Rawal Pindi, Pakistan
 

Yes, it's a very long and complicated story about this strange trip to Pakistan and NO, I'm not going to get into the details.

I went to visit Rawal Pindi for two weeks and just returned last week. The people there were very kind to me and took great care at making me safe and well fed during my stay there. I took about 400 pictures but will only post a few of the better ones here. I'm sure that everyone is glad for that, especially Mr Toad.

If you have the chance, do go and visit. It's a trip back in time, true but the weather is so much better than that of the US and most everything is cheap.

You can forget about meeting any women there, or for that matter, even seeing more than an exposed eye here and there, but it's a fascinating place to visit and they treat white Americans like no less than rock stars.

Here is one of the more modern looking buildings on Bank road I believe.


Oh well. The attachments dont seem to be working now. I'll try back later and if anyone has any stupid or reasonable questions they would like to ask regarding this strange trip, post them.

They are probably over 100k. Reduce them in size before posting!

I just checked the size and they are all about 20k. I'll try back again later.

Must be doing something else wrong.

I have a couple.
Did you just show up or were your hosts expecting you?
What weapon(s) did you travel with?
What's the food like?
Were you able to converse in English with some or most?
They weren't suspicious of you?
What misimpressions did they have about America?
What "message" (if any) did they want you to carry back to America from their culture?
Safe from who?
What didn't you bring that you wished you had?
Was it business or pleasure?

Great questions Beestie.

I applied for a tourist visa and it was quickly granted. When I arrived in Pindi there was a reservation there for me at the Shalimar hotel.

A Paki national negotiated a good price for the room at the hotel becuase they insist on negotiating on every business transaction there and this is the only thing about the whole culture that truly irritates me.

As you can imagine, me going to a muslim country without being armed was more than a little distressing. It was soon clear that nearly every police officeer, Elite Police commando and security guard was keeping an eye on me to see that I was safe at all times.

The Elite Police commando units are placed throughout the city as a precation for Al Queda (or Taliban )coming across the border from Afghanistan and blowing things up or killing people there.

Just a few years ago there were bombings within the city and President Musharaaf's limo was also bombed. This I am told was in retaliation for the cooperation with the US's policy on the WOT.

There are rockin' ready teams all over the city with AKs, MP5s and nasty looking short barreled shotguns. The Elite Police are trained in anti-terror tacktics and work in teams of 6 each troop carrier, which are positioned about every block.

After about a week there of wandering all over the streets at all times of the day and the night I had a translator tell me that the security guards were tracking my progress through the streets as I passed. There is a security guard placed at nearly every business and is normally carrying a large caliber rifle of a BIG shotgun with a short barrel.

They talk on the radio to each other to keep up with any happenings that they may need to be aware of. My interpretter says they would alert the next guard down the street that I was coming. This was for my protection as well as thier own curiousity not having ever seen a white man, much less one from the USA.

Between the Police, Elite Police and the security guards I would say I had a small army of people that would have helped me had I needed it and in fact in two minor incidences that my safety was not at risk, the security guards came out into the street to asist me

One incident was a large group of beggar kids that were quickly shooed away and the other was a man that apparently thought that I was a paki national if you can believe that. I was wearing the shalwar kameez and I guess he thought that I was one of them. His only offense was being unusually tall and standing way too close to me which really kind of freaked me out.

A guard from a store came out and shouted what I could only imagine as "you dumbass....he's an American in our clothes....dont stand so fucking close to him" because he was speaking in Urdu.

The tall man stood back and followed me repeating with a heavy accent almost everything that I said to other people on the street from that time on. I felt bad about it, seems he was just overly curious and friendly but the interpretter wasnt there at the time. It was actually a compliment after he took a step back.

So back to the question....what weapon? I didnt need one. There were many ready to come to my aid if required.

