I had a refreshing sleep last night so I was ready to hit the bank and see what I can do with this money I was carrying around. A grand doesn't seem like a lot to us, but when it translates into 100,000 rupees, you kinda need to be careful. So, in true Western "don't trust the brown man" style I had the money and my ID strapped so tight to my body with a body wallet that I could barely breathe. But, at least my riches were unnoticed ... until this is, I arrived at the bank and actually had to fish in my baggy shalwaar trousers for the goods. Not good when the bank security in Pakistan is a man with some rather large rifle, probably no training, walking around, bored. Now, as you can imagine, most of the worforce in Pakistan is male so rooting around in my pants to find the damn ID card was not very pleasant. Then, giving my title as Dr Khan completely confused the bank manager who was dealing with my case.
After signing 7 times - and I only completed 2 forms - I handed over my pennies and he then explained that I'd not get an ATM card or cheque book for 1 week!! Freak out time - I was under the impression that I'd get access to my money immediately so handing him ALL my money wasn't a good move. Anyway, once I got over the "shit, now what?" moment, the bank manager saab simply asked how much I thought I'd need for the week and I threw a random figure of 10,000 rupees (syeah, right - Brewster's millions springs to mind!). He simply reached into a draw and pulled out requested figure and said in true Goodness Gracious Me stylie ''you don't worry". No receipt, no log of this exchange, no nothing! Back home, even if my father was the bank manager, he couldn't do this!! Of course, I took the money and ran, but blimey, what the f*** was that!
I was later told that, other than the fact that I had just deposited a rather large amount of money which showed I'm good to return the money (how did he know it's real?), it's because he knows a friend of a friend of the girl I'm staying with!! Again, WTF!
Anyway, once I got over that incident, the money from which I re deposited awkwardly in my pants again (clearly, a glutton for punishment), we visited Muzafarrabad city for some grocery shopping. I also got a good tour of the city which showed off a couple of tent dwellings, damage and gave a good view of the landslides that happened.
The city has actually, for the most part been rebuilt and was, according to my host, up and running. This confirmed my earlier thoughts of help perhaps needing to be more latent or remote than the structure of the city suggested. In terms of the work I'm here to do, it's quite hard to know where the needs are for these reasons. In addition, this area is likely to experience another quake much like the one of 2005 – the villagers often explain that they have aftershocks and tremors leading to believe this prediction to be highly likely. It also begs the question of where to target support: on structural issues eg more water pipes in remoter villages where water is only obtainable from a springs a fair walk away or on skills that if another quake happened, survivors are more likely to build their lives outside of the poverty trap. Charity work seems to work on greatest need and maximum return, but this principle does not help me much. So, any theoretical thoughts about what you'd do would be most welcome.
Hope you're fab, too x
Ps Couldn't end the entry on such a serious note: A more fun note was that a snake about 1.5m long entered one of the neighbouring shelters which caused some uproar. Stupidly or bravely, I got well in there to see it, but apparently, it coiled up in the sofa. Once the local kids found out, they literally hit to sheds the furniture and eventually found and killed the snake. Nice!
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