I showed my blog to two other VSOs over Christmas, and they were rather surprised at how much I write. So clarity and precision are going to be my watchwords, but starting from next week, as rather a lot has happened what with Eid and Christmas and the awful events of the last few days. Plus I can’t really go outside at the moment so what else have I got to do but write?! (well, and clean the house but we all know how exciting that is.)
So, I’ll start with after I left off last time. Exciting / scary occurrence number 1: there was an earthquake. I was woken up in the middle of the night and my bed was shaking, and there was a weird noise. I can’t remember now exactly what the noise was like as I was half asleep. So I’ve now decided to do something about the 3 stiff doors between me and the outside world. But people didn’t mention it in the office the next day. Exciting occurrence number 2: Corry and I went in to the bazaar in Mansehra by ourselves! Actually it wasn’t scary at all – people were very friendly, and I did some haggling in Urdu. I think I was still ripped off, but not completely ripped off as I bought the price down by at least 100R (about 1 pound).
Exciting occurrence number 3: Eid! This is the festival that celebrates Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) willingness to sacrifice his son, and it is one of the biggest festivals in the Muslim calendar. Many families sacrifice an animal and distribute the meat to the poor to commemorate this. We were invited to celebrate this with two families. I felt a little bit ill when I woke up in the morning, and when I had a shower I heard an odd noise. I didn’t feel any better when Corry told me that the family below had just killed a cow just behind the house, and she had witnessed the whole thing. Another family were obviously just about to do the same, and Corry very kindly invited me to watch from her balcony, but I firmly refused and made good my escape into my room. I was just texting the Director to make my excuses to say I wouldn’t be able to come to witness their sacrifice when his children came round, so I was persuaded. But I hid in their house with most of his family when the goat was sacrificed, and then spent a fun morning with the kids. For lunch we were invited to another MIED staff member’s house, who didn’t live in the township. We had to drive and then walk past remains of various animals. But I felt very privileged to be able to celebrate this festival with his family – it was a very large and friendly family they had many beautiful children. People are so hospitable – they wanted us to stay the night. But in the evening we were invited round to the director’s for dinner again. He has decided against eating chicken, so we had yak meat instead. Definitely another first. I think they ate the goat for lunch. All in all it was a very interesting day, and I learnt a lot more about Eid. The importance isn’t in the sacrifice of the animals, but in the symbolic willingness to sacrifice things that you want for what is truly important.
The day after Eid we travelled down to Lahore for Christmas. It was about an eight hour bus journey. Thank goodness the motorways are good and I wasn’t sick, but it was still quite painful. I’m not as young as I once was and my poor legs suffered. But it was great getting into Lahore. The first thing I noticed was that many women didn’t have their heads covered. And Lahore has a completely different lifestyle to Mansehra – the city comes alive at night (though actually it is alive during the day as well) and most people don’t go to bed til the small hours. This is in stark contrast to Mansehra where there is very little to do in the evenings. And it was warm!
The first day we were in Lahore most things were closed due to Eid. But a colleague of Mary’s (the volunteer we stayed with in Lahore) drove us round, so we saw the Badshahi mosque from the outside and Kim’s gun. But what was very exciting was that I bought a violin! It was quite a random experience. We drove into what was apparently the red light district of Lahore and in the midst of all the people, animals, mud, cats cradle of electricity wires and traffic there were some shops full of musical instruments - mainly guitars, drums and sitars. But one guy had this violin on which I started playing Christmas carols. After a bit of haggling (not done by me I have to say) I was able to buy it and a fab case for about 60 pounds – bargain! It is not the best violin (!) but it makes quite a nice sound, so I am happy. Corry is less so, I think, but she says that she doesn’t really mind (I hope).