Well, as you might imagine, the food is kinda scary from most of the shops and diners. I was very cautious about eating anything that came from what I would classify as a dumpster. There were many of my paki friends that did eat from the scary places though....room temp chicken lying around waiting to be cooked and all.

The food from the nice places was very good. It was very spicy hot and they use a lot of veggies and frozen cream types of foods.

My dining hosts were very amused at my putting jello on my plate with the main meal as I went to the buffet. I didnt tell them but that was my "holy fuck I cant eat this stuff, where is some kind of mixer type food" backup plan.

Fortunately, there was only one time that I thought I might hurl at the nice restaurant and that was after eating what I could swear would be short worms.

YUK! Everything else was fine.

I would say about one in a few hundred there was fluent with English. Most of the people that were coming up to me had some level of English training.

Almost all of the people there recognize the importance of knowing English to doing business throughout the world. There are advertisements for schools placed through the city that teach English fluently.

Those that could talk with me in English were not only the upper class people though. Many of them had spent time in the UK and knew English quite well.

They were at first but after I started answering questions then no so much so. There were no questions that I would not answer, about me personally, American policy, and religion, anything.

It didnt take long for them to appreciate my honestly with them and what I had to tell them was not always what they wanted to hear.

Like how I regard Bill Clinton.

They didnt really have misimpressions as much as Americans have about them. They just wanted to verify that you didnt need your parents permission to marry who you wanted and questions about porn in the US, stuff like that.

I guess the biggest misimpression was that Bush was hated in the US by the majority of the people.

I killed that one real quick.

That is an easy one.

That they are not terrorists and they are indeed honorable, friendly people.
They have spent a lot of time, money and effort to root out the suspected terrorists there and they are a more than a bit disappointed that we dont recognize that.

Their people need jobs and business. They are becoming more equipped to provide services and products that we need here in the US too. They feel betrayed that we dont do more business with them than we do.

I for one will be looking at doing just that, giving them more business deals.

There were no human dangers there while I was there.

There were, however, traffic and naviagational dangers every where you look. What in the US would have a guard on it or some type of protection from you accidently stepping into a hole or somesuch was totally without alert or protection there.

If you dont watch what you are doing you could easily get hurt in a wide variety of dangerous situations from no railings on the buildings to large holes in the sidewalk that dump out to the sewer system (if you can call it that)

A laptop.

For as savvy as the Indians are with computers...the pakis are not. They dont understand the uses and the functions of computers and their systems are so weak and bugged up that it was a pain in the ass to do nearly anything on the hotel computer.

I had to all but rip all the software out and reformat to get the yahoo IM and e-mail to work and the E drive didnt work so I couldnt dump the pics from my cam into the computer.

The owner of the hotel did buy another computer after seeing me fuck with it for hours at a time but then he replaced a bad Win ME OS with an impossible Win 98!!

They just dont know computers.

And when they swapped the good computer for the crappier one ( for me ) they also tossed my USB cable out...becuase if you dont know what the fuck something does, it must not be needed. :lol:

This was just a vacation. The next trip this fall will be business. By that time I should have some trade set up and it will be great to have been there once to meet some real friends before every paki with a dream to be a big US business partner will surely want to have my attention.

Great questions Beestie.

You lying bastard, you're working for W aren't you. As a matter of fact you have been right along. I thought you were a W shill and Thief River Falls was just a training cover for the CIA or ...or ...Haliburton. :p

No go with the pics. Push the "manage attachments" button and nothing happens.

Any suggestions?

An NO BRUCE...no CIA involvement here. None with W either, sorry.

Javascript restrictions problem?

yeah I think so UT. How do I fix it?

Interesting stuff, there's meant to be some beautiful places near there. Did you get out of the city at all?

I dunno, depends on your browser. In Firefox there is a setting in Tools->Options->Web Features

I had plans to go to Lahore with a native companion but he had to cancel at the last minute and I didnt want to go all that way alone.

