Friday, June 12, 2009

IDP Diary - Day 3 - Some shocks, people & curfews


For many, the routine life is boring, for me, Alhamdulilah, the routine life is always interesting. Oh, by the way, I have just observed an amazing thing out here in Mardan. The mosquitoes here are completely different from the ones in Islamabad and Punjab (I have no idea about the ones in Sindh and Balochistan). They don't buzz around your ears and they are so tiny that I haven't seen one up till now. So, this sounds good, eh?

NO, IT DOESN'T.

They bite non-stop !! The ones back home, bite and then they go for a ride and come back. But here in Mardan the situation is horrible. They keep on biting and biting just like the bunny from the 'Duracell' ad which never stops moving like a duck. Phew! I am cursing myself for buying a cheap duplicate of Mospel which the local shopkeeper suggested me. MOSPEL, come to my rescue!

When, I shifted to Pakistan last year, I used to get amazed when I used to see 10 people commuting on the Suzuki pickup. I used to imagine how the people manage it. But, I learned it anyways, because I also commute on it daily, so I know its piece of cake. But, yes there is always a but when I say something, Mardan completely shocked me. You want to know why?

Please see the above picture and know why.

Late in the night, I was sitting with a friend and he shared an amusing story about an Imam of a mosque at Sher-garh Market in District Mardan, 2 kms away from Malakand Agency. The Imam of the mosque was a very well-respected person of the community. One day, some army-men came in and told him to open the door of a room in the mosque. The Imam said he does not have the keys for it. One of the army-men punched him hard which made the people of the mosque angry. Surely, anyone would get angry if you hit an Imam/old man who is leading prayers and giving sermons for the past 25 years. The army-men told the people to wait and wait for the climax. They broke the door of the room they wanted to inspect, and they found weapons and rocket launchers.

If you think that was the climax, you are so wrong. Female readers can avoid the next paragraph.

The army personnel told the Imam to pull his shalwar down, I guess they pulled it down anways. That shocked the public and I am sure it would have caused a lot of stress to the followers of this Imam. The Imam did not got his organ circumcised, He was actually a Hindu! I guess they arrested him for sure, but they took him for a round in the Sher garh Market on foot and naked before. I wish the story is true because I hate reporting false incidents. The incident happened on 8Th of May. If someone can get it confirmed, I would be really happy!

Coming back to work, I just had to distribute tokens to families so that they could come and collect their food rations tomorrow. But, the end of the day was very heart-breaking, it took me quite a while to get back to normalcy. I met two cute little boys who were suffering from thalassemia. I guess they are 6 or 7 year olds. I have heard from Atta Bhai, a close aide who resides in the village Spilno-dehrai, that yesterday the boys were suffering of bleeding from the nose. In Swat, their parents had the privilege of getting their treatment/transfusion for gratis, but that has vanished for them as their livelihood has. One of them has gone dark but other was jumping around today when I told his father to call him as I wanted to meet him. The boys were supposed to get the blood transfusion done on 20Th May, and are supposed to get it every month to survive. They got displaced before that, therefore they missed the dates.


If that was not sad enough, I heard that one family were moving out of Swat to enter into Mardan. All of a sudden, they were attacked by a military helicopter, father and son got shot. Father survived son must be in the heavens INSHALLAH. The son was supposedly 6 year old.

But, I guess military was doing their duty I guess, there was a curfew placed in the area, its not their fault, bullets don't have feelings and the finger on the trigger is always numb.


Hmph...anyways, I was preparing to leave the village with a heart full of sorrow, when I heard the way to get out of the village, which is through the Sher-garh Market, was on curfew because the army was crossing into the Malakand Agency. This has happened twice with me in 4 days that I got stuck in the village due to curfew. But there is a another route to get out safely, so I was safe.


But I am not sure if my brothers and sisters living there are safe. I am worried O Allah, please bring peace back, please...



Wednesday, June 10, 2009

IDP Diary - Day 2 - Heat, Traffic, and a Sand Storm.



Well, it was quite a tough day today. If you don't believe me than read this:





Forecast for Wednesday Mardan, Pakistan
There is a 0% chance of precipitation. Sunny. Extremely hot. Temperature of 37°C. Winds NE 28km. Humidity will be 37% with a dewpoint of 20° and feels-like temperature of 41°C.






