Day3: Nepal, Kathmandu Earthquake 2015: South African Rescue Mission

The morning of day 3 on the ground in Kathmandu, Friday the 1 May 2015 brought about a bubbling excitement at the prospect of our lost luggage arriving in Kathmandu later on in the day. Clean cloths and undies!! Our cargo plane was also arriving bringing with it supplies and aid. Team 2 with our doctors, surgeons and nursing professionals were arriving later in the afternoon, hopefully with our luggage!. The base camp was alive with excitement and now we needed to put our excitement aside and tackle the tasks of the day.

We had our morning brief and we were then divided into three teams. My team, Team Logistics for the past 2 days spent setting up the base camp, sorting out logistics, food and supplies. Today we also had to allocate an area for the incoming team 2. I was really proud of my team who handled everything with passion and professionalism, even though we desperately wanted to follow the other teams out in the filed, we had an equally important task to make sure when we all go out we had a "home" to come back to. Something that would be the "normal" in the chaos out there. It is a huge psychological game out here in the disaster zone and having a safe place to return to is paramount for the success and emotional well being of the entire team if we are to survive as a functioning unit. Our turn would come.

We made friends with many of the local dogs running around on the campus, well most of them anyway, some where not too friendly!

The "Jounos" in their combi The team Brief over - packing starts

We bid farewell to the two teams and media, off to search for survivors as we took stock of what we had and what we still needed. In a disaster area it is important to be able to multitask, what we do is in no way glamorous nor romantic. We are not heroes or glory boys, we do what we do because its who we are. Some will be out there saving lives, or offering closure to loved ones, while others are scrubbing toilets and cooking food, keeping the home fires burning. Then the next day teams swop and the cycle continues. Some people are able to adapt while others find it bothersome, but that is the nature of disaster. you have to hit the ground running, roll with the punches and do what we do best. Rising above all the daily challenges thrown your way, making a difference in the lives of those around us whether it be for a stranger or a teammate.

Shopping in Kathmandu was an adventure all on its own. We jumped into the taxi and our driver took us around Kathmandu. Again you realise just how poor this country really is. How poor the health system is and seeing the people living in the streets, many who were living like this before the earthquake is overwhelming. The roads have huge potholes and the pavements are in very poor condition, even in pre-earthquake times, which creates a harrowing meandering and weaving of all modes of transport and obstacles. Many times you find yourself closing your eyes, holding your breath and just hoping for the best. Cows, goats and dogs roam the busy streets, the cars, buses and motorbikes just drive around them lying in the middle of the main roads. All part of the normal day in Kathmandu.

This little guy below was having such fun with this calf, no one was watching either one of them out on the street,

We passed many refugee camps

We went to a three storey apartment store. Level One stocks all the groceries, level 2 stocks household appliances and items and level 3 stocks clothing. Yesterday we had shopped at this same store and it was a somewhat chaotic shopping experience. We had needed to get toothbrushes, toothpaste, other communal toiletries, tiny little towels (they are so expensive here Tjoe!) we even bought a cute Disney character pink one for the boys. Socks and undies and food and then disaster at leaving the toilet paper behind by mistake (huge mistake as soon many needed a whole roll to themselves). Today we had to also purchase enough for an additional 50 people.

We split the list and team into three, Some of the guys had given a list and money for personal shopping which would take place on the 3rd floor. The rest of us tackled floor 1 and 2. Food and other groceries. We finished in record time 60 minutes with 4 trolleys. We had the hang of this now and could work out the bargains and when we were being ripped off.. We would need to take around 40 000-00 rupees (about R4000-00). I would feel like a millionaire with the huge wad of notes, but in reality it was not that much.

As we came out Markes suggested that we buy chicken roasting on a spit outside the apartment store. They certainly looked good and we knew that the boys out in the filed today were going to come back really hungry. We had not eaten any of our usual food and our stomachs were starting to complain somewhat. We had saved a lot more than we had expected compared to our previous shopping expeditions so we bought 11 chickens for the team. The aroma of roasted chicken filled the taxi as we speed off back to base camp. On our way we remembered we needed to get fuel to cook with for our mission into the mountains tomorrow.

