There is something very esoteric about being woken by the Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer. For the first prayer of the morning, before the sun is up, a line is added to the call, "prayer is better than sleep."
It is how I often woke when visiting Pakistan. Less jarring than the buzzing of an alarm clock, less annoying the the purposefully annoying beeping, less violent that an alarm radio that was left set to loud from the night before.
A muezzin (the one who calls the prayer) would start at one mosque, followed by another and then another and so on. The litany would reach a crescendo as all the mosques that I could hear would be making their call to prayer. And then one by one each call would end. Then wait a minute, maybe 5, maybe 20 and the mosques from a different sect would begin their calls.
To some western ears, and to be truthful to some Pakistani ears too, it sounds like a cacophony, to me it was just beautiful.
After the call I would often move to a window closer to the gate and listen for the sounds of the city waking. Soon the plaintive call of "Dude! Dude! . . . " is heard.
"Dude," is the Urdu/Hindi word for "milk." So, like in our ages past a milkman walked the streets with his cart, calling out his product. Eager to sell to those who needed milk for their breakfast and their day.
"Raw milk, like the fresh milk my uncle would bring in every morning at my grandparents farm. It's not like there isn't modern pasteurized, homogenized milk in jugs and Parmalat like packaging bought at stores. There is and it's what we with "western stomachs" drank and put on our cereal.
Kellogg's and Fauji boxed cereal; corn flakes, and/or sugar coated nuggets, and/or chocolate somethings for kids, etc. Breakfast also included fried eggs over easy, toast, fruit and milky sweet tea.
This was the breakfast my husband ate every morning growing up. Just take out the sugared cereal (leave the corn flakes, he still loves corn flakes) and put in a nice glass of milk. And over the glass of milk many "battles" were fought between a mother who wanted him to drink his milk to "grow up strong," and a son who wasn't always amenable to it. In the end it came down to what time he got to the table in the morning before school.
Like many other countries in the world Pakistan has restaurants you will recognize:
Plus Olive Gardens, Pizza Huts, Dominoes Pizza, Subway, etc.
And many originals. One is an Afghan restaurant called "Kabul" in Islamabad. Kabul RESTAURANT, serves the best kabobs on the biggest and longest skewers I have ever seen. They more resembled swords than a cooking implement. The barbaque that they cook the kabobs on is directly to the right of you as you open the door to go into the restaurant. If the wind changes direction the restaurant fills with smoke, but it's really not that bad and truth be told, adds to the atmosphere.(Google: Kabul restaurant Islamabad and read the reviews)
The Hot Spot ice cream restaurant is another one.
Before it's incarnation as a restaurant it was an old passenger train car. On our first visit I could swear I was at some restaurant near a college campus in the states. Supposedly it's the only place to get "safe ice cream for western stomachs"" (ice cream made with filtered water as opposed to unfiltered). Well either my stomach's made of steal or there are two more places. One thing I will not dispute, the ice cream is really good. (Google: The Hot Spot Islamabad)
The two other ice cream places in Rawalpindi/Islamabad were something I never expected. We pulled in and the fellow sitting on a chair outside the shop would come over and ask what we wanted. We'd order, then our ice cream would be brought out on china saucers. We'd pay and then give back the saucers when we were done. And ice cream in Pakistan in August gives some welcomed relief.
There were other restaurants we visit, especially when we traveled to Abbotabad and then over to Muree. But there was one I was anxious to try since I had heard so much about it.
The Texas Steak House.
This is how steak is done, Pakistani style. As spicy and as good as can be. Even Tabasco brand steak sauce doesn't match the heat. ; Now I had been warned, but I brushed the concerns off. I've been married to a Pakistani for over 20 years. I've made spicy Pakistani food. We've been to Indo/Pak restaurants here in the states where I ordered something spicy and the waiters looked at me as if I didn't understand the word. But this . . . O*M*G! I'm actually surprised there isn't steam coming out of my ears in this picture. This is one of a series of photos taken after I took a bite. I must have stayed this way, with napkin in hand covering my mouth for a few minutes. There was a little pride involved here, I didn't want to admit that this was hotter than I expected. I didn't want anyone to know and I didn't reach for the bread to kill the heat. Guess I didn't hide that too well though. You can see my red nose and that my face was getting an even darker shade of pink.
