We have officially arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal! I can't tell you how many mixed emotions I had when we landed. I'm sure my mom could tell you I sounded terrified on the phone as we drove the dark streets to our hostile. Our driver took us the long way to show us some of the destruction from the earthquakes. We saw nine story buildings that were now piles of debris, empty lots housing 1,000+ tents and lean-to's, broken roads, stray dogs and piles and piles of brick and rubble.
We got to talk to our country coordinator during and after breakfast. He told us about what happened when the first earthquake hit and then the second. Another lady sat and talked to us and she told us her story, too. She was on the roof of a building when it hit. She said that she would have just ducked under the table but she watched as the building right next to hers crumbled and so she started running down. It was a good thing she did because later, she found out that the roof had caved in to the kitchens below it. After breakfast we got to go and walk around the local streets. I can already tell the difference between here and China. Since Nepal is such a tourism driven country, most people know at least simple English so it's not hard to get around. Everyone is very happy here. People still stare at us until after we pass and the little kids all love to stop and talk to us in English. Their English is very proper but they don't understand everything we say. Right before we turned back down our little winding alley, we got stopped on a corner by a little group of well dressed people that were gathered around a car covered in flowers. We realized it was a marriage ceremony and stopped to watch. It was right in the corner of a busy street with many cars honking as they passed but they must be used to it.
After our language study, we went outside because it's cooler outside than it is inside our hostile. Steven took his soccer ball to juggle and of course you can imagine the little crowd of kids that attracted. They all wanted to play monkey in the middle and when the little ones got tired of that they came and sat by me on the blanket. Pretty soon one little girl grabbed my phone and started to play with it. She asked for games and when I told her I didn't have any, she soon found my pictures and videos and then my camera and had a lot of fun with that. They loved to see Steven and I show affection and I am sure it's because their culture doesn't seem to show a lot of affection between man and wife.
After a while, I went back inside to study Nepalese and Steven came in soon after me. As we were sitting there all of a sudden we felt a shaking. At first I thought it was someone below us that had been pounding on the ceiling but as I heard screams I realized it was another aftershock. We hurried out but the shaking was over before we even got outside. It wasn't bad but everyone is so nervous about aftershocks that everyone was in the streets for quite a while, calling loved ones and nervously laughing at the small quake.
We don't realize how blessed we are until things are gone. Now that we're in a third world country we notice the smallest things that we take for granted.
We're in for quite the adventure. I know it. It's amazing here. The people are special. The food is good. The view is amazing. We are doing well.
Love y'all tons.
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