A New Beginning

Photo: Mercy Corps

March 18, 2003 - Day Four of life in Islamabad is drawing to a close. So far, so good, really. I arrived on a Muslim holiday and then the next two days were the weekend. I took advantage of the lack of responsibility and my childless state to relax and catch up on sleep.

Islamabad and our office have a great feel to them. The parts of Islamabad that I've seen so far are clean, orderly and green. There are lots of shops with lots and lots and lots of anything you could dream of. It's a bit overstimulating and overwhelming after 18 months in Eritrea. I had Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner the other night - delivered to my home!

I started work yesterday. I spent most of the morning at the U.S. Embassy getting registered, getting more visa pages added to my passport and absorbing fashion design ideas for shalwar chemiz (literally pants, long shirt - the clothes that both men and women wear here) from all the women in the waiting room.

The afternoon was spent moving into my house and then shopping for some preliminary food and household items. The grocery store was amazing. They even have Pop Tarts and Philadelphia Cream Cheese! The evening was spent how I imagine most of you also were spending the evening yesterday - glued to CNN with your jaw on the floor about this war with Iraq.

This morning, I arrived at the office to find a revised regional security contingency plan from my boss (who's currently in Kandahar, Afghanistan) waiting in my e-mail. I've been appointed the Team Leader for the Islamabad office - no doubt due to my extensive experience in the region and my close relations with all of our staff (whoever they are). Next, I'll be driving the get away car (they drive on the right here) through this most unfamiliar city! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Not to worry, though. Things in Islamabad are calm. Islamabad is a bit of a strange place in Pakistan. People say it's a nice little city about 15 minutes from Pakistan. It's a rather artificial place, carefully planned to be a national capital that can be easily controlled and defended. It's a place where government leaders, the wealthy and foreigners have their lives and where everyone else just comes to work during the day. Normally we don't like such artificiality but in times like this, it's not such a bad thing. Besides, who wouldn't want to live in Never Never Land - even if just for a short while?

As pleasant as I'm finding it, though, it's impossible to ignore the realities around me. As we all know from the media, Pakistan has its radical elements and unsavory things do happen in Islamabad and nearby. The high-level Al Qaeda guy that was captured a couple of weeks ago was caught in Rawalpindi - a mere 15 minutes down the road from Islamabad and where you actually land when arriving on an international flightbound for Islamabad.

As a security precaution, all Mercy Corps offices in the region - including Islamabad - probably will go into "hibernation" on Thursday and Friday. This is a fancy way of saying that we'll suspend our operations and lay low in our houses.

I'll be delighted to stay home. My house is such a happy place. If I were going to design a house, it might be something like this. It's laid out well and spacious with large, bright, airy rooms. Houses here are designed so that each bedroom has its own private bathroom. In my house, on the first floor there are two huge bedrooms, a big living room, a sitting room, a dining room and a kitchen. Two sides of the house have huge windows.

On the second floor are two more bedrooms and another sitting room that leads to a large second-floor deck. There is a gecko that divides his time between my bedroom and my bathroom, which suits me just fine. Every house ought to have a gecko to keep down the insect population. Except for when he somehow slipped off the wall and fell on my bed, we've been getting along just fine.

So far, Islamabad seems like a wonderful place. There's a nice mix of things familiar to and comfortable for us Westerners and the exoticism of Asia. It's possible to see men driving huge water buffalo past Citibank while dodging ornately decorated and colorful wooden trucks. I'm told that if I dressed in shalwar chemiz and dupata (head scarf), I'd easily pass for a Kashmiri.

The people here are lovely and friendly and many are well educated. It's a place where there is a lot of human capacity and there is an appreciation for order. Under the right circumstances, there would be nothing to hold this place and its people back.