Pit Stop in Peshawar

I have just returned to Islamabad from a three-day visit to our office in Peshawar. I didn’t actually see any MSF activities, patients or anything like that as the project that they run is located in Alizai, a 5-hour drive away. National staff located at the hospital takes care of the day-to-day operations and the expats manage remotely from Peshawar, making extended visits when government officials permit. So instead of going to Alizai I got to stay in the office and work on the financial forecasts, amongst other things. Such is my fun and exciting world in humanitarian aid.

The expats I visited with were Justin, the Canadian project coordinator, and two young doctors, Dorit from Germany and Jackie from Australia. Dorit had previously been based in Peshawar but was relocated to Kashmir when the cholera outbreak hit. She loves to laugh and as a result people can’t believe she’s really a German. Jackie is also quite entertaining and is a Lucy Lui look-alike, although I acknowledge that this perception may be influenced by my having lived in Pakistan for close to a year.

Peshawar is a pretty interesting place. It is the capital of the North West Frontier Province and for centuries has been a centre for trade, being close to the Khyber Pass leading into Afghanistan. We wandered through the Qissa Khwani Bazaar in the old city centre, trying not to get lost in the narrow, winding lanes and trying not to get trampled by horse-drawn carriages in the wider lanes. People were quite friendly towards us, although we were clearly a bit of a freak show.

Tomorrow morning Dorit and I leave Islamabad for Muzaffarabad in Kashmir. A few more days of financial forecasting and I will be able to meet my last major MSF reporting deadline. It’s great to develop future cost estimates when you know you won’t actually be around if they prove to be wrong. Such is my fun and exciting world in humanitarian aid.