SECOND EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEPAL!

May 12, 2015 - Early this morning, U.S. time, there was a second major earthquake in Nepal (as you probably know by now). It was a 7.3 or 7.4, followed by many aftershocks, a couple that were pretty strong.

I have talked to Tejendra a couple of times. He is very scared. He was out on his motorbike and very close to a building that, in his words, “fell down in the street”. He is understandably still shaky from such a close call.

Kinley emailed me and said the kids at the hostel are ok as are he, his family and staff at the hostel. There is more damage to the hostel and his house, as you can imagine. I don’t know yet about further damages to Pegasus and ShangriLa schools. 

Tejendra is going to immediately start trying to reach kids who are not at the hostel..and that is a lot of kids. Many of the children went out to be with their families. They are scattered all over. Many people have left Kathmandu altogether. I imagine more are going to go after this. 

So who knows when schools will resume and how many kids will return…at least in the short term. Families will likely be afraid to be separated from their children for any period of time. It’s just chaotic. It’s going to take quite a while to get information. And a long long time for some sort of normalcy to return.

People are really traumatized. They’ve been living with the aftershocks and constant fear for weeks and now this. Tejendra said he took some "medicine" to calm down…probably a sedative of some sort. I would too. 

So, we need prayers, money, patience and lots of love. If you are “friends” on Facebook with any of the kids in Nepal, please reach out. They need our steady love and caring. I’ve been Facebook messaging with a number of Nepali friends and some of the kids that I am able to reach. Just listening to their fear and shock, sending them hugs. Telling all that I love them, I know what they are going through and I care..