Among everything else I
have learned during my four years with CGA, I have been taught not to go into a
country with too many expectations; it’s better to let the culture, scenery,
and experience wash over you upon arrival. However, with all of the sensationalized
media and fear surrounding Nepal, it was difficult to completely block out
images of devastation – rubble everywhere, hungry children, even bodies in
streets. I prepared myself for a country in mourning of all they had lost.
But what makes Nepal great
is its depth. People here have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their
families, yet beauty is still everywhere. We are greeted with Namastes and
smiles, and when we explain that we are here for service, we receive
expressions of gratitude in return. Yes, buildings have fallen, people have
died, and homes have been destroyed, but there is still love, there is still
laughter, there is still hope.
That said, I was unsure
of how many children would be at Deeya Shree, the school we are teaching in,
since it re-opened only five days ago and many people are afraid to sleep
inside, let alone send their kids into buildings for hours at a time, six days
a week. But out of 150 kids, only 25 were absent. Though this is still quite a
few, it’s less than I initially would’ve guessed. The kids are all excited and
ready to learn, which I witnessed during the entire class period that I taught
about US history, answering questions about everything from the Civil War to
the space race to Barack Obama. But in a school where the kids are so thirsty
for knowledge, it is frustrating to be met with consistent monotony in the way
the kids are being taught. We have only been there for one day, but all I have
seen so far is students copying from whiteboards and teachers briefly
explaining topics without checking for understanding from each student. I have
seen a few students looking lost, simply writing what is on the board and
drawing a blank when asked to do their homework on their own. While this is a
challenge, it is also means that there is a lot of work we can do and a lot of
growth we can inspire, and that excites me.
Today, the one day the
children have off from school, we performed more manual labor than I have in a
long time. Scattered around Durbar Square and the surrounding streets are
buildings, hundreds of years old, which are crumbling. Once towering structures
are now falling apart, with cracks down their middle and walls that have
completely separated from the beams that are meant to hold them together. These
are peoples’ homes, and they will have to be destroyed and then rebuilt from
the ground up after monsoon season. For hours, we helped one family take down a
story of their house.
“This is our kitchen,”
one man said to me as he shoveled crumbling stone off of the exposed room and
onto the ground below, where it will be picked up by trucks and transported
away.
The fear that comes
with experiencing two earthquakes is traumatizing enough, but these people also
have to pull apart their homes, brick by brick. Generations of families have
lived in these buildings, leading up to the lives that this generation has
lived, the years that they have spent growing up in these houses, and now they
have to dismantle them. I can’t imagine what that’s like, to be so shaken by a
natural disaster and have to take down the place where you grew up while still
trying to recover from it. There are so many families like the one that we
helped today, and with no outside assistance, who knows how long it could take
to bring down every building that is unsalvageable?
Before we left, I was
afraid that our efforts would be lost among thousands of volunteers flooding in
with good intentions but no plan. But during my time here, I have not seen a
single other foreign volunteer in Bhaktapur who is helping with relief. We
lessened the workload of one family today, but there are many others just like
them who need support. So many people are donating and sending supplies, but
they all are left on the tarmac of the airport because they are being heavily
taxed. Peoples’ hearts are in the right places, but I would like to see
organized relief crews, both employing those whose places of business have been
ruined as well as encouraging volunteers to fly in and lend a hand.
There has been
devastation, but Nepal has not been destroyed. There is a lot to recover from,
but pride in their country resonates within every Nepali citizen, and I know
they can restore this beautiful nation. They will need more manpower, but they
have hope and strength like I have never seen before. Every day I am more
convinced that we are doing something great here, and I can’t wait for
tomorrow.
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