Home sweet Home

Home is where the heart is, and my heart will always be with my parents. After high school, I left to go study in DC. Then there was work, and the Peace Corps. I never stopped to think about when I would be living with my parents again at that point. But its absolutely wonderful to be 'home' again. To be with my family.

That being said, this might be the first time I'm really sad to leave Pakistan. First off, I miss my Baboo Khala. I miss coming downstairs and having breakfast with her, coming home to share little things about my day with her and going out for lunch and coffee randomly. I miss the view of Margalla Hills from my bedroom. I miss seeing and hearing all the hulla-gulla associated with the world cup excitement. I actually miss hearing Haris practice guitar in the next room. The drive to the office in Chak Shehzad, even the smell of livestock out there. Thinking in urdu and drinking chai. Wearing shalwar kameez so I couldn't tell that I've gained a bunch of weight on all the naan I've been eating. Checking out new places to eat with Mariam and hanging out like we've known each other forever. Seasonal food and fruit sold on carts in the streets (roasted corn, fresh fish, strawberries). I miss being able to wear a dupatta on my head when I wanted to be conservative and shield myself from glances without looking weird. And I miss the feeling of being there to help in my home, and with my people.

It's been a great experience. I got to work with some really awesome people and some really good projects. I was able to help organize and coordinate a couple of events both in Lahore and Islamabad. And I laid out the groundwork for a Summer Village Development program. I created the necessary partnerships and collaborations for the program with its basic overview and set up meetings with the necessary organizers. And I got to volunteer with the girls.

Even though I miss it, I'm ready to leave. Ever since I left the Peace Corps, I've been on the road. I'm still on the road, but I'm one step closer to being back home in Orange County permanently. Or relatively permanently. Now that my relief work is kind of over, I don't think I'll be writing in this as much. I'll always be getting involved in projects, so I will be writing. Just not the same way.

Over and out.

Cookies =)

I promised the girls I would come over and teach them how to bake cookies. And for some reason, I haven't been able to find time to do it until now. I made the cookie dough ahead of time (because teaching them all how to mix the ingredients together would have been a little difficult) and froze it. Then I split the dough into pieces. I worked with two groups so that it was a little easier than having all 30 girls in the kitchen at the same time. The girls then took turns rolling out the dough, cutting shapes out with the cookie cutters I took, and placing them on the baking sheets. Some of them were assigned the task of watching the cookies to make sure they didn't burn (unfortunately, we still lost 2 cookies because they were rolled out too thin compared to the rest so they were burnt to a crisp). While they baked, some of the girls helped making the icing and arranging the sprinkles. As each batch came out, they took turns decorating them with icing and sprinkles. 

The girls also took my camera captive, hence some crazy tilted pictures. All in all, we made over 100 cookies. It was hard trying to make sure everyone got a turn at everything because the girls got so excited they wanted to make every shape possible, but there wasn't enough dough to let every girl make as many cookies as they wanted. After we rolled out the dough, cut out shapes, baked the cookies, iced and sprinkled the cookies, the girls were disappointed when I told them that was it and they could eat them now! They wanted to stay baking in the kitchen =)

As usual, the girls thanked me profusely saying 'Thank you Api' over and over again. It was wonderful to see how much fun the girls had and actually be a part of it. And I feel bad that I won't be spending any more time with them. But its been a really good experience being able to contribute a little to the Saba Homes, even if it was only for a short time. And hopefully I'll be able to visit the girls again some day.

Nowshera

I've had my heart set on visiting one of the flood affected areas during my stay in Pakistan. And with my time here coming to an end (2 weeks left!), I'd been getting anxious about that too. But I finally got to visit Nowshera yesterday. Nowshera is in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, bordered by Peshawar, Charsadda/Mardan, the Attock region and Swabi. The main language spoken is Pashto, which made it difficult for me to properly converse. We visit about three smaller villages, including one called Meetha-gao (which translates to sweet village!).

