29 august 2007

Some places in the city look a lot nicer than yesterday's view.

28 august 2007

Streetview in central Kathmandu. I arrived in Nepal yesterday.

26 august 2007

On a short stop-over in Karachi I quickly visited the mausoleum of Mohammed Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan.

24 august 2007

In the finals of the 3rd national women football championship of Pakistan the team of the 'Sports and Sciences Uiversity of Lahore won witn 1-0 of the national team of Afghanistan (the only international team competing in the championship). Women's football is only 3 years old in Pakistan, but is growing in popularity.

23 august 2007

Movieposter(?) in Abbottabad.

22 august 2007

Classroom in Mangal in the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan.

21 august 2007

This girl assists her father with some constuctionwork in het tent village of new Bedadi. The 37 families that still live in tents here, are wating for na 'No objection Certificate' from the government to start building new houses here. An NGO has bought this piece of land for them after they lost everything in the 2005 earthquake.

20 august 2007

The mountaintop latrines that were installed with the support of Terre des Hommes in Battgram are a great succes.

18 august 2007

The suburbs of Abbottabat bring back memories of Caracas, Venezuela, where I lived for 5 months last year. The mountainslope neighbourhoods here are safe though, as opposed to the dangerous slums of Caracas.

17 august 2007

The mullah (religious leader) of Massina Kalan, a small village high on the slopes of the mountains on the border between the North West Frontier Province and Kashmir is closing a village council meeting. The villagers congregated to talk about the reconstruction of the only accessroad to their remote settlement. Since the earthquake of 2005 this region has been virtually closed off from the rest of the province. Only just before last winter (more than a year after the earthquake) some shelters were built here for people who lost their houses.

16 august 2007

Villager in the Mansehra region (near Kashmir) in northern Pakistan. Together with other men of his community, and the support of local NGO SRSP, he's fixing a road that was damaged by the earthquake in 2005. Soon his village will be accesible by car again.

15 august 2007

Girl madrasas give women a chance to emancipate in a conservative society. It is one of the few possibilities to an education and a job (as a teacher) for women that would otherwise be restricted to a life indoors.

14 august 2007

Today is independenceday in Pakistan. tens of thousands of men went to central Lahore to celebrate the event.
Eventhough the partying is a mostly male affair, some families joined the crowds, dressed in
Pakistan's national colours.

13 august 2007

The old Wazir Khan mosque in central Lahore contains a meticulously crafted wooden chair donated by Lord Curzon (British Viceroy of India 1899 – 1905). The chair could be a centerpiece in any historical museum.

12 august 2007

Public transport in Lahore is mostly restricted to noisy and smelly rikshaws. Taxi's are a rare sight.
Today we continued with our story on Madrasas (Koran schools) which are accused of raising muslim extremists. The fact that 99 percent don't, hasn't prevented them from becoming pariahs in the eyes of the west and the Pakistani government. Even normal Pakistanis are starting to fear these institutions that traditionally give the poor an opportunity to an education.

11 august 2007

Foodstreet in central Lahore. A great place to eat extremely spicy food in a rundown colonial setting.

10 august 2007

Pakistanis lining up to pay respect to the grave of a holy man, at the Golra Sharif schrine near Islamabad.
Golra Sharif is a holy place for sufi muslims. Besides some shrines and a mosque there's a madrassa as well. Young men study the Koran here.

09 august 2007

Nahid, a local journalist that helped me a lot these first days in Pakistan works for the 'Daily Jennah'. While waiting for him finishing his article, one of his collegues took me to the small basement of the officebuilding where the paper is printed. The noise and smell of ink were horrible. But the printers were a funny bunch, full of jokes.

08 august 2007

I'm on the road again. I arrived in Islamabad in Pakistan today. I was welcomed with a busy day that ended in a great concert in one of the national TV stations.