NTU students slept on Nepal streets in quake aftermath
SINGAPORE — Two Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students had just returned from a hike and were soaking in the view of Kathmandu Valley from a mountainside resort when the ground beneath them shook.
It lasted about 15 seconds.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday (April 25) afternoon, which has now claimed the lives of more than 5,000.
The Singaporean students, Kenji Kwok, 24, and Cynthia Choo, 22, were among the 89 people who were evacuated from Kathmandu by the Republic of Singapore Air Force yesterday (April 28). They arrived home early this morning, and were met with loved ones who’d been waiting anxiously for them.
Both Mr Kwok and Ms Choo are third-year students at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI), and were into their fourth month of internship with local newspaper Nepali Times. They were on a company retreat at Hattiban Resort when the quake happened.
Recalling the experience, Mr Kwok said: “A Nepali colleague panicked and shouted ‘Oh my god, oh my god, it’s an earthquake!’.”
From where they were up on the mountainside, the group could see clearly the clouds of dust rising from the city in the valley.
(Click to enlarge)
Photo: Kenji Kwok
Local communication lines were not working and as Mr Kwok and Ms Choo waited to get ferried back to the city, they tapped into the resort’s wireless internet and contacted their loved immediately to inform them they were safe.
Luckily they’d done so as the communication lines went down soon after.
“I started documenting how people were reacting to the quake at the resort. There was nothing else I could do. The whole time, some of our legs were trembling,” Mr Kwok recalled.
Meanwhile, Ms Choo was mentally preparing herself for what she will see back in the valley. “Considering the chaotic state of the city on a usual day, I was imagining how the impact was multiplied by the city’s poor design.”
True enough, the sight back in the valley matched their expectations.
On the first night, Ms Choo slept out by the curb a stone’s throw from her guesthouse, located just a minute away from a critically hit Patan Durbar Square. Mr Kwok sought refuge in an open field nearby with a Tibetan community at Ekantakuna.
The two young intern journalists had intended to stay on. In the midst of the disaster, they surveyed shelters and continue to file stories and pictures for the Nepali Times. But early Tuesday morning, they received a text from their journalism lecturer and supervisor Ms Hedwig Alfred which started with: “We think it’s time to bring you home.”
WKWSCI’s Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Dr Mark Cenite told TODAY: “Although being there was the journalistic opportunity of a lifetime, they are not full-time professional journalists yet. We started looking into ways to get them out. Our thinking was ‘better safe than sorry’.”
Although initially reluctant, Ms Choo accepted that it was best.
“We knew we weren’t of practical help and found that I was an additional human being taking up resources that can be better used by another person in need. Also, we are accountable to our family members and school.
“My thoughts are with my Nepali friends and host family. I wasn’t ready to leave.”