But you know what? The steak was delicious! (Google: Texas Steak House Rawalpindi)
Pakistan also has a large number of Chinese restaurants. Pakistanis, just like everyone else, like to try (and to eat) food from other places. Families may save up for a few months just to go out to lunch or dinner during one of the three days of Eid (there are two Eids; Eid ul-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan[coming up], and Eid ul-Adha celebrating Abraham's (the same Abraham of the Bible) obedience to God to sacrifice his son - though a ram was sacrificed instead).
My sister-in-law always requests cookbooks. In the past I have given her Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens so she could see and make some standard American fare. But in our visit in 2008 I brought a Mexican cookbook. On that visit I made the family Fajitas for dinner. I knew my sister-in-law could make tortillas easily since I had watched her make chapati, which are much the same. (I don't make chapati, I either "cheat" and buy them pre-made and then heat them in the microwave or we used tortilla or nan instead.)
While my SIL was making the tortillas she cracked a joke about how Mexicans might possibly be a lost tribe of Pakistanis.:-)
Food in Pakistan, just like any where else, is the currency of happiness, celebration, welcome and solace. When someone arrives for a visit sweets/cookies and tea are served. Guests coming from a long distance? Get a cake to welcome them. Weddings and Eids are a time of feasting, and food is brought for solace to the bereaved.
When it is hot, dinners wait until sundown (even when it isn't Ramadan) and some relative coolness. Visits to friends and family often wait until after sundown too when it's hot.
In Urdu/Hindi:
rice is chavel (chah - vil)
bread (generic): roti (roh - tee)
vegetables: subzi (sub - zee)
water: poni (pon-ee)
Food is also very much a local issue in Pakistan. Most fruits and vegetables are grown and sold locally. If a vegetable isn't in season, you either buy it canned or you wait to make what you want until it is in season and fresh.
Mega grocery stores haven't made it big in Pakistan yet. There are western style stores to buy milk, bottled water, meat, canned and fresh food, (and clothes, shoes, etc.) and what we would call "farm stands"
Pakistanis, like many others even in western developed countries, still buy their food fresh every few days.
All over Pakistan there are also little stores, little shops that would appear to us to be no more than a garage. Merchants in their garage sized stall sell all manner of things from clothes, to baked goods, cookware, dining ware, meats, fruit and vegetables, car batteries and parts, etc. If you ever wanted to see the small businessman in action, go to Pakistan. Capitalism is alive and well.
This shop is along the Karakoram Highway in what was then called the Northwest Frontier Province, now called, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. I took this picture in August, two years ago.
But maybe I should say was, because this area was underwater. Whatever inventory he and thousands of other shop keepers had this year is lost, and/or contaminated/ruined and/or headed for the Arabian Sea.
A man pauses from the task of clearing shoulder-high sediment from his shop left by flood waters in Margala in Pakistan's Swat Valley August 28, 2010. - Reuters
Whatever he/she and others kept in the till, or tin in their homes to purchase new inventory most probably gone too, as well as the homes themselves.
. . . the floods washed away a major supply warehouse in Pakistan.
- UNICEF video above
The devastation of the flood is going to be an ongoing problem stretching into months maybe into years.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Floods in Pakistan have destroyed or extensively damaged crops over 4.25 million acres (1.72 mln hectares) of land, Food Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal said on Monday.
The total areas under cultivation is about 23 million hectares, food ministry officials say.
"The floods have destroyed or extensively damaged crops, including cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize and others over an area of 4.25 million acres," he told Reuters
Reuters
These were estimates three weeks ago, even before the flood waters hit other areas, and before any real assessments could be made.
Pakistan's food production includes; wheat, rice, sugarcane, millet, corn, oilseeds, pulses, bananas, magoes, vegetables, cattle, and poultry. (WPF)
Two years ago a corn field grew along the Karkoram Highway.
You might even mistake this for Kansas.
Today those fields were also underwater, the crops destroyed and the rich top soil washed away. And with it the ability for a farmer to feed and clothe his family, and to survive.
With no money from this year's crop he cannot buy seed for next years crops. And what he stored is also gone.
These little huts are for food, grain and seed storage. This picture was also taken along the Karakoram Highway. These stores (and the many I saw all around this area) are all gone, washed away.
Pakistani officials admit that crops and grain stores in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province are gone.
"Our estimate is that up to 500,000 tonnes of wheat stocked with the people has been washed away," Ibrahim Mughal, president of a national farmer association told Reuters.
Dawn (Pakistan)
Food Ministry officials put the loss of wheat at 600,000 tons.