I did go to Islamabad also and was very impressed with the architechture and the general layout of the city. It was much cleaner and better lit at night with many more interesting diplomat types and such there.

There is a place called "the northern area" that almost everyone wanted me to go see but I didnt go. Next trip I will have some great pics of this place. There are supposed to be wild peacocks and monkeys there that are very nice to see.

Take a look at this site www.travel-culture.com This site shows some tours and photos of this scenic area. You might even see some of my pics there, I have been in contact with the webmaster about my trip there.

This machine has been making me crazy with the scripts, I think I know what to do. They dont work here and a lot of other places too.

I just thought of something else the Pakistani people were asking about. I thought this was totally funny even though I didnt want to be an ass to them for asking.

They asked me if I watch and followed "professional wrestling" to which I answered a solid NO, but managed NOT to say "why in the fuck would anyone with ANY damn thing to do want to do something dumb like that*"?

It seems that there is a quite a following of our "pro wrestling" there and I saw and heard many people make references to it after they knew that I was from the USA.

There was a young banker that was particularly into wrestling that I politely explianed..."Sure, it may have some entertainment value but the reality is that not one single educated person that I know EVER watches pro wrestling....I'm not saying that it's a bad thing for you to do so but if you are talking to Americans.....I wouldnt mention that to them"

After making some mock fistpunches to the head with the footstomp on the ground for effect he chuckled and agreed with me.

* - nothing personal if you like wrestling...I am just as big of a hillbilly as you can find...but I think it's the dumbest thing since filling out a 1040 form when your employer has already paid the tax.

Nice to meet you slang. Sounds like an awesome trip. I'd like to see the pix too. I was cursed with a non-functioning Manage attachments button too. Here's the successful end to my story. ymmv, but good luck.

http://www.cellar.org/showpost.php?p...7&postcount=92

I was gonna suggest turning off the pop up blocker also.

I'll third that. I have to hit the control button to override the blocker in order to manage attachments or see the rest of the smilies. :biggrin:

Ok, looks like a new NON IE browser did the trick.

The first one is me in the paki man dress and in need of a shave. The second one is a common truck from the city with it's unusual markings.

This next one is me in more of a need of a shave with a leash on. :)

Many of the beggers/ street preformers there had monkeys there and I was honestly fearful of the little bastards. They would jump around and were quite playful but who knows what HIV they have in their blood and saliva.


The next one is one of the more interesting and modern looking buildings on Bank rd in Pindi.

If you are over 5-5 here you can surely appreciate how small the cars are here. Just as I was walking around wondering where the bigger cars were, I found this old Chevy Caprice.

I dont know how long this one has been there but the stench is powerful all around it and for a minute I thought there might be a body in it.

Sure wish I could have ridden in something this size when I was there.

While not quite as big, this Beetle seemed familiar too but was in working order without the stench. ;)


The interior was completely whipped but just having it run made it something interesting for the paki owner.

This first one is from inside the stock exchange in Pindi. My friend Najeeb was a real player in the market and I spent some time with him here. It was interesting but Jesus H, everywhere you go there its hotter than hell and smells like everyone's BO

Hey I can handle it, mine was in the mix too , I'm sure...but wow....I couldnt stay in the exchange for more than 10 minutes.

Next is me sporting the traditional nice evening attire. This material is very nice and has a fancy botton down section on the top. Pretty comfy overall.


Tough to pee in though :lol:

This next one is of a mosque right in the city of Pindi. One of the few times that I was uneasy was during the call to prayer from this mosque. It's loud and has everyone's attention. There's just something about the sound that gives me the creeps. My friends were supportive of my wanting to get inside when the call would sound but they really didnt understand my wanting to get inside .

The next one is one of my favorites. It's just a man and his covered wife riding down the highway but the fact that shes riding sidesaddle and is totally covered made this very interesting to me.

I guess we do something similar to that with Harley's here though...cept the women are naked. :lol:

I was riding in a bus when I took this shot of the father and son. The son saw me snapping the pics and couldnt stop looking at me.

