If listening to Pakistani music, drinking pop and a bit of dancing with 40 male colleagues is your idea of a good time then our "End-of-the-Emergency" party was a great success. I put out word that anyone trying to make me dance wouldn't receive their salary this month and was left safely alone. 

Enjoying the music at the staff party 

A camp at Hattian. While many have been able to return to their villages there are a significant number who still don't have a place to go. In addition, some have recently been displaced for the first time due to their land being deemed unstable and at risk to landslides during the monsoon season. 

The English translation for "Borders" is misspelled, but I suppose its still technically correct. 

Blog Censorship

On the BBC website, dated July 19, 2006:

“ India's burgeoning blogging community is up in arms against a government directive that they say has led to the blocking of their web logs. The government is not saying why it has banned each of the sites in its latest notification. This has incensed bloggers in India, which has about 40,000 blog sites and a number of them have started filing petitions under the country's new landmark freedom of information law.”

Well the same thing has happened in Pakistan. The only differences are that there was no announcement and nobody is foolish enough to complain. While I am still able to access my blog site to add new stories I am not able to view my site or anyone else’s. However, the rest of the world apparently can still keep tabs on my activities.

In a way, it’s kind of cool to think that I’m being censored. The IT officer at work jokingly suggested that I should lead a public protest. To shake him up a bit I told him that my sign would say “Pervez Objects to Blog Ban.” Of course, if government officials had actually looked at my site they would probably still maintain that it should be banned. Not because it’s a risk to state security, but because they would think they were doing my readers a favour.

Lucas Nicolai Soenderby...another Viking. 

It's a Boy!

For those of you wondering about my Danish friends in Hong Kong, who were very, very pregnant during my visit with them, I have the following news:

"Lucas Nicolai Soenderby was born on 5th July at 9.30 am after a relatively easy birth! He weighed 3.8 kg and measured 55 cm - a long and lovely baby boy. We are all well and enjoying the peace and quiet on our boat in Discovery Bay Marina.

Lots of love,
Stine, Kristian and Lucas"

I guess if history repeats itself it means I will have young Lucas showing-up on my doorstep 17-years from now to begin his Canadian immersion.

Sitara-i-Eisaar (Star of Sacrifice) medal  

MSF-Holland Head of Mission in Pakistan awarded ‘Star of Sacrifice’

The following announcement appeared in a recent edition of the MSF electronic news update “Over and Out:”

"Former MSF-Holland Head of Mission in Pakistan, Martin Braaksma, was awarded the Sitara-i-Eisaar (Star of Sacrifice) medal by the Pakistani government. Braaksma was one of the 109 individuals, military staff and organisations awarded the prize for their efforts to assist the victims in the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake. In a mass ceremony last Friday, the current MSF-Holland Head of Mission, Joe Belliveau, received the medal on behalf of MSF-Holland from Pakistani President Musharraf."

Joe sent us an email with the following observations:

* The award says, "In the Service of Humanity" on one side and "Pakistan Earthquake, 8 October 2005, From a Grateful Nation" on the other. It's kinda heavy; I think it's real metal.

* The recipients included a vast range of people from a young Turkish girl who donated her gold bangle to businessmen who became humanitarians, a fruit vendor who worked several days non-stop digging people out of rubble, a cop from the town of Balakot, the United Nations family, a man who lost his family but continued helping, a woman who runs a private hospital, the guy who tried so hard to get the electricity back on in Muzaffarabad (looked like he may have zapped himself a few times), and the guy who was in charge of clearing the roads of rubble. And, of course, there were dozens and dozens of generals, majors, brigadiers and colonels all flaunting their decorations like peacocks.

* Aside from being far too long and starting to sweat in my new suit, I kind of enjoyed it.

Children at Leepa gathering to watch me take a photo. 

Leepa Valley 

Kashmir Road Trip

I must admit that I wasn’t totally enthused when the time came to leave Hong Kong. With four months remaining in my stay in “No-fun-istan” I knew that it would be up to me to make the most of it. Thus, a week-long trip to our four Kashmir projects – Muzaffarabad, Hattian, Lamnian and Leepa – not long after my return to Islamabad was most welcomed. It was a useful and enjoyable tour and also provided me with a few items to put on my blog.

Just before leaving Islamabad I received an email from MSF Australia. They had been contacted by the mother of one our Expat doctors, who was worried that she hadn’t heard from her for a week. This is the MSF equivalent of being a kid and having your Mom making sure you’re okay at summer camp. Felicity did call home, much to her embarrassment and our entertainment.

For some strange reason Chartered Accountants garner immense respect in Pakistan. Mark, one of our project coordinators, is a bit of a boy wonder. He has a degree from Cambridge, is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), has worked in the City of London financial sector, has had senior roles in three MSF missions, will begin his masters degree in development at the London School of Economics this September, and is still under the age of thirty. However, in the eyes of some locals its just too bad he didn’t become a CA. Mark joked that the reaction a CA gets is like if you told someone you’re an astronaut. Sometimes it isn’t so bad being dull and boring.

I visited for the first time our most remote project at Leepa. The distance from Lamnian was about 45 kilometres and it took three hours to get there on the mountainside road. The Leepa project is situated about a Grouse Grind below the Line-of-Control, the disputed border with India. Consequently, there is a significant military presence in the Leepa Valley. Not long after I arrived a message came that the military wanted to know who I was. The office administrator told the guard to tell him that my name was Ian – I-A-N. This apparently satisfied them.

Having lunch with the Leepa staff they asked what country I was from. I was then informed that Canada has a cricket team, but they were too polite to say that it isn’t very good. One fellow commented that all the MSF Canadians that they’ve met have been very nice and mentioned the names of Tom, Bryan and Peter. I smiled to myself, but didn’t tell them that the last two were American imposters.

My favourite activity while in Muzaffarabad was the evenings sitting on the roof of the Expat house with a refreshment beverage, chatting, and enjoying the panoramic mountain and river views. What a difference it is getting out of Islamabad and into the field. By the end of my week in Kashmir I was half-toying with the thought of extending my stay in “Now-fun-istan.”