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Durban - An Israeli paramedic with a satellite phone in Nepal is the only reason Jacqui Ahrends knows her daughter Kate is alive and well.
After 24 hours of worrying, she received the e-mail from the paramedic's mother, telling her that her daughter Kate and her boyfriend Mike Sherman were safe.
“It all seems to be okay. I am very relieved. I’m not worried now. Just very relaxed,” she told News24 on Tuesday.
Ahrends said a few days before the earthquake struck Nepal on Saturday, the couple, who had spent the past seven weeks working on an organic farm near Kathmandu, had told her they were going trekking near Langtang.
“She said they would be out of contact for a few weeks and we would hear from them on May 10. That’s Mother’s Day,” said Ahrends.
But then the earthquake struck, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale.
Ahrends received calls from relatives telling her of the earthquake. She got maps of Nepal to try and determine where her daughter might be.
Kate, however, gave her details to the Israeli paramedic, who called her mother in Israel. The mother in turn sent an e-mail to a number of people, including Jacqui Ahrends, telling them their loved ones were safe and well. The unnamed paramedic was doing volunteer work in Nepal.
Ahrends said she had since heard that the couple had made their way back to Kathmandu, but she had yet to hear directly from her daughter.
She was not sure what her daughter or Sherman would decide to do while still in Nepal.
“They are the kind of people who might decide that they have to help,” she said.