Praying before money was given for the cow

I went with Saghir Uncle and Asim from Saba Trust. Initially, we had requested a list of candidates for aid. Then Asim visit multiple times before this trip to determine which flood victims truly deserved our help. He hand selected about 8 villagers to buy buffalo's, sheep and goats for. He also selected a couple of homes to rebuild, depending on the conditions of the damage inflicted, and also the particular villager's status before the floods. Unfortunately, a lot of people have tried to take advantage of relief efforts. So even if they had nothing before the flood, they claimed losses in order to qualify for aid. So on our visit, we handed over the money for the livestock and surveyed the houses that needed to be reconstructed. We also visit some more flood victims to see what help they needed.

There was literally a home here, left as nothing but rubble after the flood

The remains of another house

I took down information from all the men who received some form of aid from us, including their national I.D. numbers, the names and ages of all their children and whether or not they went to school or were working, and had their fingerprints taken as receipt. The majority of the families had an average of 6-8 children and the fathers were working as 'mazdoor' which basically means someone that does rough work like construction, etc.  Everywhere we went, they insisted on serving us. The first village actually made anda puratha (eggs and an oily desi bread) for us. Chai was of course insisted upon at every stop.

 Huma and her sister who was to shy to tell me her name

Being the only woman on the trip, I was able to enter the home's and survey the kitchens and see how the women lived and ask them questions. I actually received a couple of marriage proposals from some of the villagers mothers. My heart melted when all the women invited me into their homes and hugged me and kissed me. And I wanted to cry as the little girls shyly grabbed my hands and led me to their houses and proudly showed me where they lived. I wanted to hug Huma as she went to the tuck shop and bought chips to serve me, wishing I could make her life better. I watched as Huma gulped down the water that I could visibly see bacteria floating in, and felt utterly helpless. 

A village made up entirely of mud houses

The tent a family of 8 is living in with a stack of bricks to shield fire serving as their kitchen

I wish we had unlimited funds to help everyone, instead of having to turn away truly deserving people. I wish there was enough money and enough caring people in the world to make sure everyone at least lived comfortably if not at the same level. And I wish that I had the strength to do more than return home in a comfortable car to drink my own filtered water and sleep with fluffy pillows.

World Interfaith Harmony

As a response to the recent United Nations launch of the first World Interfaith Harmony Week, Saba Trust initiated a Interfaith conference on the 6th of February in support of the UN. 

http://worldinterfaithharmonyweek.com/

Here is part of the UN resolution passed to recognize the World Interfaith Harmony Week annually during the first week of February:

1. Reaffirms that mutual understanding and inter religious dialogue constitute important dimensions of a culture of peace;
2. Proclaims the first week of February of every year the World Interfaith Harmony Week between all religions, faiths and beliefs;
3. Encourages all States to support, on a voluntary basis, the spread of the message of interfaith harmony and goodwill in the world's churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and other places of worship during that week, based on love of God and love of one's neighbor or on love of the good and love of one's neighbor, each according to their own religious traditions or convictions;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to keep the General Assembly informed of the implementation of the present resolution.

Saba Trust has a history of interfaith activities both in the United States and Pakistan for the past 45 years. In continuation of these efforts, Saba Trust hosted their World Interfaith Peace Conference on March 4th at the Islamabad Club. I worked at registration, helped run the event and took care of some of the Saba Homes girls that were presenting at the conference. There were about 17 speakers from different faiths and organizations.

Build Bricks & Bale

In the aftermath of floods, IKF launched a comprehensive Village Development Plan to rebuild the lives of those affected by the disaster. On the construction side, we are introducing a new form of constructing and reviving ancient-old methods of building homes in the Indus that are better for the environment and built to be disaster-proof. 

February 22nd was our event for the school kids. We invited about 40 students from 5 different schools to participate in our 'Build Bricks and Bales' day at our office in Chak Shehzad, where we're constructing a model village home. We wanted to teach the students about the importance of sustainable development by engaging them in molding bricks and binding straw bales to build a model home for our rural flood victims. We asked them to arrive in practical, warm clothes and shoes that they didn't mind getting dirty, because they were literally playing in the mud! Some of the girls from one of the schools even got mud on our new CEO's jacket, which I think was nice; to see that he was interacting with the kids and getting involved in our youth mobilization efforts. 

