Aftershock - Vissal’s story part one
On my first day here I met a lad, Vissal, on the main street, Lazimpat, near my hotel. Vissal helped me sort out a local SIM card - not a simple task, and whilst doing so we chatted and I discovered he had come to KTM after being rescued with his family from his village in Gorkha district, about five or six hours by road from KTM, when it was devastated by the earthquake.
Vissal told me he had built a bamboo house and he and his two brothers, two sisters and Mother still lived in it - six months after the quake.
We met up with Vissal’s older brother Sanjay and they agreed we could go to his house, meet his family and I could video him telling his story and some photos for my project.
On the way to where they lived, near Bouda in NE Kathmandu,in a tiny taxi that they told me was as cheap as we would find, the boys described the day of the earthquake. On the day, 25th April 2015, they described a big roar, a roar so loud it was frightening. Everyone in the village was running towards open ground and as they did so the “Big Shake” started. Sanjay did most of the talking, he said everyone was running towards open ground and everyone was screaming and crying, “even me” and Vissal said “and even me”. When they reached open land well away from the village they threw themselves to the ground - all the family were there together. The ground was shaking and they described how it became warmer and warmer. If they stood up it was too hot for their feet. The rock beneath them became spongy, soft like a cushion, their bodies hurt from the heat and the vibration. As the “big shake” eased they realised their whole village was demolished, every house and building - all they had were the clothes they were in. Everyone was still crying and screaming.
They demonstrated to me how the ground became soft in the “big shake” by sqeezing the drivers seat and how as they lay there it slowly cooled and became hard again - the fear of that day showed in their eyes. They said that after sometime the sky became thick with helicopters, Vissal Sanjay their Mother, Brothers and Sisters together will an Auntie and Cousins were rescued and taken to a flat piece of land in NE Kathmandu and left there with many, many other survivors.
Out of the cab window I noticed an area full of tents, it was not their area, I asked if we could stop and take a look. So we got out and let the taxi go.
Evacuated survivor’s camp at Chuche Pati on land owned by the Hyatt Hotel. This place is about two miles from where the boys live. In terms of the survivor camp pecking order this was upmarket. many of those who had been here have now returned to their villages to start again.
Vissal’s story Part Two will feature in a later blog