Anyway, the next day I was ill. I have to admit that the thought did cross my mind that I had bird flu, as I had a temperature, but I obviously didn’t. It was a bit of a pain though as I was ill for the next 2 days and missed out on visiting the Badshahi mosque and other things. But I was better on Christmas day, which was definitely an unusual experience. First, I didn’t have chocolate during the whole day (but we did have singing fairy lights, so we were able to sing ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ along with the fairy lights). Second, I had a tour of a butter factory. We were invited to lunch with a colleague of Mary’s. The family live above their butter factory, so we had a tour before lunch. Lunch was a bit embarrassing because the mother had obviously gone to a lot of effort to prepare the meal for us, but I couldn’t eat anything more than a bit of rice. They were so friendly, and didn’t want us to leave….. and didn’t want us to leave…. but I was feeling very tired after being ill, and we explained that to them so we thought they were taking us home. But they actually took us to another uncle’s house, who was a doctor – sooo embarrassing!! We tried to make a quick exit explaining that I was just tired, not ill. After a rest we went for a meal to a restaurant just outside the Badshahi mosque. We had dinner on the top floor outside looking at the beautifully lit up mosque. It was amazing, if a bit of a surreal Christmas!
We decided to stay a day longer in Lahore as I hadn’t been well, so we went shopping the next day. I went kinda crazy in the bookshop and supermarket (there were croissants and lindt chocolate!) so the purse returned home a bit lighter.
The next day we said a fond farewell to Mary and Lahore and started the long journey back. The journey back to Abbottabad was fine, but when we got there the taxi driver met us looking really upset, and told us that Bhutto had been in killed in Rawalpindi 15 minutes previously. We went into their office to look at the website, but then I got a text from VSO saying to stay at home till further notice. I have to say I was a little scared at this time given that we were still half an hour from home and had just come through Pindi. But the taxi driver got us home fine, and we were sent round some dinner by the director’s family. I’ve spent the last two days in the house, looking at the news on the internet. It is all too depressing.
Well, my friends, I think that just about concludes my latest epistle about Eid, Christmas, and the current situation. I hope that you all had lovely Christmas’s with loads of chocolate and turkey and Christmas pudding, and the New Year will bring you peace and joy.
Saturday, 29 December 2007
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
More snow, mountains and cute children
Corry and I went on a field visit into Seren valley yesterday, an area where MIED are doing earthquake rehabilitation in schools. This area was badly affected by the earthquake – it is only tens of kilometres away the epicentre. And the earthquake that I didn’t experience last week – well that was felt here quite substantially – one guy said that the whole valley was surrounded with noise from the vibrating of the metal sheets on the buildings. And apparently last night there was an aftershock.
After the disaster preparedness meeting the other day I fully prepared myself for the cold and wore three jumpers and a coat (though it was a bit of a struggle to get into the coat I have to say). And the people who designed the shalwar kameez obviously hadn’t given a thought to the fashion disaster it becomes when worn with walking boots. Anyway. Actually, we had to walk for about an hour to get to the furthest school, so I got rather warm and dispensed with most of the jumpers (even though there was snow when we got to the top of the mountain!).
We went to a total of three schools and one early childhood care and development centre (ECCD). At the first school all the children were sitting outside on mats even though it was cold and the ground was very wet. I don’t know how the children could learn in this kind of situation. There was a tent but that wasn’t being used when we were there. We spent a while talking to the kids, and then the disaster risk reduction consultant arrived and we walked to the next school, which was a bit of a trek. There was quite a lot of construction going on. Many of the buildings before the earthquake had been made of stones and concrete, which caused so much loss of life. Now the buildings are being rebuilt again in the traditional way – a wooden construction and then a mixture of mud and stones and things in between. Apparently the walls of the traditional building type would fall out rather than in if there was another earthquake. Visiting the area and seeing some of the collapsed buildings really impressed on me how important DRR is. For example, in one of the schools the children told us about the earthquake last week – although they all ran out of the building there was a real problem because the door was so small and there was a big step to trip up over.
The DRR consultant was full of interesting information about the area. There were very few if any international NGOs working in Seren valley before the earthquake, although there were a few national NGOs. He has talked to the villagers and they have said that many owe their lives to the relief that the INGOs bought. It is interesting that just a few miles away in Battagram there is such a different attitude towards NGOs to the extent that they have been targeted. But it is only a few extremists that are causing these problems.
There is a major problem with timber smuggling and deforestation in this area - trees are so important in preventing landslides. We could clearly see on the mountainsides areas where there had been landslides - areas that were vegetated had not had landslides. The forests are partly owned by the government and partly community owned as well. But the communities have minimal rights to use the trees by chopping them down, though I think they can collect firewood. Corruption is a major problem.