Thank God none of these people were injured in any of these dangerous situations there. I couldnt watch some of the things I saw people do there in fear of seeing them get hurt.

This next one is from the bus too. This is three kids on a bike passing a cell phone back and forth while riding. The kids are so enthusiastic about technology and living a modern life there. Their enjoyment of such simple things was great.

I can't imagine that working at all. It would take tremendous skill to even manage to retain your balance at all. Either she's gonna fall and break her neck, or she'll carry the whole bike down around a turn some time.
:headshake

This next one is a billboard of Musharaaf who is quite popular there despite the little bombing thing a few years back..

He is bringing foreign investment and development to Pakistan and the people are just now seeing the effects of his new policies. I've always thought he was a gutsy guy and have seen him of Fox news with Bush. He's got a very powerful presence.

The billboard reads...."fortune always favors the brave...it doesnt matter what he wears"

For anyone that believes that muslims there are intolerant of Christianity, I saw no evidence of this. This is the St Paul's Church off the mall, complete with it's own station for a security guard placed there during service( complete with a short barrelled shotgun ;) )

Lastly I would like to thank everyone that was so helpful and gracious to me while Iwas there.....from the staff at the Shalimar Hotel that was always running for my cold water to my friend in the shops of Pindi....to the Elite Police commandos ...I'll never forget you all and will return for another visit very soon.

I dont want to understate their patience with me and their attention to my wants and needs there.

What a truly great people, I miss them all already.


Sorry I almost forgot someone....thanks UT for allowing me to post these for everyone, I have zipped files of the complete collection if you would like to see them.

The idea that Muslims have a problem with Christians is not really true. My wife grew up in Tehran in a Catholic neighborhood with real Catholic churches and everything. The regime even allows them to possess and consume alcohol which, as we know, is central to being Catholic. :)

They do it by the thousands man.....I cant figure it out myself but they do it.

I have even seen a woman side saddle with a baby in her arms and a kid on the tank!! :eek:

Ambassador Slang! What an interesting trip and a great curious adventure! Thanks for the thread.

If I had a dime for every guy that asked me to use my permit to buy some booze for them there ......my trip would have been free. :lol:

The reality is that I would not have bought booze for even my closest friends there ....it'd be like a kid first drinking and do I want to be around when the cops nab the national that's drunk on my booze permit? :headshake

(shoephone rings and is answered)

slang: Hello?
Cheney: Accidental Tourist?
slang: Roger that
Cheney: We got him.....nice work. W sends a high five.
slang: (big grin)

It would have been much more impressive if you'd posted that when they actually got him instead of when they announced they did :D

He was the friendly cab driver, wasn't he?

And blow the OP? NO way....gitmo is hot this time of year. :D

He was the dark looking fellow with the round little hat and shalwar kameez on. ;)

That narrows it down. Thanks.

Response to Beestie
 

Hi Beestie,

Until Slang responds to your questions I thought I would respond to your questions.

The food in Pakistan is very spicy .. much of the cooking is done with curry sauce but I aquired a taste for it after my stay in Islamabad. I find myself missing some of the spices (not all, but some) lol I love their rice and beans.

You asked about weapons? Why would you think that anyone would travel to PK with weapons? :worried:

The majority of the people that I became aquainted with during my stay who spoke english were professional people. English is mandatory for the school children now in PK. I found that many of the Pakistani's do speak english, but they are very meek and humble people and are too shy to speak english.

You would be amazed at the difference of the news on the media stations in PK compared to what we hear in the US.

I was treated very kindly while I was in PK and I was told by many of the women there that they wished they could have the confident attitude that I had.

If you have money you can live quite comfortably in PK.

I can tell you this much the poverty in PK I found to be overwhelming. Since my return this past Christmas Day 2004, there isn't a night that goes by when I fall asleep that I don't see the sad little eye's of the children begging me for money, not only the children but the Mother's also.

