Blogs from Punjab, Pakistan, Asia - page 2

For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com For this blog entry, my pictures will tell the story of my ‘see-and-do’s, but the story I will tell you will be non-illustrated for reasons that you will understand if you read below. (I should note, for the Red Light District pics, I did not 'see-and-do'. It just happened to be right in the middle of the Old City). The setting is Punjab, a fertile, prosperous and densely populated region that was divided politically with the partition of Pakistan from India in 1947. Up to a million people were slaughtered in the aftermath of the division. My story takes place in Pakistani Punjab. Islamabad and Lahore, the political and cultural capitals of Pakistan respectively, are located in this region. Few travelers pass ... read more

Last week I had the dubious pleasure of visiting Lahore, the commercial and cultural centre of Pakistan. The pleasure was dubious since Pakistan is enjoying a wave of radical Islamist attacks in its urban centres..but a pleasure it was nonetheless. There are only two flights a week from Delhi to Lahore, both on Pakistan International Airlines whose pilots I am told are all ex-airforce. This became apparent as we entered into some alarming low banking turns about 500 feet over the suburbs of Lahore. Myself and Perenia CEO David Tow were met by a warm and gracious SMEC employee named Anwar who accompanied us throughout our stay. David is an old hand in South Asia and has visited Pakistan "about 15 times". Engineers, it seems, have no fear. One of the guys I met in the ... read more

Final Fling Blog 5th JFinal Fling Blog 5th July 2009 3 weeks and we will be back in England—it seems so close yet so far away! We are busy in these last weeks writing the modules for the teacher training that will take place in the last week we are here-I am getting quite quick on the key board The lap top is one of the most useful items that we brought with us -infact we should have brought 2. Much of the training is based on making the lessons in the official Punjab texts books more interesting and inter-active but I am also working on sessions about reading/book corners and making books, bullying and Early Childhood Education! It is going to be an intensive week! We have had cupboards made—not quite as we designed but ... read more

A Typical Day Not really, so let’s make one up from lots of other days with all the best Alarm goes off at 5.45 giving me a bit of snoozing time while the temperature is still pleasant. Getting Geoff out of bed is just as hard here as at home!!! Luckily we have a good bathroom with a shower and a western toilet. Plus geckoes and fireflies and cockroaches!! But we think that problem may be solved for abit due to nasty chemical spray, try not to stand on crunchy nearly dead bodies when visiting the bathroom at night in a power cut! Early morning is a good time to do the washing again due to cooler temperatures. I have a big plastic bowl and we put the clothes in water overnight -the soak and hope ... read more

Dear All Just a quick blog to pass the news on that V.S.O. have descided to stop international volunteering in Pakistan until the political situation becomes more settled so we will be coming back a couple of months earleir than intended. We now plan to leave at the end of July ready to go back to work in Coventry in September. All volunteers are to leave by September. This is sad news for many reasons--we have never felt in danger in the area where we are placed and we our having some good success in our work which will now have to be curtailed. However it will be lovely to see everyone again and bore you all with even more photos and stories of 'When we were in Pakistan..........' Good news--we are getting some monies from ... read more