At the second school the proper teacher hadn’t turned up – there was only a para-teacher who is employed by MIED not the government. And when we got to the last school neither of the teachers had bothered turning up as it is so close to the Eid holidays. So the children were just playing around. Teacher absenteeism is a major problem because they get such small salaries, and many of the teachers commute from Mansehra every day (3 hours one way). Some NGOs have started providing hostels for teachers nearer were they work, but MIED doesn’t really want to do this as it creates further dependency on the NGOs, and also the teachers have signed a contract and have a responsibility towards the children.
I have to say that it was an amazing place for school, at the top of the mountain with snow and fab views. But the graves of some people who had died in the earthquake were right next to the school – I can’t really conceive what affect that will have on the children.
The most encouraging place that we visited was the ECCD centre, for children aged 3-6. The room was full of low-cost resources that the ECCD team, the care giver and the children had worked on together. For example they had made bags with the children’s names on from flour sacks, and ceiling hangings from milk cartons.
After we came back down the mountain the care giver from the ECCD centre invited us into her home. They gave us a delicious meal of cornbread, a chilli and coriander sauce, and fresh buffalo butter. It was really lovely, and I was very hungry by that time. People are so hospitable and welcoming even when they have got so little – it is so humbling and challenging for me. Their kitchen was next to the woodpile and was basically a hole in the ground with fire in.
More photos:
After the disaster preparedness meeting the other day I fully prepared myself for the cold and wore three jumpers and a coat (though it was a bit of a struggle to get into the coat I have to say). And the people who designed the shalwar kameez obviously hadn’t given a thought to the fashion disaster it becomes when worn with walking boots. Anyway. Actually, we had to walk for about an hour to get to the furthest school, so I got rather warm and dispensed with most of the jumpers (even though there was snow when we got to the top of the mountain!).
We went to a total of three schools and one early childhood care and development centre (ECCD). At the first school all the children were sitting outside on mats even though it was cold and the ground was very wet. I don’t know how the children could learn in this kind of situation. There was a tent but that wasn’t being used when we were there. We spent a while talking to the kids, and then the disaster risk reduction consultant arrived and we walked to the next school, which was a bit of a trek. There was quite a lot of construction going on. Many of the buildings before the earthquake had been made of stones and concrete, which caused so much loss of life. Now the buildings are being rebuilt again in the traditional way – a wooden construction and then a mixture of mud and stones and things in between. Apparently the walls of the traditional building type would fall out rather than in if there was another earthquake. Visiting the area and seeing some of the collapsed buildings really impressed on me how important DRR is. For example, in one of the schools the children told us about the earthquake last week – although they all ran out of the building there was a real problem because the door was so small and there was a big step to trip up over.
The DRR consultant was full of interesting information about the area. There were very few if any international NGOs working in Seren valley before the earthquake, although there were a few national NGOs. He has talked to the villagers and they have said that many owe their lives to the relief that the INGOs bought. It is interesting that just a few miles away in Battagram there is such a different attitude towards NGOs to the extent that they have been targeted. But it is only a few extremists that are causing these problems.
There is a major problem with timber smuggling and deforestation in this area - trees are so important in preventing landslides. We could clearly see on the mountainsides areas where there had been landslides - areas that were vegetated had not had landslides. The forests are partly owned by the government and partly community owned as well. But the communities have minimal rights to use the trees by chopping them down, though I think they can collect firewood. Corruption is a major problem.
At the second school the proper teacher hadn’t turned up – there was only a para-teacher who is employed by MIED not the government. And when we got to the last school neither of the teachers had bothered turning up as it is so close to the Eid holidays. So the children were just playing around. Teacher absenteeism is a major problem because they get such small salaries, and many of the teachers commute from Mansehra every day (3 hours one way). Some NGOs have started providing hostels for teachers nearer were they work, but MIED doesn’t really want to do this as it creates further dependency on the NGOs, and also the teachers have signed a contract and have a responsibility towards the children.
I have to say that it was an amazing place for school, at the top of the mountain with snow and fab views. But the graves of some people who had died in the earthquake were right next to the school – I can’t really conceive what affect that will have on the children.