The culture shock was very hard on me to begin with but as time passed I became more relaxed. Not once during my nine month stay in Islamabad and also Rawlapindi did I ever feel threatned or in any type of fear for my life.

The majority of the Pakistani people are very kind.

If you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them.

Best always,

Mindy

Mindy, why were you there? Were you travelling alone or with someone else?

And welcome to the Cellar! (Am I too new to say that?)

I've actually done that! (Without the burka, of course...) In Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. Scared the bejeezus outta me. :mg:

Thank you for the thoughtful reply and welcome to the Cellar!

There is a very good website on Rawalpindi here at www.pindiplus.com

It's complete with a huge collection of photos and clips, info on traveling to Pakistan, where to stay, what to do, the history of the city....most everything you might want to know.

The site was started on a shoestring budget by Dr. Kashif Ahmed. He's done a great job and attracting Pakis as well as westerners to this site.

If you are interested in some clips of what's going on in the Paki quake relief and conditions there, new clips are available. **this is raw footage of earthquake scenes with some human fatalities shown**

http://www.pindiplus.com/kashif/vdo/index.php

I'm always curious to see raw footage like this, without spin and packaging. Of course...spin would require that I speak that language but you get my meaning.

Bagh looting video 1 and 2: This is the truck of supplies that Kashif bought and arranged shipment of with the transfer I sent for quake relief.

The yellow packages being thrown are biscuts. The main need there right now are blankets and clothing.

The people are complaining that they are from smaller far off villages and have not yet recieved supplies. The residents there are getting the majority of the supplies (translation: they have looted the truck before we could loot the truck, dammit)

"interview" video: you can hear them cheer when they break into the truck and find the blankets. Cool to see even though things are so bad for them right now.

I just wish that I had more cash to send to help out. With very few exceptions, everyone in Pak was very good to me. I have a connection with them even though we're so different and far away.

KA says that the helos from Kabul have arrived and are being put to good use.

Slang

Firstly I read your thread with interest & loved the pictures. I haven't checked out the earthquake clips yet as I am at work.

One question- you use the abbreviation Paki quite often in your posts. Is this acceptable in the US & in Pakistan? In the UK it is considered insulting - like calling someone from China a Chinky. Its a genuine question & not a dig.

It must not be offensive because it's used here in the states by Paki(stani :) ) people as well as in country.

I never gave it a thought though honestly. If I thought it would be insulting I wouldn't use it. I'll ask Kashif about it. He doesnt hold anything back when he thinks I effed up or am wrong.

Have you traveled there? What did you find interesting in the photos?

Are you a Muslim, do you run with scissors, do you play the lottery, do you like to drink tea, do you play cricket, is the highest building in your city named after a baseball player, do you ride a bicycle to work in the snow to save money, do you like balloons, have you ever seen Elvis, have you even seen a UFO, have you ever left your body ( w/o chemicals), .............

Most of the "Indian" grocery stores in my area (Central NJ) are labled as "Indo-Pak" groceries... So no, it probably isn't offensive (here).

From my e-mail to the [sarcasm] Master of Universal knowledge and Wisdom [/sarcasm]:

"So, the question is.....the term Paki is offensive to Pakistanis (generally speaking) or not?"

....and the reply:

"yes it is considered offensive by many people. ...blah, blah, blah-blah-ba-ba-baaa..If you know PAK means "pure" while PAKI doesnt Mean anything its is a slang word. So aviod using it as many wont be happy to be heard as PAKI.....instead use PAK people."

And so it seems that not one person on the entire trip corrected me, probably just overlooking my mistake out of politeness.

This was a genuine question about how the term is perceived in different places. I do appreciate that you would not have written positive posts about a country and its people and used a term you understood to be offensive.

