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.