The most encouraging place that we visited was the ECCD centre, for children aged 3-6. The room was full of low-cost resources that the ECCD team, the care giver and the children had worked on together. For example they had made bags with the children’s names on from flour sacks, and ceiling hangings from milk cartons.
After we came back down the mountain the care giver from the ECCD centre invited us into her home. They gave us a delicious meal of cornbread, a chilli and coriander sauce, and fresh buffalo butter. It was really lovely, and I was very hungry by that time. People are so hospitable and welcoming even when they have got so little – it is so humbling and challenging for me. Their kitchen was next to the woodpile and was basically a hole in the ground with fire in.
More photos:
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Well, let me tell you what has happened this week. On Wednesday there was an earthquake - though I didn’t notice anything at all, but was just told about it – I think it must have been when the door of our office swung randomly open. On Thursday we were told that we shouldn’t go to services on Christmas Day, because of a ‘heightened threat to westerners’. And on Friday we were told that two people have died in Manshera from bird flu. I have therefore slightly altered my lax attitude towards eating chicken (which was that it doesn’t matter as you can’t get it from eating it). But tis very difficult not to eat chicken here – at lunch yesterday no less than three of the dishes contained chicken, which just left a choice of rice (which actually had bits of chicken in) and naan. You may have gathered from this statement that my vegetarianism has gone by the wayside – I still am when I cook for myself, but when I eat out every meal consists of chicken and rice.
But do you know what has put all this security advice into perspective – I heard that there had been a landslide at Worcester Park so all the trains from Epsom to Waterloo have been completely disrupted. I would so much prefer to be here in the land of earthquakes, bird flu and ‘heightened threat to westerners’ than stuck on Raynes Park station in the freezing cold waiting for a train that probably won’t turn up. And, security advice aside, it has been quite a good week.
I was able to get to a service on Sunday at a nearby Christian hospital, and I met some expats for the first time in a couple of weeks, which was great! It was quite difficult to get to – MIED very kindly organised a car for me, and I spent most of the journey there trying to establish with the driver whether he knew where the hospital was – I think he thought it very odd that I was going to a hospital on a cold and rainy Sunday night! Although he kept ji ji (yes) he didn’t actually know where it was, but it was quite easy to find. So that was great.
At the beginning of the week I spent two days in a meeting with Plan, MIED’s main donors for one project, which was really interesting. Then followed a couple of days when I was floundering around not really knowing what to do again. On Thursday it was the Aga Khan’s birthday, so there was a cake at the office, which was really lovely.
I had to work on Saturday again – there was a management meeting in the morning. Key learning point of this week: when a meeting is arranged to last two and a half hours, don’t actually believe it will last that long. I had arranged another meeting with a disaster risk reduction consultant an hour and a half after the management meeting was supposed to end. The management meeting actually lasted about five hours, and I was writing minutes and it was so difficult to concentrate that long. I was actually very grateful when people did start speaking in Urdu as it meant I could switch off for a little (though it may mean there are a few gaps in the minutes :) The DRR meeting started half an hour late, and lasted about two and a half hours as well, but it was very interesting. Plan are encouraging us to ‘mainstream’ (typical development word) disaster risk reduction into all aspects of the projects, so this means including DRR in the curriculum and in all training that teachers are given. The aim is to develop a ‘culture of preparedness’ so that in case of a disaster people know what to do. In the Northern Areas there are village committees, and places where stores are kept, and people are trained in first aid and search and rescue. If this had been the case in NWFP and Kashmir before the earthquake a lot of lives would have been saved.
Anyway, there is a power cut and the computer battery is about to go, so I’ll finish here.
But do you know what has put all this security advice into perspective – I heard that there had been a landslide at Worcester Park so all the trains from Epsom to Waterloo have been completely disrupted. I would so much prefer to be here in the land of earthquakes, bird flu and ‘heightened threat to westerners’ than stuck on Raynes Park station in the freezing cold waiting for a train that probably won’t turn up. And, security advice aside, it has been quite a good week.
