All entries for July 2006
July 20, 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.

July 18, 2006
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.