Sunni Dawson

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Kathmandu: the first 24 hours

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Exiting the plane my whole body smiled. No humidity. No humidity! NO HUMIDITY! Yes, yes, YES!!!!
Sunshine and rubble
A pleasant 30 degrees Celsius and no humidity. I just came from Myanmar, at 8pm at night it was 31 degrees, dark and I had dribbles of sweat emanating from my brow, knee creases and behind my earlobes. The word ‘unbearable’ does little to describe how overwhelming I found the mixture of sun, dust and lets just say at least 152.59% humidity was. Needless to say I could not be found outside between 10am and 5pm. 
 
But here, it was 31 degrees, in the mid afternoon heat and I could actually breathe! You little ripper!  I looked around the airport runway and noted the many massive plastic wrapped packages, supplies yet to be distributed.
 
I walked amongst the throng of 250 Nepali men swarming around me with an ‘all-in’ survival mode determination to the baggage claim. I was one of three white people in the plane and the only white female in amongst a handful of women. I had gotten used to the gapping mouths by everyone in Myanmar, but this plane ride took it to a whole new level. A captive prey, with every tiny move scrutinised with magnetic gazes and not so subtle filming. These cat eyes found a new fascination: the conveyor belt. 
 
The conveyor belt was packed full of packages of all ranges of sizes: TVs, stitch tied boxes, large cheap suitcases. These men were coming back home from working in Malaysia. The air host explained to me, ‘We have a lot of Nepalese workers in Malaysia, normally this plane is sold out, but there are a few empty seats today’ (note: I didn’t see many spares). 
Support perhaps?

 

My taxi driver was a very affable young Nepalese man. Smiling and friendly without the open mouth thing. I asked him about Kathmandu since the quakes.

 
‘Many people are scared. Very scared. A lot of people are homeless.’ He pointed out the vast numbers of tents in the small spaces of land that were not taken up by buildings or rubble.
 
‘Many people’s homes collapsed, but some people, even if their homes are okay, are too scared to stay inside incase another earthquake comes. Many people have left Kathmandu. They are too scared to stay here.’
 
‘Have they gone back to their villages?’
 
‘Yes, to help their families and work for them. Most people come to Kathmandu for work, but they are too afraid to stay here. For example, it normally takes during the day one hour to get from the airport into Thamel. It now only takes 15 minutes. Everyone is gone.’
Life continuing

I look around to see the swarming motorbikes, cars, trucks, people, dogs and (so much inner excitement here) cows! I haven’t seen roaming cows for a few years since my venture to India. I love cows. And free cows especially. I wondered what this unorganised beehive would be like in its ‘normal’ state.

I ask him how his family is. ‘My family is from a small village an hour or so outside of Kathmandu. They are okay, but their home was destroyed.’

‘I am sorry to hear that.’
 
He smiled. ‘No, don’t be sorry, its okay, they are not the only ones. A 1000 homes were destroyed in my village.’
 
Ummm, wow. My mind wandered back to the responses of people in Queensland’s (Australia) worst natural disaster in recent history in 2011. I was apart of the recovery efforts. I remember hearing many people (not everyone, granted) complaining and blaming the government (for a natural disaster mind you) for their homes being damaged or destroyed. Of course this is horrible and devastating, I too was affected, but I reflected on this very different reaction to a natural disaster that killed over 9000, injured thousands more and rendered over 450 000 homeless (in Queenland’s disaster, 38 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed) and people with no insurance.
One of the many nice restaurants here.
A stark contrast.


Most foreigners who are in the Thamel area (the tourist area of Kathmandu filled with beautiful restaurants, mountain gear shops, cashmere and trinkets) are here for recovery assistance. This makes Thamel currently an interesting place to be. Most businesses and almost everyone in Kathmandu are helping the recovery efforts in some way. One restaurant I ate at had installed a sample monsoon shelter for the homeless they are raising money for.

On the outskirts of Thamel
There are a lot of local people and groups that have taken initiative in recovery efforts. These groups are facilitating assistance in ways larger organisations are not (for a variety of reasons). I am going to be documenting some of the fantastic work these groups are doing here.
 
One of the initial inspiring things I’ve heard about within my first 24 hours is two guys who have come from the Philippines to teach locals how to make homes, using local materials of mud, bamboo etc, earthquake proof. They are going out into villages to teach locals adjustments to their current building style or completely new techniques.
 
The Eco Brick!

One of these men is also into building ‘Ecobricks’. Plastic bottles filled with plastic bags. This Ecobrick has about 60 plastic bags in this one bottle. Eco bricks are about turning plastic that is not biodegradable into something that is an incredibly useful solution to a huge environmental problem. PET plastics will last 300-500 years if kept away from direct sunlight. And they make incredibly good bricks / building materials that can be used over and over again!

ecobricks.org website has a free kit that anyone can use (including info for teachers and schools) and they are currently getting it translated into Nepali as you can see, this is the first draft.
The Eco Brick guide in english, its first Nepalese translation and a sample brick!
Many more inspiring stories to come!

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