Here is an account from Dr. Fazila Lalani, an ER physican from NY, who volunteered with Amurt Amurtel in Nepal immediately after the earthquake there in May.
So, I arrived safe and sound, with amazing hosts who speak perfect English (which is great because a giggle erupts every time I try my Hindi). At every meal, someone keeps refilling my plate over and over, saying “Doctor, you have to work, we can’t have you go hungry!” Needless to say, I’m well taken care of.
Being here is obviously extremely sad, but it’s amazing to be living in a world, albeit briefly, where everyone only has helping others on the mind, 24/7. It’s wild to watch everyone rally for endless strangers, stay up till the late hours coordinating donations, trips, transportation, supplies…one volunteer turned around and drove back from a trip to the Indian border to buy more Tarps because there are none to be found in Kathmandu. Just image a world like this every day, everywhere. Image how successful a society we would be?
I’m working with an organization called AMURT/AMURTEL that I came across while in Haiti in 2010. Just a glimpse of what we’ve been doing: two days ago, a group of us- 3 doctors and 6 volunteers, drove 4 hours (110 kms) from Kathmandu on a gorgeous but scary mountainous road to one of the many villages in the Himalayan mountains that was devastated by the quake.
We set up 3 tables in front of the makeshift tent Police Station around 3 pm and saw patients until dark. We stayed in a little motel in the town which was completely empty, even the owners and staff slept on sheets on the ground floor, fearful that the earth would shake again. (There are multiple small quakes throughout the night, few that my sound sleeping self ever witnessed but definitely a conversation topic every morning over tea. Oh wait, one just hit right now! Probably just a 2-3 on the Richter scale, it lasted about 2-3 seconds and felt like the first rattle when your roller coaster is about to take off.
I awoke to the most beautiful dew over the Himalayan Mountains and meditated with my team at 5 AM. We started the Medical Camp again at 6:30 and saw another 100 patients in 3 hours. Tarps and bags of rice were distributed to the families whose homes were the most destroyed and I will remember their expressions of appreciation for a long time to come.
A pick-up truck drove us down an extremely bumpy 30 minutes into a village deep in the Himalayas. Our first village for medical relief aid was Farsidol Village, roughly a 2-hour drive from Kathmandu. The villagers lined up as soon as they heard our car. I’ve travelled remotely before but this was definitely the “remotest”, and also most beautiful and most appreciative place I have ever been. We saw another 130 patients and witnessed an endless number of brick and mortar homes crumbled into pieces and the locals working endlessly to put them back together again.
When we returned to our car back on the main road, another 50 people were waiting for us. We set up camp at the local farmer Potato Co-op, which provided great shelter as we saw farmer after farmer in the pouring rain.
We returned to Kathmandu after a long day, seeing over 300 people, and found the volunteers who stayed back, working hard on the phones trying to collect supplies so we can do it all again today.
Needless to say, I feel so fortunate to be a part of this team. If you ever have an opportunity to give back, jump on it. It feels so good. Actually, I take that back…seek out the opportunity…you’ll get more out out of it than you could ever give.