I was able to get to a service on Sunday at a nearby Christian hospital, and I met some expats for the first time in a couple of weeks, which was great! It was quite difficult to get to – MIED very kindly organised a car for me, and I spent most of the journey there trying to establish with the driver whether he knew where the hospital was – I think he thought it very odd that I was going to a hospital on a cold and rainy Sunday night! Although he kept ji ji (yes) he didn’t actually know where it was, but it was quite easy to find. So that was great.
At the beginning of the week I spent two days in a meeting with Plan, MIED’s main donors for one project, which was really interesting. Then followed a couple of days when I was floundering around not really knowing what to do again. On Thursday it was the Aga Khan’s birthday, so there was a cake at the office, which was really lovely.
I had to work on Saturday again – there was a management meeting in the morning. Key learning point of this week: when a meeting is arranged to last two and a half hours, don’t actually believe it will last that long. I had arranged another meeting with a disaster risk reduction consultant an hour and a half after the management meeting was supposed to end. The management meeting actually lasted about five hours, and I was writing minutes and it was so difficult to concentrate that long. I was actually very grateful when people did start speaking in Urdu as it meant I could switch off for a little (though it may mean there are a few gaps in the minutes :) The DRR meeting started half an hour late, and lasted about two and a half hours as well, but it was very interesting. Plan are encouraging us to ‘mainstream’ (typical development word) disaster risk reduction into all aspects of the projects, so this means including DRR in the curriculum and in all training that teachers are given. The aim is to develop a ‘culture of preparedness’ so that in case of a disaster people know what to do. In the Northern Areas there are village committees, and places where stores are kept, and people are trained in first aid and search and rescue. If this had been the case in NWFP and Kashmir before the earthquake a lot of lives would have been saved.
Anyway, there is a power cut and the computer battery is about to go, so I’ll finish here.
Sunday, 9 December 2007
A variety of new experiences....
I was able to go out into the field last week, in Mansehra district. We only travelled about 30 minutes from the city, which is very close compared with many of the other schools (some staff travel 3 hours one way to get to their school daily). Anyway, it was just like stepping back into history. The houses were all made of mud, and dung was drying outside in the air – it is used as a fuel because the village didn’t have gas. We went into one house – the animals are kept outside, and then there was a courtyard, and then I just saw one large room with a number of beds.
It was great being able to visit the schools – we spent most of the morning visiting the government boys primary school. There was one teacher and I am not sure how many kids – maybe about 50. There were two groups – one of the younger children and one of the older children, both sitting outside. The first task that the teacher educator from MIED did was to sort out the classroom. It was being used as a storage place for the construction materials for the boundary wall, so was full of long pieces of wood with rusty nails sticking out. I spent most of the morning sitting with the younger children, as the person from MIED and the teacher were concerned with the older boys. The children were lovely, but so poor, and it was hard work given my lack of Urdu, their almost complete lack of English, and I was basically giving them a lesson having not prepared anything. The children all had notebooks with UNICEF written all over them, which I really didn’t like because it immediately defined the children as being recipients of aid. The school was completely open, so had a continuous stream of donkeys, goats, and cows coming through, as well as villagers who were very hospitable and gave us tea and snacks. Some of the women came up and talked to me but I didn’t have a clue what they were saying. It is particularly difficult because the villagers first language is Hindko, not Urdu, so the children were learning both Urdu and English in the school.
We then went on to the girls school. I was pretty shattered by that time. The girls were a lot shyer than I expected – if I asked them a question they giggled and hid. Three age groups were sitting in the same classroom, so the teacher basically had to run three lessons at the same time. It was very sad because some of the girls who had graduated from the school came back to visit, and they are not able to continue their education as there is no girls secondary school in the village.
I thought that that day had given me enough experiences to last the week. But no – the rest of the week threw quite a few challenges as well. The next day I had to check through and edit three reports – a key learning point is to ALWAYS ask when the deadline is and to clarify who to give the feedback to. Oh well. Then I had to try and understand a monitoring document that was incredibly confusing. The next day I went to a meeting at the Plan offices about this document, which was very interesting. The meeting started off in English, but by the end they had moved to Urdu and my brain was completely frazzled. And the day after that I had to facilitate another session with a team about weekly reporting – it was quite difficult because several people introduced completely new topics and so I didn’t know how far to stick to the topic or move onto another one if they wanted to. Also, half way through that meeting I had a horrible thought that I should have been at a different meeting, so I spent the rest of the time worrying. What an idiot.
