Suchana Somai 

ESLINTG 100

Cause and effect essay

                        Life after Earthquake

Whenever I hear the word disaster, I suddenly remember an incident that happened many years ago. In 2015, my home country, Nepal, was affected by an earthquake. It was the worst earthquake in Nepal in more than eighty years. The earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people, and  22,000 people got injured. The earthquake damaged and destroyed my family’s farmland, my father's business started to fall and the economic crisis got worse. Ultimately, the earthquake affected my family emotionally and financially. 

At the beginning, the earthquake started to affect my family members mentally. We were so scared at that time. After the tremors stopped, the government instructed all the residents to find open places like fields and parks to set up temporary shelter. My family also moved to a safe and open field. In Nepal, my family had a lot of farmland, and we used to sleep in our farmland for many days. At that time, my little brother was just six years old, and he got so scared and traumatized just like all my family members. My mother did not allow my brother or me to go anywhere alone. In addition, the earthquake destroyed my school and classroom. My school got temporarily closed. However, the government established temporary learning centers to provide a safe environment for education. Despite this, my grades were so low at school because I could not concentrate on my studies. 

In addition, many businesses started to close due to the destruction, including my father's business. My father had a restaurant, and it got shut down because of the destruction. It was very difficult for my family to survive without any income source. My family started to struggle financially, and my father decided to go to Saudi Arabia for work to support the family. The absence of my father started to affect my whole family, especially my mother. There was no internet or communication tools at that time. Due to this, my family lost communication with my father for months. He used to come home once a year only for one month during the Dashain festival. I could see the sadness in my mom’s face but she managed to smile in that situation and stay positive for her family.

Furthermore, my family’s daily basic needs like food, clothes and other essentials became more expensive day by day. The earthquake disrupted trading routes, especially those with China. This led to supply shortage for both food and other daily basic items.  Cooking oil, vegetables and rice were way too expensive after the road was destroyed. My family had to control expenses and budget the money wisely. At the same time, the earthquake also affected the agricultural areas. Agriculture was one of the food sources for my family. However, my family's farmland fields were destroyed because there were cracks and holes in the planting areas. We didn’t used to do much grocery shopping but the earthquake destroyed the fields. Therefore, we had to buy our basic daily items such as food. 

Since the earthquake struck Nepal, life has changed. The earthquake affected my family and me as well as all Nepali communities. The time was very hard and painful for my family but after all the difficult situations, my family overcame the difficulty with unity and mutual support. At the same time, I am grateful to my father for giving me the better life I have now. He showed the real meaning of responsibility to me. Because of the earthquake, my father had to struggle and had to live away from family. He never complained about anything and he never gave up on our family.