Just to show I don't spend my whole time hiking mountains I thought I should add a couple of photos of my real work.   Last Friday nursing a particularly bad tequila induced hangover courtesy of the ICRC pilots, (Rowena and John have gone to Hong Kong leaving me to make the most of bachelorhood) I joined our street outreach team on one of their tours.  The team (many of them ex addicts themselves) find and chat to street drug users, persuading them to come to our centres for registration and counselling, educating them on HIV giving basic first aid and condoms.  

(More photos in the Gallary section left) 

Firstly here is a sketch of our trip, a map of North West corner of Paksitan:

On to the trip....

Two days jeep drive from Chitral, via Mastuj and up the Mastuj river valley brought us to the start of our walk up to the Broghil Festival – a further 2 days walk away.  As we neared the end of the jeep road the weather turned cold and grey with fresh snow on the peaks around us and so our first night's camping was bitterly cold and slightly miserable (I eventually got used to it – Matt and John did not seem to notice as much as me).  The next day dawned clear and bright and this was our view as we headed up the valley to Kishmanja village.

I was invited to the Anti Narcotics Force annual drugs burning ceremony.  There was supposed to be over 5 tons of hash and nearly a ton of Heroin.  Here you can see lots of sealed packs of dope made in the tribal areas.  It has even been branded by the guys in the tribal area who made it.

Is this my birthday?  More dope than most see in a lifetime

It all goes up in flames...

What a shame

DOST has a unfunded programme helping women in Peshawar Jail.  We train women in making handicrafts which are then sold.  The money raised goes to support the women's community in the Jail we have established.  The condition of women in jail is very harsh.  There are about 80 women, mostly still awaiting trial. Many are arrested under the hudood ordinances, usually adultery, which is often for being a victim of rape, or for a girl running away from home with a boy.

Conditions are not good, far worse than those in the men's barracks.

Cooking facilities are quite grim

DOST provides training to the women to become traditional birth attendants.

With money raised from sale of handicrafts in UK and Hong Kong, DOST has now been able to set up a small nursery for the children of women prisoners in a corner of the women's barracks.  Women are reluctant to give up their children to their families when they go to prison, and many families refuse to look after children of family members who have been accused under the Hadood ordinances.  We have provided the blinds, fans mats and toys.

This boy 9 year old has been convicted for 3 years along with his mother for spying for India!

Felicity came to visit for a week at the beginning of May – unluckily for her that is when the summer decided to crank up the heat (a little early).  It was fantastic to have her visiting and the shop keepers of Peshawar loved her visit and are clubbing together to buy her a ticket to come back again soon! 

I decided she needed to see a little of what we love about Pakistan – the mountains and so we went up to Chitral and the Kalash valleys for a couple of days.  We flew up on a perfect cloudless day and F had a fantastic view of the Lowri Top pass as we flew over – John was delighted to be on a small plane and kept informing us where the pilot was.  We had two great nights up at the Hindu Kush which is like going home!

Fabulous clear air meant that the views of Tirch Mir were spectacular and you felt that you could just reach out and touch it.  Chitral mosque in the foreground.

Views from the Summer Palace above Chitral after a lazy picnic lunch - above is the picnic site view (how perfect is that).  Below F is modelling the latest in off-road shalwar khameez – trainers really make it a special look.

 

Great photo of F & J hanging out in the pine woods.

 

Dobbin and John on the way down the mountain – see how clear Tirch Mir (7800m) is.

 

The next day was a trip to the Kalash valleys – enroute to the valley we had to get the standard jeep shot for F.

 

 

Has she been for radical plastic surgery, or is it a dust avoidance strategy?

 

Is she a lost member of the Kalash – the colouring is correct and that headdress looks as if it is made for her…

 

We eventually returned to Peshawar and took F for a full and varied day in the old city.  Inside on the Setti Houses in Peshawar – fantastic wood carving and beautiful mirror and glass work.  They are real gems of buildings.

 

 

 

Buying spices and marsala for Jason.

