Snow freak

Today, we spontaneously drove up to a snow-capped mountain. I was dressed in bright pink traditional clothes, with my pink sunglasses, long brown boots underneath my salwaar (baggy trousers) and no jacket. I was a sight, frankly! The city temperature was approximately 20 degrees, but the mountain, some 2000m high, the snow was about a foot deep. As much of a sight as I might have looked, damn, I’m glad I was wearing my boots!

Deja vu?

I'm due to fly back on Sunday morning, but I was being taken to Islamabad on Saturday. It's Friday evening and I've just been told that the lift that provides access out of the village I'm staying in is being repaired tomorrow and so I'm not sure what to do there. I'm sure Nisara has a back-up plan that will save the day.

I'm beginning to get the feeling that Pakistan doesn't want me to leave... Seeing as I could be the Head of the Psychology department at the main university here and set up a children's centre, I'm thinking that it's not such a bad thing that I do stay... :-o

Let's see what happens over the next day or two ;-)

No, no, no, no, no

Just a quick message to those concerned about the recent madness in Lahore: I'm fine.

That, and I've just been informed that the charity want to fund a different project to the one I prioritised in my October report on the basis that cost-to-people benefiting ratio is more important that severity of need. Arggghhhhhh.... Not happy. I spoke to the main decision-maker and he was adamant that the financial argument was the main one for them. I expressed my concern with this criteria, but fear I got nowhere. Personally, I think it is more worthwhile funding a project for fewer people who do not get any water than one for more people whose system is in need of repair when the cost is essentally the same. Having seen the condition of the smaller village, I just do not know how they need is less.

Charity work can suck when the real-life aspect of assessing needs is overruled by theroretical arguments.

Pheh!

The long and short of it is that it may not be possible to start a project because I'm still arguing the toss on this one :-s

Wish me luck!!

Trapped!

The weather’s been horrific: rain like masses of mini buckets of water falling from the sky, wind so strong you could barely walk outside, and bitter, biting cold (remember, radiators and such likes do not exist here!). And to top it all off, there was no access into/out of the village via the lift because the wind was too strong and there was no electricity for the tv or computer/internet.

So, charity work was not going to be possible during these few days. This was actually a very big problem for the work because I am due to leave on Sunday. The days were instead filled with practicing more urdu (and learning bits of Hinko, Pasto and Parari dialects) and just observing conversation of others. I noticed that people were talking much more about the predicted earthquake, understandably (in fact, apparently, there was a tremor on Monday night, but I didn’t feel it). However, when asked directly about their feelings, the topic was either met with descriptions of not being bothered/it being fate or was dismissed as unimportant to discuss.

I also noticed that people were talking more about their general worries and were describing recent symptoms of anxiety often in conversation. For example, I met a woman who has been suffering with sudden bouts of crying and heart palpitations, a young woman of 21 whose throat felt like it was closing and concerns of death, and a young boy who has been unable to sleep recently. All f these cases were people who were aware of the prediction due to emerge this month and experienced great loss in the 2005 disaster. I’m not saying that anxieties, fears and worries do not exist in life without natural disasters, but I suspect that an imminent earthquake would bring many issues to the fore. I truly fear for them. I pray for these people, I really do.