locally had come by later in the day and examined everything. They agreed it is probably safe to stay in unless there is another very large quake. However, that kind of rational analysis doesn't mean much so closer to such an emotional event.
That left a lot of people having to sleep outdoors and more than a few of them are quite old. Some men set out to collect bamboo while the rest of us tried to collect anything else we could to start building temporary shelters (tents really). We used all of the tarps and cord I brought as well as a few other tarps that people already had. The mosquito net I brought was also used but only for one of the makeshift structures. We didn't have enough mosquito netting to go around but most Nepali seem unbothered by mosquitos and it wasn't a big issue for them. While we were doing this, some women had been preparing a large dinner for everyone; by the time it was almost dark people had places to sleep and food to eat.
Sleeping outside wasn't bad for me. I ended up setting the tent up in the dark, after eating dinner, using just my headlamp to see what I was doing. I was in a little 1-person tent with a sleeping bag (both of which I had brought with me from the US for that exact purpose). The dogs were fascinated by it and refused to leave me alone while I set it up. The only problem with the tent was that it is small and waterproof which means it doesn't have great ventilation; the inside was coated in moisture when I woke up.
Thoughts
In the moment, the quake was frightening but that passed relatively quickly. Knowing that it is exceptionally rare to have more than 2 large earthquakes close together probably helped me. I try not to let that thought make me overconfident though; even the chance of having 2 large earthquakes together is very rare but that still happened. Maybe this situation isn't like any before and a big 3rd quake will happen. In the hours after the earthquake I was thinking of whether I should try to leave; fear rarely fails to be followed by doubt of the decisions that lead to that fear. But now I see no reason to. If another big one strikes or suddenly one of the buildings I am in or working near decides that it doesn't like being upright anymore... ke garne? Life isn't just about being safe and things that matter always require risks.