 

 

Just to see what it is all about Felicity came for a visit to the Street Drop in Centre, and met some of the heroine addicts on detoxification

 

More Photos of Felicity's trip in the Gallary section

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Trains

The tourist steam train up the Khyber Pass ran on Easter Sunday.  Sadly we can't afford to take it, but John and I went chasing it up the tracks when we heard it pass our house.  I was actually much easier to catch it on its way back as the train line crosses the runway of Peshawar international airport.  Sensibly the train has to wait a while to ensure that the runway really is closed before continuing. 

It is a great sight, three engines to pull one carriage of tourists (and a guards van of soldiers). 

 

 

 

After the excitement of the steam train John and his dad decided to take the normal train for an adventure.  We went in late April, just before it got unbearably hot; we took the train from Peshawar over the Indus to Attock.  It was great fun watching the world go slowly by.

 

At Attock the train crosses the Indus over a great Victorian steel bridge.  At either end there are little castles, which look decorative, but on closer inspection you can see that they are actually really defensive with closable steel gates and gun emplacements.

 

We had hoped to stop at a deserted station just after the bridge, and walk back over it, but despite the train seeming to stop everywhere it ignored our station so we had to continue on to the next stop.  We stopped for lunch at a local greasy spoon in the bus station and got the bus home.

 

 

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Old City

 

In early April we abandoned John for a night with his Spanish speaking Norwegian friends Rodrigo and Jacob and we went off for stay at the Khan Club hotel in the old city.  A wonderful old Sikh house, with each of the rooms named after a gem.  We were at the top in the Ruby room where you had to climb up some stairs in the room to the bed above. 

 

We had a wonderful view from the balcony.  In the night there was an amazing dust storm.  Quite amusing watching a burqa clad woman trying to negotiate the streets with a large bag on her head.  The burka was bellowing everywhere and there was not a lot the men around could do to help her.

 

My favourite house in the middle of the old city.  Sofas and TV removed from the fount room to be replaced with 3 buffalo.  Quite a bizarre sight.

 

 

Then we had a visit from the Easter Bunny who left two small white rabbits to join our two large white rabbits.  Mrs K is working on a marsala mix for rabbit so that we can do a fresh takeaway service as I fear that there maybe still more visits from the Easter Bunny.  Mind you they are very sweet

 

This was a great scene we caught driving along the GT road the other day and had to add it to give every one a smile.

 

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Takht-i- Bhai

John and I (Rowena) went for a day trip before it got too hot to Takht-i- Bhai with Liv and her two boys, Rodrigo and Jacob.  The boys are all good friends – John worships the boys and has to do anything they do – so I witnessed him walking up all the steps to the monastery and over the hillsides as Rodrigo was doing it!  The monastery is an important Buddhist site from the Gandhara period (when this part of the world and the Swat valley were important centres of Buddhism).

 

The ruins have been restored to good effect by Unesco and it is a lovely location on a small group of hills that rise up out of the plains.

 

Three boys having fun – picnicking in the hills of Takht I Bhai

 

Copy cats!  If Jacob thought it was a good idea then so do I!

 

 

 

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Lahore

For my birthday in March Rowena took us all to Lahore.  It was meant to be the kite festival, and for months there have been battles in the courts to ban it.  In the end the use of metal strings had caused enough decapitations of poor scooter riders to persuade the authorities to stop it at the last moment.  It was interesting to see how the bikers were protecting themselves, attaching a big loop of car aerial over their bikes from front to back to deflect any wires.

 

Now Lahore is famous for the Mogul buildings of course.  This is the Badshai Mosque which lies in the old city opposite the Fort.

 

 

Where needless to say John attracted his usual band of followers Inside the old Fort, Lahore.

 

 

But the other thing Lahore is famous for is the food.  This is our first woman run juice bar.  Can you find us? 

 

Cooking fish on food street

 

Eating with Annie on food street.  What it is to be tourists in the bright lights of Lahore!

