Lotte Lama is worried sick about family members who lost their homes in last weekend's devastating earthquake in Nepal.
Lama is one of several hundred Nepalis who live in San Diego County.
He's having sleepless nights wondering how to help his family from so far away. His wife and two young sons are OK, he said. But their house on the outskirts of Kathmandu is destroyed and Lama is terrified they will run out of food and water.
Then there is his home village, Chhokang Paro, where many relatives still live. It is a day’s bus ride and several days walk north of Kathmandu in the remote Tsum Valley in the Himalayas.
Lama’s sisters called him on a cell phone to tell him Chhokang Paro is destroyed; the residents have little food or shelter, and are too afraid to go back into the collapsed buildings to find clothes and supplies.
“Luckily, the people are fine, but whole village is just gone,” Lama said. “They need tents and clothing. The media, the television is focusing on the city. The remote areas nobody is caring about.”
With the help of a former Peace Corps volunteer, Lotta has managed to contact one nonprofit, the Gorkha Foundation, working in the district that includes the remote Tsum Valley.
Lama said the village is at an elevation of 11,000 feet. They have some shelter from tents normally used only for traditional ceremonies, but that’s not enough to keep out the weather, and there are babies suffering from the cold.
Lama wonders if he could even get back to his homeland.
The earthquake struck days after he received word that his application to bring his wife and two sons to the U.S. was making headway, so, he said perhaps he should try to bring her here.
“Last night she was saying, 'I might not see you.' She said, ‘I love you, Lotte.’ It makes me so sad. It is too much adversity.”
Lama is a U.S. citizen and has lived in San Diego since 2007. He frequently works in North County street fairs where he sells Tibetan singing bowls, clothes and items imported from Nepal. The money he earns is a crucial part of his family’s income.
He said his relatives are begging him for help, but the lines of communication are getting more tenuous. Around Katmandu his wife is having trouble finding a way to buy phone cards or even charge her cell phone.