For the first couple of weeks working at this office, I had been working on coordinating this event. And I think, thanks to team work, we did a really good job. We organized it into 5 different activities: 1) Mixing brick materials 2) Making bricks with the brick frame 3) Making bricks with Bhatta Jr. (this mini brick making contraption a local man invented) 4) Stacking the straw bale for what is going to become the conference room 5) a presentation on our organic farm. They even got to plant some seeds. 

The kids had a lot of fun, and were all thanking us on their way out for a good time. There's nothing like a job well done to put a smile on your face. But, what made me smile even more was entering in the information from the volunteer forms the students filled out for our database. One of the questions on the form is 'Why do you want to volunteer'? Here are some of my favorite answers:  

• I want to help my nation and help it touch the zenith of the sky 
• I want to help the poor because they have rights equal to ours and are like our brothers 
• Because I want to be a part of making a difference 
• I have full trust in IKF and believe that I can experience real joy and pleasure by working for the poor and needy side by side with a great leader, Imran Khan.
• Because I want to help those who are in need and I feel pain in my heart for those who are in need of my help.

And here is how the straw bale house is looking right now:

Yay for a successful youth mobilization campaign!

50th Anniversary

March 1st commemorates 50 years since Kennedy launched the United States Peace Corps. Since its inception, more than 200,000 Americans have served in 139 countries. And I couldn't be more proud to be a part of what I think is the strongest alumni connection to exist. Stronger than any university Alma mater, in my opinion. In celebration of the 50th anniversary, the National Peace Corps Association has been promoting Global House parties. So returned volunteers, current volunteers, parents of PCVs, current and former Peace Corps staff and the Peace Corps community in general attended and organized parties all over the world. 

I looked up the listing of parties and was surprised to find one taking place here in Islamabad. Ours was on Saturday the 26th, instead of the 1st, because it was more convenient to have it on the weekend instead. It was a potluck, where everyone brought something from their host country. There was food from Romania, Madagascar, Guatemala, Belize, Kazakhstan, Russia, Honduras and I'm forgetting a couple of places. It was a nice get together of about 15 people. It was really nice to feel like a part of the PC community again, because there's really nothing like it. It was also amazing to see that after having served so many years ago, RPCVs still wanted to celebrate so many miles away from home. 

No, I didn't make this cake =( And I'm jealous that I didn't have time to go all out like this, but I did bake!

We all decided to be cheesy and tell a story from our Peace Corps experience. Some were funny, some sad, some disturbing. One of the girls told us about the time she thought she was being abducted by a cab driver. Another guy told us about his experience with tear gas and protests when Bush was in Guatemala. Another about having to sneak across the Mexican border to get back to his host country when his passport expired on his trip home. I decided to tell them about the first time I successfully streupsed. And they tried getting me to streups the rest of the night, but I can't do it on demand. I think I might have lost the skill =(

Most of the RPCV's here are working for USAID or the embassy. I was definitely the youngest, most recent returnee. What I thought was amazing is that there were at least 5 couples there, and 3 of them were married to fellow RPCVs. One of the couples actually met on their first day of training. The other two met at alumni events similar to this I think, because they didn't serve in the same place. It makes sense, because you share something that is probably one of the most defining experiences of your life. I definitely want to join the Peace Corps again with my husband one day =) 

Outside perspective

Abu-man sent this to me, and I just thought it was neat to see an outsiders perspective of Pakistan. 

http://blog.dawn.com/2011/02/11/what-the-chinese-guy-said/

Islamabad IKF

The back of our office where the VDP prototype's are being built. We're literally out in farmland where I can smell the livestock.   