 

The best restaurant was Cooccoo's restaurant with a roof top terrace overlooking the mosque.  Lovely food

 

… and lovely views

 

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Get me out of here – sadly Fawad and Saime have now left and John is feeling their absence.

 

 

We have begun handwriting training early to try and overcome any genetic influence from his father's scribble.

 

 

 

The Land of Spotty Dogs – whole villages wear the same chador print (the game is to count who the rebels are)

 

 

Engineer or artist … which one is his mother pushing for I wonder?

 

Bush has now left, so I hope that this means that life will return to a little normality.   For the past few weeks things have been a little tense here,  and we have been confined to barracks (well our house) for several days on and off as various demonstrations and strikes have been called about the cartoons, Bush’s visit, and any other excuse to have a good riot.  The noise of tear gas explosions from the next block has stopped and now we are back to the normal background level of automatic gun fire every night (presumably weddings, but unsurprisingly there are regular reports of people dieing at weddings from stray bullets). 

I must say that despite the very strong feelings almost everyone has here about the cartoons I have never ever felt any animosity directed to me or even to foreigners in general.  The local Christian minority have had a tougher time, with schools and colleges attacked.  There will always be people trying to make political gain out of any situation.  The Provincial government here tries to whip up anti federal government feelings for their own agenda.  Kashif, a college from DOST working with street children has recovered from the injuries he received when he tried to stop a bunch of rioters near his home.  Apparently they felt that a fellow Muslim trying to argue with people to stop throwing stones was being unislamic.  By working in Peshawar Jail DOST has seen that most of those arrested were Afghans.

The impact of it all has been interesting.  Finding shops is more tricky now as all the posh shops have been falling over each other to put up bigger and bigger black banners over their fronts with quotes from the Koran and statements about the cartoons in the hope that rioters will not throw stones at them.  After repeated attacks KFC now advertises itself as if eating a chicken burger is a brave and radical statement of self independence, which I suppose it is here.  Pizza hut was untouched, but it is very near the army barracks, the rioters were not stupid. 

John tunnelling to freedom with his hero Fawad and Saime

Last Eid we decided to head south (taking advantage of the cooler weather) and went on a road trip into the Punjab for 6 days.  A foolhardy idea, many thought given the 'lemon-like' nature of our car – but what the heck, we are young and foolish (well one of us is anyway).  First stop was a large salt hole – home to Matt in 2004.  We went into the Salt mine (second largest in the world) on a petit train – so John was happy and worryingly so was Matt, inside there were disco floors and mosques all carved in salt.  The mine and plant are located next to where Alexander the Great crossed the Jhelum river and he is thought to have mined salt here.  It is great walking around inside the beautiful salt formations. 

We carried on to Bahawalpur about half way down Pakistan on the edge of the Cholistan Desert, and on to Uch to see the beautiful mausoleums.  Alexander the Great was here too. I wonder will they say the same about us?

These Shrines were built in the 14^th Century and reminded us so much of what we saw in Bukara and Samakand 1000's of miles to the north. The shrines were busy due to the Eid break and we found ourselves being encouraged to walk around a tomb six times bedecked in rose garlands for good luck – then their good luck materialized in the donations we were encouraged to make.  Mind you the tomb must have worked as the car kept going through out the trip apart from a minor radiator problem which just meant we had to keep topping up the water.

We stopped for lunch in a wonderful spot next to one of the many irrigation cannels in Punjab. This view peaceful and tranquil – not what we saw much of because …..

As where ever John stops his crowd of fans soon gather.

We then drove into the desert to see Darawar Fort built around 1750.  It just sits in the middle of the desert miles from anywhere.  The fort looms up as you drive up to it from several miles away.

Mrs K thinks the area used to be wetter and there is evidence that a river ran nearby.  The fort itself and the buildings on top are washing away, which is really sad as the buildings are beautiful.  All very romantic.

Then back to Multan, also visited by Alexander the Great, I believe the locals were not quite so friendly to him (Guess what Matt is reading at present).  There are stories that he actually died and was buried here.  Multan is famous for its blue & white pottery, leather shoes, embroidery and they appear to be keen on extending to livestock!  We really enjoyed the city and it was interesting to see somewhere that was so keen on architectural embellishment and design.