Found this on a local news site and believe me every word of it is true. I met a fellow a couple of weeks back who is not the weather man, but he did an interesting research. According to his research, the temperature inside a tent is 8°C higher than what it is outside. Come to think of it, we get off from work if the temperature reaches 50°C even if we are sitting inside air-conditioned rooms, for the displaced people living in the tents it has become a daily ritual, it has become their job to survive this heat if they want to survive. I wish they don't lose patience because Pukhtoons are difficult to control, and there are no qualms about it!

Well, the heat caused me to sweat, naturally. But, the traffic and the sand storm later in the day just made the matters worse and dirtier. It took me an hour to cross a 3 km track! I am sure when I go for a bath, I need a "Scotch Brite" to scrub the three enemies off my body - the dirt, smoke and the sand - I had to combat with. I am surviving so I won, but the blood of my enemies are still all over me, but its all over, at least for the day.



Today, I went to the field to take a survey on the condition of schools inside the camp and to collect some figures. Interestingly, the attendence rate is 70 %, a remarkable achievement because of two reasons:-


1. Who studies in summers?
Summers are to relax, but these kids are different, they enjoy studying. Moreover, there are almost equal number of girls & boys in a school, so those who think that the people of Malakand don't like to give their girls education are living in error and need to get their heads examined ASAP!



2. Its the weather again, they study in tent schools. I cannot survive in it for a minute and they study for hours in it. We have got some young super heroes in these camps, I guess we start making some good movies on these kids rather than on "naughty gujjars" and on "fat aunties dancing" who destroy alot of crop. Sometimes, I think they are responsible for all this food shortage...LETS STOP "THE DANCING AUNTIES" from dancing or I would rather say from thumping!

Anyways, I have got some really amusing news. Mir Khalil ur Rahman Foundation (a sister concern of Geo News) is arrange a mass wedding at the Jalala Camp in Mardan. 12 couples would get married on Friday, June 12th. They have arranged separate tents, mattresses and kitchen utensils for the newly-weds. If someone wants to attend the wedding, please let me know because one would not be allowed without a security pass. I am sick and tired of security checks by the way. But that doesn't imply we shouldn't help the authorities in performing their duty.


On the lighter note, for me the fun begins these days, when I take out my camera because either I am surrounded with kids immediately or hear shouts from the ones far to take their pictures. I say, some of them are really nice posers...the photo above says it all...

You decide! I love these kids anyways....

IDP Diary - Day 1


Actually its not Day 1, its 30 days now since I began my journey to facilitate the IDPs on behalf of the organization I work and donors who support us...


Anyways, I decided yesterday that I would update everyone by sharing interesting stories from Mardan and Swabi, where most of the displaced people are shifting, and all the places I visit to.


So, without wasting more time, start reading this:


Yesterday, I went to Spilno-Dehray, UC Makori in District Mardan. The place is 1-2 km away from Malakand Agency and around 60-70 kms away from the war zone. The organization I work in, Human Relief Foundation has selected this site to support the IDP families who have shifted there. My job of the day was to take a survey to assess the sanitation, health and water conditions. To my horror, the situation turned out to be more horrific than I had thought of. Most of the people did not have access to toilets and are forced to excrete their wastes in open, they are not used to this ritual as back home they had a toilet system which was well connected with sewage system. Moreover, they used to have seperate bathrooms, now they have to use the toilet for the same purpose. Ladies wait for their turns till it turns dark, to preserve their honor.
Surprisingly, the water condition is not as bad. The quality of the water is acceptable, and the only thing they require is storage tanks.


Well, lets come to the most interesting part, we left the village to head towards the Mardan city and guess what happened?


We got stuck in the area because the army/police put a curfew near the Shergarh Market! (the Shergarh Market, a market has a 600 year history and comes in between Spilno-Dehray and Mardan city)


But, I was lucky as I was with the company of some smart Pushtoons who knew another way. I wish the smart people working to displace people dont find out this place to create more unrest...


For everyone's information, the curfew has become a daily ritual and everyday people get shot down for violating it, some die, some survive...