A moving email from one of our international artists:
Tuesday 28th April 9.09 am - I was taking time out from the studio to go into the Langtang area when the earthquake hit. We were trapped on a mountain for 18 hours or so due to weather conditions, landslides etc. with no phone reception.
We stayed in a bungalow overnight with about 10 other people and heard on the radio that the entire country had been hit. Locals stopped by telling us of the destruction and deaths close by and that the village we had come from and the village we were going to were both totally wiped out.
We finally were able to leave the mountain and headed on a 8 hour climb for the nearest big town and stayed in the emergency relief place where we got access to food and water etc, it was awful seeing so much suffering. It was hard leaving the mountain and walking through village after village totally destroyed, some places we had stayed in the houses of locals just days before now destroyed. The death toll in this area was very high as was the centre of the earth quake so I feel vey lucky to have survived. The next day we walked for about 60 km through some hectic terrain. It was like some apocalypse, the roads deserted all cracked up and landslides everywhere, deserted vehicles strewn about the place crushed. Every village and town a disaster with survivors sleeping in makeshift tents and tending to the injured.
Any ways I made it back to Kathmandu, the house i am in now is quite new so it's strong. A few rumbles but I think the worst is over. Fingers crossed.
I heard from Sangeeta that the studio is still standing so I am hoping to continue the residency while helping out in any way I can here.