We also stopped at the local taxi rank and market to buy fresh vegetables and fruit. It was just like our ranks back home, a bustle of activity.

Above is a typical Kathmandu "park" a tree with a circle of concrete around it, we are indeed spoilt and blessed back here in South Africa with a huge beautiful green parks.

Bargaining in earnest just like we do in Cape Town!! We made sure we bought closed fruit only and washed it with Milton's when we got back to base camp.

While all this was happening the other two teams were on their own adventure. They had visited areas that had been completely destroyed, Using our Life Locator and camera assisting other international teams. It is always humbling how teams from all over the world will come together for a common purpose and the language barrier simply disappears. we are all trained, we all know what needs to be done so we simply just do it, together as brothers!

Justin and one of our awesome Journos checking out the taxi!!

"Uncle" Ken doing his thing

Wayne below, using the search camera

Sadly this restaurant did not yield any live saves, 41 people lost their lives while enjoying a meal
here.

Searches complete - Schalk the BTech marking the buildings

The boyz reflecting while looking over Kathmandu.

At times the city and seeing the devastation can be overwhelming. there is just so much to do and each team is only able to concentrate on one small section at a time. The difficulty is everyone wants help and we need to triage who needs it more right now.

a field hospital - there were many of these set up around the city

one of the many refugee camps set up around Kathmandu

the wiring just boggles the mind!!

Team Leader Justin buying some well deserved cold drinks!! There are many of these "spaza" shops around Nepal, even in the mountains.

Many times the teams had to make a call as to whether the risk to search a building outweighed sensible safety protocols. This was one such case and the team decided that this building was not safe to enter. We were still experiencing on going aftershocks. Many of these buildings were several storeys high and this was what was left of them. the floors below crushed with the people inside, obviously now they were dead so there was no justifiable reason to risk life.

Many of the beautiful temples had been badly damaged some completely. This is so sad as many have stood for some 2 000 years. (I had to get some of the photos from google as when you are busy searching there is no time to snap away)

As the team was about to leave Thulo bharyang near Syambhu, the Chinese rescue teams asked for assistance. They needed the Life Locator as they may have a live victim under the rubble. Our teams gladly assisted but we found no live victims.

Our French team who spent 2 days with us joined a bigger French team in another region and they reported back that they had found a total of 8 live people. This was fantastic and such awesome news. Sadly we never got to experience this. But this is the nature of the Beast.

the boyz from Enca doing their thing!

Using the Life Locator and our team assisting the Chinese teams. This was a department store that came down during the quake and was filled with shoppers.

Whilst this was happening our medical team was scouting for safe hospital buildings and still functional theatres that once Team 2 arrives they can hit the ground running.

We got back to base camp and sorted out all the supplies, food and waited for the field teams to arrive. We got word that the planes had landed safely in Kathmandu and slowly the names attached to the luggage were placed onto our whatsapp group. It was nerve racking as many seemed to be missing. When Team 2 finally arrived in a big bus with all the luggage we spent time sorting the bags out and discovered apart from 2 bags still in Singapore, everything else had arrived. Thank goodness!

When the filed teams arrived we hid a few of the bags and pretended that they had not arrived, Once we released all the bags everyone was shouting with joy,

Crazy how something so simple can change the whole vibe of the camp. Now they were in for a treat once everyone had settled it was time for our feast we had prepared.

I felt like that guy from Survivor when I made them all sit around our "dining room" table and my team started to hand out the food. The look of absolute joy and relish on their faces as the aroma of the still warm and spiced chicken filled the hall, together with fresh bread, peanut butter and fruit salad (a huge water melon) and bottled water.

We had discovered a 3-1 coffee sachets which went down really well, not that any of us are keen to sample some here back home. but in an earthquake zone any coffee is manna from heaven! Spirits had lifted and you could feel the change within the guys. it was fantastic.

by that evening the Doctors and the rest of Team 2 had settled in to their "dorms"

Dinner time and time to hit the sack as we were leaving for the mountains tomorrow. Everyone relieved our equipment had arrived.!

Adventure with a purpose!™

The Team Zodwa Project ™

Photo Credits: written in under the photos where possible/ Kim Williams Copyright/GOTG/SA Media/ Team1 & Team 2 RSA/Google/
_______________________________________

Warmest