I've been working at the Islamabad IKF office since I came back. This means I've been working with Ms. Huma, the executive director and her team here instead. The Lahore office was more geared towards the Youth Mobilization Campaign, whereas the work here is more involved in the Village Development Program. However, the two are not disconnected. Last week, Mariam and I (the executive assistant who just left the office because she's moving to Karachi), gave 5 presentations to different grade levels at the Westminster College here in Islamabad. We talked to them about the VDP because they were having an event to raise funds for IKF. I seriously wanted to smack some of these kids. Some of the boys literally started laughing while we showed a video from the actual flood. Another one said something along the lines of how the flood victims didn't need school because they were just going to grow up to be farmers anyway. But then the good hearted students who wanted to get involved in the summer village development program came and asked for more details afterwards and made it all worthwhile.

 Some of the stalls at the food festival

Saturday was the international food festival held by the Westminster College. They had stalls set up for different places including: USA, UK, Canada, Mexico, South America, China, Japan, Myanmar, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Africa, Egypt, Yemen, Italy, Norway, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, India, and the four provinces in Pakistan. As an IKF representative, I was asked to be a judge for the food. Yep. I ate from every single one of those stalls. I was insanely full at the end. And had to take a lot of insulin! I was totally thinking of Amar Bhai and how jealous he would be! It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see the kids get so involved. They had to learn about their country and had help from the embassies, and also set up visual displays. Some of them were really neat, like the Saudi stall had a little diwaniya set up in a classroom with arabic music playing. The Punjab stall had boys in dhotis doing bhangra. Hawaii had coconuts and hula dancers. I think some of my favorites were Saudi, Malaysia, South America and Hawaii. All in all, it was good.

Our IKF stall at the event

A student filling out a volunteer application form =)

New Seeds of Hope

After a couple of weeks of really long days at the office, meaning I didn't come home till around 8.00 pm sometimes, I'm finally back in Islamabad. The scheduled cricket match was postponed due to a couple of reasons, including security issues in Lahore that need a lot more time to be able to coordinate properly. So the match has now been postponed till after the Cricket World Cup. To pacify the kids, we still had a Recognition and Awards ceremony for them at Zaman Park. The top 5 achievers from each school were invited and the top 12 achievers from all of Lahore were awarded personally signed cricket bats from Imran Khan himself. It was supposed to be 11 to represent the players on a cricket team, but we had a tie. In total, we hosted about 750 students, teachers and principals from over 40 schools in an event designed to honor their efforts in providing relief to Pakistan’s flood affected farmers.

The event began with a Tala'wat of the Holy Quran, followed by a welcome address from Mrs. Fauzia Kasuri where she briefed the audience about the New Seeds of Hope campain, introduced the IKF team and then Imran Khan himself. Imran Khan spoke about how Pakistan's youth needs to play a pivotal role in bringing about a positive change. Then the floor was opened to the students to ask questions. Surprisingly, there was a prevalence of political awareness in Lahore's youth and a lot of concern for the future of their country. Perhaps because we invited the top achievers who were obviously the most motivated and driven from their peers.

One of the most touching stories was that of the efforts from the students of Aabroo. Aabro is a low income welfare school, which still managed to raise Rs. 100,000.

http://www.aabroo.org/projects.php

For the event, I was asked to be the Volunteer Coordinator. We had a little over 40 volunteers, and I had to organize all the tasks before hand and delegate them along with coordinate any issues that came up as we went along. Unfortunately, most of the volunteers showed up late meaning we didnt have time to organize things the way we were supposed to before our guests started arriving. Somehow, especially thanks to a couple of really hard working volunteers, we pulled everything off in the end. It was a little chaotic, but a great event nonetheless.

It was also really nice to get to spend this much time with my family in Lahore. I think the longest I've stayed in Lahore has been a long weekend since we lived here. I got to spend a little time with everyone, and I definitely really loved the time I had with my Nomi Khala. Even if it was just having coffee and updating her after work, or having breakfast with her in the morning before heading out.

 My dado when we went out for a family dinner at a local, traditional restaurant

My youngest cousin, Mustafa. He was super shy around me since he's not used to me.