With that out of the way I'll answer the other questions:

I haven't travelled to Pakistan although I have been to India & Sri Lanka. I live in a city which has approx 30% Asian or British Asian population, so friends & colleagues have talked about "home" and shown me holiday snaps from all over the Indian sub-continent. My knowledge of Pakistan is quite poor which is why I enjoyed seeing your pictures.

I liked the fact that you posted photos of street scenes - every day life. When I was in India I was amazed by how mundane vehicles could be so highly prized and decorated, it brought home that I was in a totally foreign place. The disregard for personal saftey on the road was shocking at first, but became the norm very quickly. The only serious accident I saw was in Eygpt, but of course that's another continent.

I think the following questions are perhaps some sort of jibe. But what the hey - you ask, you get.

I'm not Muslim, I'm an atheist. This seems to make it easier to enjoy other people's celebrations. I'll have a big Diwali (Hindu) night out and also a pig out Eid (Muslim)celebration when Ramadan finishes. And then Christmas!

I don't run with scissors, do play the Lottery when I remember, drink buckets of tea, my Dad plays cricket but I don't (don't understand the rules), can only name 2 baseball players, walk to work when fit, get the bus otherwise, like helium balloons, never seen Elvis, a UFO & never left my body with or without drugs.

Phew.

Pig is definitely out at Eid, that's for sure. :lol:

Oh blimey - nice choice of words right? I'll have one halal of a feast then :)

Touche'!

I LOVE a good pun. That is, if a good pun actually exists, I would love it. Until such a discovery is made, the worse the better!

From the Wed, Oct 13th Stars & Stripes, Mid East Edition; Well, thank heavens for that. :rolleyes:

Wonder which war lords or what ever they call them, are taking over the supplies? For resale. Hey send Big Box Mart. :lol:

This is something of great concern to me and I could easily see that being the reality there.

There are fifteen or so people from Pak that I am in regular e-mail or instant messenger contact with. Many of these people are with the Elite Police Force, a few are business owners in Pindi, a few are students, and one medical doctor, Kashif Ahmed ( the creator of the pindiplus website ). Many of these people I have met face to face as well and are very credible.

Some of these people are in a position to know for fact what's going on inside the relief effort from actual on the ground at the scene experience. Others are close to those that are directly involved with those in the relief effort, having either friends or relatives working there.

These people have also consistently communicated both good and bad reports on events that have happend there long before the quake. They do not always have pleasant things to report (from an American perspecive) but are always factual and polite in wording those things that are not exactly what I would like to hear from them.

In the first 48 hours after the quake, there were many people there disappointed with the aid being sent, since the US only offered $100k immediately following the disaster and it was not known what the extent of the damage was. Since then the amount of aid has increased and that criticism has disappeard. Many of my friends have also seen the supplies coming in from all over the world, much of that from the US, as well as the US military helos.

I've not recieved one single report of anyone there stealing supplies for sale or personal gain. Instead there has been looting of supply trucks in transit that have been forced to stop due to blocked or unpassable roads. This is not anything that I personally am concerned with though as the supplies are not LCD wide screen TVs and PCs. Any items that I have seen on clips (from those on the ground, not news crews) that have been looted were from those in desparate need and the looted items were only the most basic items needed for their survival, basic foods, simple clothing, and blankets.

The portion of the picture that is being shown back to me here is surely just a micro view of what's going on there but I want to be clear to those that do not know Pak nationals personally nor have regular contact, that this relief effort is not "arming or supplying" enemies of the US and that those items sent are truly appreciated and used for relief.

Rest assured that eventually there will be reports in the news otherwise, but for now I am completely confident that those items sent for the victims are being received and put to immediate use by the victims of the quake.

The helos have been used for transpot of critical supplies and medical personel to the scene. The roads have been impassable and regular flights have been scheduled to and from Isb, Pindi, and Lahore to swap out doctors.

When I get more info I'll post it. Until then you can check www.pindiplus.com for updates.

Hi there...

