Boy Standing on Mountain

Day 17 - Qalandarabad, Pakistan

I took this picture yesterday in a small village about 5000ft above the town of Balakot, one of the large centres near the epicentre of the October earthquake in Pakistan. A small road winds up the mountain, broken in many places by the earthquake and narrowed in others by mudslides due to heavy rains this summer. At one point, an even smaller road breaks off and continues to climb up to this village. Here every house was flattened by the earthquake. I don't know how many people lost their lives. In November last year, construction of temporary dwellings was well under way. Many of these dwellings were semi-cylindrical shelters built of rolled steel tubing and sheets of corrugated galvanized steel. The person driving me up and I stopped to have tea with the owners of one of these dwellings which my dad helped to build while he was out here shortly after the quake. Afterwards we walked around the village. Somehow they have pressed on. Another corn crop was planted and has developed well, it seems. Construction of new permanent dwellings has begun, but slowly. Government bureaucracy and corruption slows everything, even more than the narrow, often-blocked jeep track that links the village to Balakot.

In Balakot, I marveled at the way life is pushing up again through the rubble and between mass graves of students trapped in schools when the earthquake struck just after 9am in the morning. Entire new rows of shops have sprung up alongside the main road. Other rebuilding has commenced. I can't really understand. People move around en mass. Drivers try to run each other off the road.

In the evening, yesterday, I visited with two old family friends. These were very warm experiences, akin to meeting family.

On I go, trying to fill the days until I travel to Afghanistan on Monday.

The Pakistan government currently debates whether or not they should amend a set of laws that generally result in rape victims going to jail for the crimes committed against them. There is much opposition from a conservative wing in the government. Everyone is trying to define the "true spirit of I----" is.