Christelle Périn was south of Kathmandu when the earthquake struck. She tells the horror, the drama, but also her anger towards the French authorities.
She was coming to Nepal for the first time in her life. Christelle Périn is part of the association Crystal kids, which sponsors young Nepalese girls living in the streets, in order to accommodate and educate them. She had gone to Kathmandu to meet her goddaughters. On Saturday, during the earthquake, she was in the historic district of Patan, south of the capital, where the temples collapsed before her eyes. She testifies.
“Hitchcock’s birds”
“We were one hour away from leaving for France, with four other French women who had come to Nepal. The day before, we had seen the children of the association. We felt good, we were doing a bit of shopping before we got on the plane. At that time, we were in Patan, one of the oldest districts of Kathmandu, with its tangle of tiny alleys, its magnificent temples.
All of a sudden the earth began to shake. Impossible to say for how long… The seconds seemed like minutes to us. We immediately grabbed our hands, squatting on the floor. Debris was coming from everywhere, everything was collapsing around us, including these temples, right in front of us …
When it calmed down, we ran to the central plaza, so the houses wouldn’t collapse on us – because the buildings keep falling, even when the ground stops shaking. People were coming out of the houses, with bloody faces, injured limbs… Nepalese immediately climbed on the collapsed temples to clear away and try to save people. Inanimate bodies were emerging from the rubble. Help took two hours to arrive. “
Christelle Périn, witness to the earthquake: ” Before the aftershocks, birds flew by the thousands. They knew before us … It felt like we were in a Hitchcock movie. “
“Qatar Airways charged its plane tickets 1500 euros”
“For three days, I was housed in the garden of the trip organizer, a Frenchman who has lived in Kathmandu for twenty years. We ended up with other groups. This is where I had on the phone the mother of Mathilde, the young French girl who died in the tower with her friend. She had been desperately looking for her for 48 hours. We all started looking for her too …
During these three days, we asked for help to repatriate us, but nothing was planned. At the French Embassy in Kathmandu, there are three of them. All they could offer us was five minutes to recharge the phone battery, to call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs… which referred us to the embassy. That was France, for us… No one had planned to come and pick us up. They did not realize that aftershocks were happening every hour, and that the danger had not gone away. We felt completely abandoned. So we had to fend for ourselves to return to France. “
Christelle Périn, witness to the earthquake: ” Qatar Airlines took the opportunity to sell business class tickets at 1,500 euros. The plane left for France with 60 free seats. “
“I feel guilty to death …”
“We are lucky … We are Europeans, we are important, at least in the eyes of the Nepalese … They were herded like cattle at the airport, in kilometers of tail, and begged to get on board. planes…
Since I came back, I can’t move anymore, I have the impression that it is shaking all the time. I feel guilty to death… I was offered no help, no psychological support on my return to France. They struck my name off the missing list. And then that’s all “.
Christelle Périn, witness to the earthquake: ” I don’t know how we’re going to help these people rebuild their country. You can’t imagine the state of chaos … “
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