I am Dr. Kashif ahmed... its bit interesting to see how this thread developed into quake information .. i am at Pindi right now and its RAINING here.. Rain at pindi means unbearable weather at Kashmir the Quake area.. The snow must be setting in soon in few weeks and Land slides will increase as well.

i went to the worst striken areas of BAGH and Muzaffarabd myself through road. It was horrible to be there. Deadbodies on the grounds ..no tools to dig and bury them and smell was very bad. We took the first truck to BAGH as food n clothes relief with medicines thanks to Slang..but the people were desparate for such supplies and their patience broke up and they jumped all over the truck and looted it. Useless to stop them as a hungry man thinks with stomach not with brain.

Lights were out.. water system was broken but there are streams there alot i nhills..cold weather it rained while we were there...and we were shivering with cold blazes...so think of kids on the gournd and hills without food n home.. we were looted to nothing and we had to return later nite to pindi to get the new relief truck... next truck we sent it to BAGH was looted on the road.. it happend as One man jumped infront of the truck on road and we had to stop truck ..many ppl came down from sides of roads and put big stones infront and back of truck wheels so it couldnt move and them jumped onto truck to loot it..IT has TENTS in it,the most precious thing for people at this moment in kashmir..

as we returned for another trip we got 6 truck with food supplies and blanket n clothes ..thats 27 hours back..we reached Kohala the area from where roads start for BAGH but land slides had blocked the roads again..so we had to move on to ARMY camp Muzaffarabad there. As we were on the way we saw many people PICKING their choice off the clothes given to them ...these are the people who are not the one who deserve relief now..BADLY striken people still need to be accessed..after reachign Muzaffarabad we talked to the army in chief there ...

HE told us that FOOD Is ENUFF now.. what is needed is Camps,,tents..blanket n clothes.. as we heard the shocking news of a village 3 storey school nearby was approached and deadbodies of 600 girls was found in the rubble... its one example of the many schools which has been damaged.. its clearly evident that One WHOLE single GENERATION of the KASHMIRI people has Died in this natural disaster..

AS to how other aid is coming and helping when asked, army personnnel told that helos are the only air help at this moment .. and over 30 helos are there to help ..mostly Pak and US helos.. I saw myself many US helos flying in n out of base camp there..

one thing I would like to clearify is that Please DO NOT SEND GOODS rather kindly send cash as GOODS have to be stored and security has to put onto them for that matter as well. That eats up resources ..It is now SEARCH and RELIEF time.. rescue time is over almost. it is time to rehabilitation.. we need money to organize things..by sending good one cannot hav felxibility to organize things. buying instrucment or wheelchairs for broken n ijred homes or education expense or clothes..decisions can be made with money not with Good in the back yard. So any1 who is willing to help out It is requested to kindly donate money instead of Goods...i have delivered what ever donation i recieved as needed by people according to time..So either i or slang can be contacted for further donations which i can convey to people inlife n death situation there..

The worst is the psychological terror for the alive ppl there.. those who are dead are dead but those who are alive got painful memories..Your help n donation can heal part of these memories though not all. we need medical supplies urgently at hospitals which cost alot here..So help doctors out on this.

LET ME HELP YOU,..LET ME HELP THEM and LET THEM HELP THEMSELVES

PLEASE DONATE.

Dr. Kashif ahmed
Mobile: 0333 5212206
Rawalpindi
www.pindiplus.com

I may have found a way to weak my firefox problems there. Thanks. fingers crossed...

Quite a bump there, MsSparkie, and an unrelated one as well.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this thread and second Slang's comments on the Pakistani people. When I was overseas, I had many Pakistani friends and they were all generous, kind, hardworking men and women. I never had the opportunity to visit, so I enjoyed seeing Slang's pics.

Stormie

I'm gettin' an urge to go back now that the quake situation is under control. I would have gone back before but everything was in crisis there.

Take some time off and go there with me. It's a time that you wont soon forget.