Letters from the Field - 29 April 2006 - Pakistan

First Note from Pakistan - 29 April 2006

Well – I have been here for almost a week and beginning to get emersed in the situation. It is already interesting and challenging and I think it will be a fascinating four months. I twice postponed my departure from Islamabad to Muzaffarabad first because I wanted to visit the IDP camps in and around Islamabad and then to attend a meeting today which has since been postponed (such is so often the case). As a result, I could not get a place on the helicopter on Monday (it is fully booked), so I will be leaving for Muza by road at 6 a.m. that morning. Apparently, it is only a 3 hour drive from here.

Islamabad is a city of wide avenues, palatial villas, bougainvillia and jacaranda trees.  It is the capital city – a city totally built from nothing (like Brazilia) in the 1960s. The Margalla hills, which are on the north of the city, are considered "the toenails of the foothills" of the Himalayas. It is a city for government officials, international agencies (which all occupy large villas), and for the rich. There appear to be no accommodation for poor people in Islamabad. The workers all live in the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi (a few kilometres away). And Rawalpindi is a much more bustling and vibrant place – though I am told that Lahore is really the cultural capital of Pakistan (its New York, its "lolliwood" and where people who really love to eat go.) I will get there before I leave, I'm sure.   Islamabad is laid out in a grid of squares, each 2 x 2 kilometers. At the center of each is a market area – really, like a shopping mall. You seem to be able to pretty much get anything you need here – I even say Crest toothpaste, though no mueseli (I am eating wheatabix – how low can one sink!) – and I am doing that because I was hit in the stomach on Wednesday, so I am trying to be a little more cautious. Although the food here is really very good. And you can order tea in the office all day long.

I am staying in a guest house about a 10 minute ride away from the UNICEF offices. Its OK, though the fuse on the air conditioner blows regularly. The temperatures have been hovering around 42-45 degrees during the day time. That is centigrade. I also had to draw the attention of the management (a rather nice man who seems to be the owner) to an invasion of cockroaches – huge ones, 2 inches or more in length, plus an additional inch for their feelers. They seemed to be climbing out of an open pipe in the bathroom. The night I killed 10 of them, I decided this could not be normal. The owner/manager since had sealed the hole with concrete and that seems to have solved the problem. There are also mosquitoes, which will become worse when the rains come – a few weeks away. But, strangely, the heat is not as debilitating as I thought it might be. One problem, though, is that you cannot go with short sleeves – in Kashmir, though in Islamabad you can get away with it. Most people carry a scarf, though I haven't quite found something I feel comfortable with. It should be somewhat cooler in Muzaf – but, I'll wait and see. In the meantime, I have bought 4 long-sleeved shirts which will serve.

So – my routine – I have been getting up at 7:00 ish. A car picks me up and brings me to the office at 8:15. I can then get a shuttle back to the guest house at 6 or 7 in the evening. I have been connected to Internet and Lotus Notes – though we are using my own lap top and not an office computer.[Given that I am now using my laptop on the Internet, can you ask Dev if I should update my virus protection. The IT people here can probably do that for me.] They have also given me a wireless card, because that is how it will work in Muzaffarabad.

You can eat lunch here at UNICEF – excellent meals for pennies (but I have now stopped since my innards protested) and – frankly – with the heat – I am not particularly hungry at noon. In the evenings, I have been frequenting a Kabul restaurant with excellent grilled beef, chicken, lamb, rice. Not too adventurous yet but a start. To get around after hours, you take cabs, which are actually very cheap. But in some areas (like outside my guest house) they can be hard to flag down.  

In Muzaffarabad – all I know is that I will be in a tent but, apparently, it is airconditioned and quite good, with good shower facilities and clean toilets. We will see.

What I have been doing, apart from lots of meetings with folk from different agencies and NGOs, have been to go out to the IDP camps for earthquake victims around Islamabad. The govt is trying to empty them and get the people to return to their areas (even if they cannot return home) – and while there is no "forced" relocation, the govt has used tactics like cutting off water, stopping all delivery of relief (food) supplies, destroying cooking and washing facilities – so return can hardly be described as voluntary in all cases. And, there are people who cannot go back because their villages are gone or their land is gone, or they are from cities where they are not going to be permitted to rebuild. I will append a few photos – one of H-11 camp, which used to be very large (about 18,000) but now has only about 2000 people, and one from Fateh Jung (outside the city, on an abandoned airstrip) where tents are on the tarmac and there is nothing in the vicinity. The temperatures are now over 40 and the tents are unbearably hot in the daytime. And, there are women in their last week of pregnancy, and some rather sick children, and amputees, and people with spinal injuries. Lots of difficult cases. I also went to see a camp in Kamra (about an hour and half away) for orphans and widows – actually a nice facility but not a very good solution, to institutionalize these people, which would cut them off completely from their communities and social support system and make them totally dependent. And, I have been working with someone from OCHA to try and see if we can get a convalescent centre established for those unable to travel – and with the Protection Cluster (UN agencies and NGOs) to develop recommendations to the government to, amongst other things, permit the creation of a camp for "residual cases" here – or, if not, to ensure that people are only moved from the Islamabad area if the camps in Kashmir or NW Frontier Province (from where they come) are really able to provide them with basic services. And, yesterday, I had my first report of sexual abuse and abuse by camp management in Muzaffarabad.

So – there is work to do. I will go to Muza on Monday, as I mentioned, and fly by helicopter to Bagh (another town in Kashmir) for meetings on Tuesday. And then, we'll see. Exciting!! And, I must admit – though I hate to – that I already bought an old Afghan necklace (which I will probably never wear – but its fun), a small necklace of jade beads – and a couple of pairs of sandals. I have looked at carpets and shawls and jackets and said no to everything as many come from Kashmir. So I am being very good and waiting.

Before signing off, I should note that the Pakistanis are incredibly warm and hospitable. And what a different it makes being in a society where you can speak to the local population. While people talk Urdu, all educated people speak English – which is the official language in Pakistan. So, you can get a very different insight into the society.

A few photos (I am not sure if I am attaching them correctly. If not, let me know and I will resend) As well -  I am not quite used to the camera yet.