Friday 1 May 0800 From Sally

Sorry – Points West missed the most interesting bits!

Keith told them that:

• He was walking with his Nepalese guide to the next village to take a laptop he was giving to the school when it happened
• They were thrown to the ground
• From our experience (very minor) of earthquakes in Tokyo, Keith knew this was big and long
• His main fear was of being buried in a landslide
• They ran back to the village where Keith stopped the shell-shocked people from going into their houses to collect their possessions
• He told them it would stop eventually and they should wait until it was safe
• They started digging out the buffalo (very valuable) and goats, some dead, some alive
• They built makeshift shelters for the buffalo who need to be protected from sun and rain
• In the next village was a man with a solar charger and Keith’s network was working so they charged his phone and the villagers used it to try and get in touch with their families
• Although the road had disappeared, he learned that, over the ridge, the road there had buses on it, so he hiked over and caught a bus for the 10 hour journey into Kathmandu

He says his biggest worry is that the fields have huge crevasse-like cracks in them, and when the monsoon arrives in 3 weeks, everything (top-soil?) will be washed away into these cracks.

I’m sure lots of you have responded to the Disasters appeal, but if you fear that too much of that money will be creamed off before it gets to the local people and would prefer to donate 100% to the destitute Nepalese (and if you trust Keith!), Keith will be able to get money to this village which will then permeate out into surrounding villages in the Ghorka region in the epicentre. Let me know if you want to do this.

I can’t thank everyone enough for the support I’ve had through this terrible time and although it’s over for us, there are still millions of people whose lives are completely ruined.

Sally

sallydavis@hotmail.co.uk

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