All entries for July 2006

First Field Trip

Yesterday I went on my first field trip, to visit the school building project at Mang, and the vocational training centre at Boli, both near Balakot.
The first photo is of progress at Mang School, where building is as in the photo, and the other is ready for concrete pouring. The lower section of the walls is reinforced concrete, and the upper is wood, much of it salvaged timber. The roof will be corregated iron sheeting. The following picture shows the school office which is already complete, showing a similar style of construction. Some of the roads are pretty interesting too – the recently arrived monsoon rains are literally washing away the roads and bridges. Keep watching for more upadtes soon!

: 20 Jul 2006 09:34 |  Tags: Earthquake Pakistan Salvation Army Travel |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Safe arrival

Yes, I have safely arrived, and finally got internet access – it's been down for the last week, although we spent the first weekend in Lahore at Territorial Headquarters because of security concerns where the team live in Mansehra, 9 hours away, where I write from now.
The weather is really hot and humid, around 37 deg C in the shade during the day, although not much less now it's 2330 at night – it's even worse when we have regular power cuts like tonight, and the fans all stopped for an hour – we have no air con as was agreeded by all the NGOs here to avoid excessive power demands.
We made the most of the time in Lahore, sightseeing and meeting people, as well as acclimatising for me. Since we've been back in Mansehra from Sunday night, we've not been able to do a lot as the internet wasn't working, but now it is (only on dial–up). I should be going on my first trip into the field to visit the start of one of our projects, building a vocational training centre up in the mountains at a village called Boli. Watch this space for more photos and more insightful commentary and information, or something like that. In the mean time, good night.

: 18 Jul 2006 19:39 |  Tags: Pakistan Salvation Army |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Pre–flight breifing

Just another quick update – this evening I fly out to Pakstan, so I'm madly packing. We got back from a lovely couple of weeks walking in the Azores on Sunday, but our suitcases only arrived yesterday! Now I'm just repacking the suitcase and heading off again – watch this space for more insightful commentary and fascinating pictures of my work in Pakistan, or something like that anyway. See you there!

: 13 Jul 2006 09:23 |  Tags: Pakistan Salvation Army Sponsorship Travel |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem