The New Normal

Some of our small kids return to school and resume their education. Circumstances are still difficult but school gives some needed structure and a sense of normalcy.

We are fortunate that although they need repairs,the schools we work with are still standing. Our sponsored kids along with hundreds of others are returning to the comforting routine of daily classes. They are seeing their school chums and the familiar faces of their teachers. They are back to books and lessons and something to focus on other than the fear of more earthquakes. I'm seeing smiles on the faces of many of the children in photos that Tejendra and the school administrators are sending me. It warms my heart and I start to feel my own constant worry unwind a little bit.

At ShangriLa school the entire boundary wall has fallen down. Our hostel kids are sleeping on the floor in the one story kindergarten classrooms since their third story hostel is considered too dangerous right now because of all the aftershocks. If a big one comes, it's feared that children could be injured trying to evacuate down the stairs. But for now they have a safe place and a playground. Two of our new small girls have come from the slums to start school. They are running and playing together every day and having a great time! Tejendra says they are all smiles and he reminds me that we have done a great thing for these girls. They are happy to have such a clean, safe place to stay, enough food and the exciting prospect of going to school.

At Pegasus school, the top floor of the classroom building has been dismantled, as per orders of the engineers from the education ministry. Apparently it was too damaged and dangerous. At the hostel, the boys small huts are now fine (they needed minimal repair) but the large girls hostel is still too damaged to be used. And there are no laborers available these days to manage the rebuilding that is required. So the girls are sleeping in a storage room and another small building thats been temporarily cleared out and cleaned up for them. 

A few nights ago there was a big aftershock that occurred while I was messaging with Wangdi, the head of Pegasus hostel. He ran out from the tent he's been sleeping in in the garden (with the two hostel dogs to keep him company). He kept messaging and said that all the kids had run outside and were milling around scared to go back in. "Wangdi, pls tell all kids that I am here online. that i know what happened just now and am sending them big Hugs. I know it's scary."  Wangdi messages back, "They r saying "we are missing she too!"

Life is settling into a new, albeit uncertain, “normal” nearly two months after the huge April 25 quake that rocked this small Himalayan country. Thousands of schools have been destroyed. Many temporary learning spaces are springing up in Kathmandu and in villages across Nepal. Made of bamboo and salvaged materials from destroyed buildings, parents and educators are trying to patch together Somewhere for children to gather and continue their studies sheltered from the monsoon rains. Shanti Children's Foundation recently purchased 12 large white boards and Tejendra took a two day trip to deliver them to temporary classrooms in Taklung in Gorkha district which was the epicenter of the first earthquake. Teachers will use them to teach classes in a rough bamboo temporary learning structure (TLS) to children of the area. Their former school, Sinjali, is a pile of rubble. Those white boards were welcomed with gratitude by the teachers who are trying to keep school functioning under very difficult circumstances.

We are starting to get requests to support children who lost family in the earthquakes. From day one we anticipated that this would be a big need. It’s taken months for the chaos to settle enough for these cases to come to light. Right now we are in process of trying to confirm each child's information to be sure they are not being unnecessarily separated from remaining relatives, or in the worst case scenario, being trafficked. This is a challenge but something we feel very strongly must be done and done carefully. You'll be hearing more from me about these children….

Meanwhile, Kathmandu has the air of a ghost town. Streets that were once traffic-logged are now fairly empty of cars and pedestrians from what my friends tell me. Many people have left the city for their villages to check on their homes and family members and to squat on their land in hopes the government will come to distribute aid money towards rebuilding their destroyed homes. Even if the government gets organized (unlikely) and does distribute the promised funds, it will hardly be enough to even start the rebuilding process for a marginal population that is challenged to even feed itself, let alone find the needed money to make a home again. We at Shanti are looking ahead, planning how we can help the families of our children who have lost everything.

For now, normal is life in a tent or if fortunate, a shelter with a metal roof. A huge part of Nepal's population has been displaced. Everyone naturally wants to just go home again, back to what is beloved and familiar. But their homes are gone forever and/or their villages are unsafe due to landslide danger. Normal is now being faced with living outside through the monsoon rains. Normal is daily aftershocks and waiting to see what the future brings. We will be there to help.