(NOTE: This was written at 8AM on Monday Sep 19)
Hello there!
I'm sure by now, news of the earthquake in India has reached the States (or you heard from my mother or someone else about it). In case you can't tell or haven't heard yet, I am totally alright. As is everyone else in the group. A few quick details about the earthquake before I relate our experience with it.
- It was a magnitude 6.8 earthquake with an epicenter approxiately 42mi away from Gangtok.
- According to recent news (and it's very possible this number will change), there are 5 dead and 33 injured in Sikkim (the larger state in which we are in). According to news related to me by my mother, 5 buildings have fallen in Gangtok...we're still unsure about number of injuries etc.
- We approximate that the quake hit us around 6.45pm, with two aftershocks (that we didn't feel because we were walking) coming within 15 minutes and then a smaller one at about 3am.
Fun fact- As a result of the shifting of the plates, the Himalayas are even higher!
So now to the story...
Yesterday we were supposed to go to Lepchu cottage (the orphanage) around 1, but due to not feeling well/being lazy, we didn't end up making it to lunch until 3.15 and didn't make it to the orphanage until about 5, which is when they are in "prayer time" and then dinner. Laura wasn't feeling well, so she had stayed behind in town to write some letters and then was going to meet us at home.
We waited for the kids to finish eating dinner, and then the 3's and 4's wanted to read and play Hangman, so the younger kids went upstairs to the playroom and did coloring pages, thoughtfully (and beautifully) drawn by the lovely Claudia :) So, Alex and I were in a small first-floor library, while Steven, Claudia, Rebecca and Rajiv were on the fourth floor with the youngest kids.
We were in the middle of a Hangman game when the quake hit. Embarassingly for a California girl, I didn't realize what was going on at first. When we finally realized what was going on, we made the kids duck down (by now the power had gone out and we couldn't see anything) and we did our best to cover their heads. Alex had his phone (mine is still MIA and yet to be found) so we used the "torch" function to light up the room so they kids would be less scared. After about 30-40 seconds, the shaking stopped (luckily nothing large had fallen down, just a few books) and Ms. Keepu (the woman who runs the orphanage) had come in with a large light for us. She told us that in her 70 years living in this area, she had never felt an earthquake, especially one of this magnitude.
We gathered all the kids in the courtyard and waited for the young 'uns to come down. When our group came down, they related to us how the building had literally shook and they could feel the top floor moving back and forth. A lot of the younger kids were really scared so we started singing. I think we sang every kids song you can possibly imagine to try and get their minds off of it and to stop them from talking to each other and getting more scared. There were quite a few kids crying, so we did our best to comfort them. Rajiv was trying to get hold of Laura, but all of the phone lines were jammed with people trying to make calls and he couldn't get throgh. After a little while, we left, as we needed to get home and make sure Laura was alright.
On our way back, one of the aftershocks hit and we're fairly sure we heard one of the buildings crack, but it was behind us so we're unsure if that was real or just our imaginations running away with us :) It was very difficult to get a taxi, so when we finally got one (after 20+ min of walking) Rajiv sent Steven, Rebecca, Alex and I back so that we could reach Laura first and make sure all was well. All was well, and we returned to the house to find everyone sitting outside, enjoying a few drinks (we bought a bottle of vodka on the way home and poured ourselves drinks as well). Rajiv and Claudia soon returned and we were all united again :)
Apologies for the delay in posting this (I wrote it ASAP) but the internet/cell lines etc are down and not sufficient at the moment.
As an event like this always reminds us to do, I want to say again that I love each and every one of you very much.
XOXO
Sara
PostScript: I am officially deathly ill with a 101.1 fever. We went to see the orphans today, and there was MINOR damage to the building, and everyone is fine :) The kids weren't even too shook up about it to be honest :)
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