Blogs from Pakistan, Asia - page 10

One technique the AIOU Computer Science department uses to transmit knowledge to the provinces is video conferencing. I decided to try it out Friday morning. I spoke in front of a small local audience and a large monitor that showed in one window an audience in D.G. Kahn and in another an audience in Umerkot, both distant dusty villages in the badlands of Pakistan. All three audiences seemed equally perplexed by my lecture on NetLogo, a computer language that models complex systems as virtual turtles swimming in a virtual pond. Fortunately, a van was waiting outside the door for my planned visit to Lahore, so I was able to make a quick escape before their perplexity turned to rage. Inside the van I was chagrined to see that my entourage had expanded to six, including my ... read more

Trip to SeaView on Sunday morning, 20th January, 2013... read more

Phew... after a ridiculously long time with no proper internet connection I can finally sit down and write here :) It was all a pretty quick turnaround from Islamabad and the wedding to this: straight from the ac luxury of chaffeur-driven vans, delicious home-cooked food and being glamourous to backpacker mode within just a handful of hours. Shahrukh (Saher's brother) was super kind and managed to wield his powers as an influential member of Pak Army to get me a seat on the next available flight to Skardu. The wedding reception finished after midnight and at 5am I was at the airport waiting to board my 'once in a lifetime experience flight' to Skardu, Baltistan. I'd pre-arranged to do some voluntary work for Project Snow Leopard so I was pretty flaming excited! By sheer coincidence Rabaab ... read more

After a flight that was worse still than the one from Milan to Dubai (this time the vegetarian option was 'bread and butter only love' and there was a terrorist scare as soon as we boarded) I was surprised, overwhelmed and delighted in equal measure that I had a kind welcome as soon as I stepped off the plane. It made the kid who'd been lobbing bits of chewed up bread roll and snotty tissue at me throughout the flight seem but a distant memory... Saher (Raza's wife to be)'s father is a high-ranking officer in the Pakistani Army and so he was allowed direct access to the plane. He was a warm, smiling chap who greeted me with a bear hug as I left the aircraft (I didn't think that was the done thing). A ... read more

Went to Gilgit in the winter of 2011 to study the government and private schools operating there.... read more