Nepal Is Safe After The Quake

It is now over a month after the big Nepal earthquake and I have just returned from two days in Kathmandu.

Let me get this straight right away: whatever you think the current situation in Nepal is, you are probably wrong. Nepal is not one big pile of rubble. Rather the opposite. The country is safe to visit. The hotels and guest houses are open, most of the hiking trails in the mountains are just fine and if you had plans to go to Nepal, there is no reason to cancel them.

Yes, you will see broken buildings and chances are that for months the people and visitors of Kathmandu will hear pneumatic hammers as they tear down badly cracked houses. But the numbers are way smaller than I had expected after seeing the destruction as presented on the news.

Here’s my message after I had a first-hand look myself: normality abounds.

Kids go to school.

Kathmandu Education, Nepal Jun 2015
Creative Commons LicenseKathmandu Education by Chris Marquardt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Continue reading “Nepal Is Safe After The Quake”

People of the Himalayas Fundraiser: $15,000 And Counting

Chyangmiteng Social Welfare Group Food Donations
Donations have also gone to the Chyangmiteng Social Welfare Group to buy supplies for the villages outside of Kathmandu

Thanks to you, the most amazing community on the planet, we have now been able to collect $15,000 through our People of the Himalayas photo book fundraiser. Here is a note that I received from the President of the Maya Sherpa Project, one of the organizations we have given funds to:

“Namaste Chris! Thank you so very much for the donations to Maya Sherpa Project! Portions of the founds were used for the food and supplies drive in last week and this week by the Sherpa (Chyangmiteng Social Welfare Group) in and nearby Kathmandu valleys. We will continue to support for the future food and supplies drive. Portions of the donations will be used for helping to rebuilt schools they were damaged by the earthquake in Solukhumbu region!”

Thanks everyone for making a difference!

ยป support the fundraiser

FUNDRAISER: Next milestone: $12,000

We crossed $12,000 in sales of our fundraiser ebook People of the Himalayas! I can’t even begin to express how much your help means to us.

Together with these pictures, we received the following message from our friend Chhokpa who was part of the help effort to bring food supplies to the people of the Sindhupalchok District in Nepal.

“Hello Chris. Today we distributed food stuff to the people of different village of sindhupalchok district. Government still not reach in that area so with some of our uncle from my mothers village we have distrobuted the food supplies(rice,lentil,oil and salt) to the villagers. Still many villagers have not get necessary tent and food stuff.”

If the government doesn’t get help out to the villages, the people will just do it themselves. And we’re proud to be able to support them.

Demolished by the earthquake. Sindhupalchok District

Sindhupalchok District

Distributing food in the Sindhupalchok District

Sindhupalchok District

Sindhupalchok District

Sindhupalchok District

Sindhupalchok District

Getting ready for the Sindhupalchok District


Update: we have just donated another $1000 from the ebook proceeds to mayasherpaproject.org