Apart from a few areas where we are advised not to go, the state of emergency has not really affected us that much. Yesterday was a really fantastic day. We had a trip out to visit an education project, to give us more of an idea of the education work of NGOs in Pakistan. We started out by driving to the head office of a major NGO called the National Rural Support Programme. It is one of the largest NGOs in Pakistan, and supports rural communities all over the country to bring about changes that they would like - for example primary health care, micro credit programmes, primary schools, improved farming methods etc.

Our drive to the head office included driving past the Supreme Court, and although there were quite a few men with guns, they seemed very relaxed and were lounging about. So after we visited the head office we went to field office in Islamabad Capital Territory, which is the rural area around Islamabad. We had another briefing session there, and then drove to a rural primary schoool. The drive was fantastic - properly rural Pakistan with very bumpy roads, cows an other animals by the side of the road, and many fields. The primary school we visited was excellent - it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, with 80 pupils and separate class rooms for each class. After we said hi to the kids the whole village education committee was waiting to meet with us. This was a group of men from the village who take decisions regarding the running of the school. All the female teachers came in to talk to us as well. It kind of impressed on me how important Urdu is as nearly all the conversation was in Urdu. It also illustrated power dynamics, as the people from the NGO and us did most of the speaking, and the female teachers did not say anything. But I found out that the teachers are trained by a Tearfund partner - how cool is that!

I am meeting the Executive Director of the organisation I am working for tomorrow evening, and then we have a day with him on fri, and I go to Mansehra on sat. Tomorrow we have an Urdu test. Great. (But I don't think we get sent home if we fail :)

You can see some of the photos I've uploaded here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28603&l=01651&id=579695659

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28709&l=5b54e&id=579695659