Corry went to Islamabad for a VSO meeting on Thursday, so I was by myself for the weekend. But people have taken pity on me and so I have been fed by the director’s family for the last 3 evenings. His children are great, and on Saturday afternoon (after I had checked through the monitoring document again) we went for a drive around Mansehra – it was great seeing the views and getting a bit more of an idea of the area, and was v fun with 5 lively children. But people work SO hard here. The director and many others have worked every weekend since I have been here. There are so many people’s lives and jobs depending on the success of MIED.
The other evening the director and his children started telling me about their village in the Northern Areas. It sounds like a completely different world – to England but also to Mansehra. Their family numbers over 100, and it is not unusual for more than 20 people to live in the same house. Last week several of his brothers slaughtered yaks, which will give them enough food to last the winter. They don’t have gas or electricity (they cook over wood stoves), and can store the meat outside in the snow. It is -10 there at the moment! They showed me some photos of a family wedding – part of the ceremony is for the bride and bridegroom to cook chapattis together – but if the chapatti breaks that symbolises that the wife will have dominance over the husband! The photos of their village look completely stunning, and I cannot wait to visit that area.
Anyway, hope that all your Christmas shopping is going well :)
It was great being able to visit the schools – we spent most of the morning visiting the government boys primary school. There was one teacher and I am not sure how many kids – maybe about 50. There were two groups – one of the younger children and one of the older children, both sitting outside. The first task that the teacher educator from MIED did was to sort out the classroom. It was being used as a storage place for the construction materials for the boundary wall, so was full of long pieces of wood with rusty nails sticking out. I spent most of the morning sitting with the younger children, as the person from MIED and the teacher were concerned with the older boys. The children were lovely, but so poor, and it was hard work given my lack of Urdu, their almost complete lack of English, and I was basically giving them a lesson having not prepared anything. The children all had notebooks with UNICEF written all over them, which I really didn’t like because it immediately defined the children as being recipients of aid. The school was completely open, so had a continuous stream of donkeys, goats, and cows coming through, as well as villagers who were very hospitable and gave us tea and snacks. Some of the women came up and talked to me but I didn’t have a clue what they were saying. It is particularly difficult because the villagers first language is Hindko, not Urdu, so the children were learning both Urdu and English in the school.
We then went on to the girls school. I was pretty shattered by that time. The girls were a lot shyer than I expected – if I asked them a question they giggled and hid. Three age groups were sitting in the same classroom, so the teacher basically had to run three lessons at the same time. It was very sad because some of the girls who had graduated from the school came back to visit, and they are not able to continue their education as there is no girls secondary school in the village.
I thought that that day had given me enough experiences to last the week. But no – the rest of the week threw quite a few challenges as well. The next day I had to check through and edit three reports – a key learning point is to ALWAYS ask when the deadline is and to clarify who to give the feedback to. Oh well. Then I had to try and understand a monitoring document that was incredibly confusing. The next day I went to a meeting at the Plan offices about this document, which was very interesting. The meeting started off in English, but by the end they had moved to Urdu and my brain was completely frazzled. And the day after that I had to facilitate another session with a team about weekly reporting – it was quite difficult because several people introduced completely new topics and so I didn’t know how far to stick to the topic or move onto another one if they wanted to. Also, half way through that meeting I had a horrible thought that I should have been at a different meeting, so I spent the rest of the time worrying. What an idiot.
Corry went to Islamabad for a VSO meeting on Thursday, so I was by myself for the weekend. But people have taken pity on me and so I have been fed by the director’s family for the last 3 evenings. His children are great, and on Saturday afternoon (after I had checked through the monitoring document again) we went for a drive around Mansehra – it was great seeing the views and getting a bit more of an idea of the area, and was v fun with 5 lively children. But people work SO hard here. The director and many others have worked every weekend since I have been here. There are so many people’s lives and jobs depending on the success of MIED.