We then drove back up to Peshawar on the other side of the Indus in the tribal areas via DI Khan. Not a route greatly recommended at the best of times, and we were driving through the area the day after the Americans had fired missiles into a tribal village killing 15.  Did not really enamor the locals to foreigners too much.  South of DI Khan is the home of the Tellytubby burqa – caused much delight to John who was sure it was Po.

Scene from the plains – a family on the move, their entire belongings on the back of a donkey cart

I've never seen camels pulling carts before.

A lovely lady in DI Khan

Well that is the end of the road trip and not sure where we will go next or what delights we will have to entertain you. R, M & J

Go to the Gallary Section (click picture on left) to see more pictures

With Christmas rapidly advancing we thought to sugar-load the toddler as part of his training for the main event.  So early on Saturday we set off … when we arrived at the village we had the statutory tea which is always a very welcome part of any journey.  John was somewhat traumatised by the Polish chickens in the courtyard of Ibrahim's cousins house – they resembled the mother of the bride in some middle England wedding who had become rather enthusiastic about feathers as a theme – they have the most amazing feather hats on their heads.  The chicken trauma was only just worse than coming face to face with the family cow who happened to moo as John waddled past   But back to the main theme of this update … Matt's lesson sugar….

Last week Ibrahim took us to his village near Charsadda.  It was a great day out

First the sugar is cut

I spent 20 minutes with these people just trying to dig out a plastic floor mat, with no success.  As the soil was disturbed, the awful smell came though.

The road was completely destroyed

4 families here all their houses had collapsed, they were now sheltering in a shack they had put together.

The story in Shogran was the same, school destroyed, but luckily the kids and teachers had managed to escape.  It must be around 10000 feet up they were desperate for tents, one helicopter had come on day 3 but nothing else, except for a helicopter two days previously with nothing, asking what they wanted!  I spent a night in my tent in a sleeping bad and blanket and froze. 

Here I am ready to take on the mountains and passes of the Hindu Kush.  As you can see I am suitably attired in my camel corps headgear and an ample supply of liquid refreshments as travelling by jeep is hot and thirsty work especially as I have to pose in suitably cute ways for my public.

Sadly, my mother is not as stylish as myself and she lacks the certain something to really look like she belongs in the jeep.  I fear it is the hat that is not doing here any favours, but of course with her advancing years she must try to combat the wrinkles.  However, she is still not as craggy as the mountains behind.  We did see some excellent views (or so I am told – not too keen myself, I prefer the bouncy road and dust of the ride).

One of the benefits of camping at 3,600+m is that you tend to wake with the sun.  The view was spectacular looking over the Shandur Pass as the sun came up, however the jury is out about whether it makes up for the freezing cold night and the hard rocks that made our bed.  It was not the level of luxury I had imagined for my 40^th – ho hum.

Shandur Pixy spotted in early dawn.  Is this a good omen?  The pixie is rather puzzled about all this interest in his pass but is glad he dressed for the occaision.

After the peace of dawn the crowds walk up to pass and jeeps arrive heavily laden with their human load.  Everyone congregates around the polo field jostling for the best position on the hill tops and slopes.  Some fortunate ones are in the luxury of the stands area; then it is 11am and the game begins.

 Chitral:

The Hills are alive with the sound of music.  Strange hatted lady spotted in the ruins of the Summer Palace overlooking Chitral.  A wonderful day trip as a result of our flight being delayed again.   From this vantage point you could see how high the mountains around Chitral really are, something you are unaware of when you are in the valley. 

MacPac ad 101.  Looking up another valley from Chitral Gol – it was a good spot for a picnic and wonderfully cool up there.

It was not all dead animals and latrines (the aromas of our campsite – thanks Matt for your choice).  We upgraded to some luxury overlooking Chitral with an eagle’s eye view of the airport so we could observe the endless non-arrival of our flight.