Three Meters

     

        They say Kathmandu moved three meters to the south during the 7.8 earthquake. I say, really? That’s it?! Over 8,000 people died, thousands more were injured or left homeless, and an entire country’s population was terrified, and we only moved three meters?! It seems like we moved miles, worlds even, between 11:55am on Saturday April 25th and 11:57.
After the earthquake, I found myself living in a world that was so different from the one I lived in before. For days, the ground beneath my feet shivered, raged, swayed, and boomed. Solid ground, which I had always considered reliable and trustworthy, betrayed me and became my greatest source of fear. Hour after hour, we were all bracing for the next aftershock, watching, waiting for things to get better... or worse.
Adrenaline, survival instincts, fear, exhaustion; all these were a constant presence in my chest, in my gut, in my mind. But despite these being some of the most terrifying days of my life, there was an inexplicable space for humor, friendship, and bonding. Some people refer to what took place during the trembling as “trauma bonding”.  Regardless of what you call it, this experience has entrenched this country and the relationships I’ve built here into a unique and permanent space in my heart.
It’s hard for me to summarize the experience of the earthquake in one short blog post.  My perspective of the experience keeps changing day by day. It was such a major part of my life, and it changed the way I think and see the world. I would have to write a novel to fully explain its impact and complexity. Saying that, continue to keep Nepal in your thoughts and prayers, for the earthquake is still a part of daily life, and forever in the hearts and minds of the people who experienced it.