The other evening the director and his children started telling me about their village in the Northern Areas. It sounds like a completely different world – to England but also to Mansehra. Their family numbers over 100, and it is not unusual for more than 20 people to live in the same house. Last week several of his brothers slaughtered yaks, which will give them enough food to last the winter. They don’t have gas or electricity (they cook over wood stoves), and can store the meat outside in the snow. It is -10 there at the moment! They showed me some photos of a family wedding – part of the ceremony is for the bride and bridegroom to cook chapattis together – but if the chapatti breaks that symbolises that the wife will have dominance over the husband! The photos of their village look completely stunning, and I cannot wait to visit that area.
Anyway, hope that all your Christmas shopping is going well :)
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Snow...
- Well, I officially welcomed in the advent season yesterday by singing Christmas carols loudly in the shower, and then building a snowman! Yep - one of the guys from the office took us to a village in the Murree hills, which has just had its first snowfall of the year! It was very exciting and beautiful, and I made a wonderful snowman. I didn’t actually realize that we were going into the mountains, so I got a bit cold, but what is a little discomfort compared with snow and mountains :) The photo is taken from Nathaigali, the village that we visited.
I spent most of last week in the office. Corry and I have been talking to more members of staff about MIED (continuing our introduction to the organisation), but I have also started some proper work, particularly dealing with documents following from the closure of one of their Battagram projects. They are still running another project there, and the team returned there late this week after being withdrawn because of security. One of the guys showed me photos of the area and it looks absolutely stunning – rivers and mountains. But then he said that just over the hill was Shangla where there is a military operation. I might wait a bit before I visit :)
A couple of evenings last week I went to the girls hostel for dinner. Before I came to Pakistan I expected to find it difficult to meet many girls my age, thinking that most would be married and have families. But it is great having the girl’s hostel so close – about 8 women live there and they are all around my age. The dinners have been fab – they cooked lovely food, and have started teaching me to sing and dance Pakistani style. They also wanted me to sing them the theme tune from Titanic (and worryingly enough I remembered some of it!). But I am still getting used to cultural norms and expectations, particularly gender related. The other night I was walking back with some girls, and we went past MIED’s male hostel, and one of the guys was standing outside. I was introduced to him, and then he asked us in for a cup of tea. I said I didn’t mind, and then all the girls started laughing and dragged me away saying it was completely culturally inappropriate for women to enter the male hostel.
More random things I have noticed about Pakistan: - salt in tea is truly disgusting (though the one time I tried it I may have put a bit too much in)
- on the subject of food, loosing weight seems to be almost impossible – we only have a saucepan and a frying pan, and my lunch usually consists of cheese between 2 pieces of fried bread (no toaster), and mayonnaise (ran out of tomato ketchup). Dinner often some mixture of fried potatoes and fried veg. Exercise I have done in the last month: 0. But at least I can get weetabix here, so can feel virtuous for at least one meal in a day (though I’ve started adding nutella with it and it is so good)
- It seems that half the office comes from Chitral and the other from Gilgit, so banter about polo occurs quite frequently. But the other day they started talking about playing polo on donkeys – I really don’t know whether they were being serious but there was a lot of laughter. On the subject of donkeys apparently there is a donkey contest in Karachi that takes place every year, but I am not quite sure what it involves
- Seatbelts non existent in spite of appalling driving except on motorways, where there are police to make sure that people use them, despite motorways being wide, empty and straight in stark contrast to all other Pak roads!! (have been in 2 accidents already, tho parents don’t panic as v minor. One took place right outside the military police (!) and was fine and the other was when we were stopped and someone drove slowly into us (quite skillfully really)).
- It is imperative that I know exactly where my torch is in my room, as the last four evenings there have been electricity cuts and there has been much moaning and stubbed toes. There was a big thunderstorm the other night and the electricity went off for the whole night and the following morning, so work was fun with no light and no computers. (And no heat as our gas heater had broken as well)
- Rain is exactly the same in Mansehra as in Epsom – v wet and cold, though it seems to have been greeted with pleasure by many people as it gets rid of the dust, but personally I prefer the dust
- In spite of where we live and work being NGO central (with 65 NGOs in the space of approx 1 square mile) in total we have only seen 3 other westerners walking around the township, and when we’ve been out of the township I haven’t seen any
More photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21248968@N03/?saved=1
Once again, thank you so much for your emails, it is great hearing your news. Take care and enjoy the beginning of advent :)
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