Pakistan is Asia's 3rd largest wheat producer, harvesting 23.80 million tons of wheat in last years crop. It carries a stock of 28 tons with an annual demand of 23 tons. Officials have enough for domestic demand and export (though a smaller amount)
Officials also expect a loss of 200,000 ton of rice. Industry insiders expect the loss to be around 15% of rice production (non-Basmati and Basmati)
Reuters
Which means less export and more reliance of stored stock. Less export means less ability for Pakistan to fix it's now destroyed gains in infrastructure. Agricultural production is about 20% of GDP.
And still that large estimate of loss may be conservative, made by a government who has not yet made a full assessment, may not have full access everywhere and who does not wish to panic it's people.
No mention has been made yet of the loss of the smaller crops, the ones you see in the road side stalls. No mention has yet been made of how many orchards made it through, and how much was stripped from their branches. Or how much of the crops of peas, turnips, onions, cauliflower, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, squash etc. made it through okay. And how much was lost.
It's as if people think Pakistanis only exist on wheat and rice. We don't, and a quick look at an Indo/Pakistani cookbook will show that they don't either.
No mention has yet been made about the amount of livestock lost. How many head of cattle, buffalo, oxen, how many donkeys and mules, how many goats, and sheep? In many parts of Pakistan mules, donkeys and oxen are still "tractors." Without them, a farmer will have trouble reclaiming his field(s).
We've seen pictures of people with goats hoisted up onto their shoulders, trying to save them. Or a farmer swimming with his cattle trying to get them to higher ground.
Narrator: . . . evidence of people's lost livelihoods, lifeless in the water.
Interviewee: My two oxen, 8 buffaloes and 2 cows have died in the floods. Just found one alive, this buffalo has been kept in the second floor of a house for 3 days
The first 30 seconds of a report filed with AlJazeera, August 1, 2010
In a prime agricultural area, such as the Indus Valley is, there is more than just wheat, rice and cotton lost. It's the whole support and infrastructure. Imagine if a flood destroyed California, from top to bottom. One just did, the area affected in Pakistan is the size of California.
Food is needed, medicines are needed, temporarily shelters are needed, clothes and blankets are needed. Everything is needed. Everything in an area the size of California has been washed away. Maybe if we could get the "happy cows" from California to hold a fundraising event, complete with a bovine cancan, the nation would pay attention.
Yes it's dark humor, sometimes it's the only way to cope.
But the happy California cows are not, and this nation as a whole is not.
Right now people affected by this flood need dude, and roti and/or chavel and uncontaminated drinkable poni. (milk, bread and/or rice and drinkable water)
They need it every day.
They need our help.
Please help.
In the early days we focused on organization that gave direct support. That list is here:
• • • • • •
Greg (Three Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) Mortenson's non-profit (CAI) recommends supporting a local (Pakistani) groups to which donations will likely have a large, immediate, and lasting impact-
Human Development Foundation
http://www.hdf.com
(800) 705 1310
DONATE
Doctors without Borders (MSF):
DONATE
Shelterbox
DONATE
Mercy Corps:
DONATE
OXFAM:
DONATE
Islamicrelief
DONATE
UNICEF:
DONATE
Toll free: 1-800-FOR-KIDS (1-800-367-5437)
Text: "Text FLOODS to 864233 (UNICEF) to donate $10"
Shelterbox:
DONATE
ShelterBox tents in Shishkat upper Hunza, Pakistan
• • • • • •
From the US State dept.
How You Can Help:
Text "FLOOD" to 27722. Your $10 will go to the State Department Fund for Pakistan Relief that Secretary Clinton announced August 19, and is part of a new effort to bring attention to the need for aid.
Text "SWAT" to 50555 ; $10 goes to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees fund for flood victims
• • • • • •
List of more organizations can be found here:
If you are giving inkind medicine please note in Pakistan Tylenol and Motrin/Advil are not easily found and these are needed fever reducers, all forms are needed from infant and children's liquid, children's chewables to adult liquid and pills. You may wish to include a bottle in your donation. Inkind donations are highlighted.
Action Against Hunger - contain the spread of water-borne illnesses. It will provide access to clean water through water trucking, repair water points, disinfect contaminated sources, and distribute purification tablets. The response will also include constructing emergency latrines and public sanitation facilities, distributing thousands of hygiene kits, organizing hygiene promotion campaigns, and helping communities clear the streets of rubble and debris. ACF is also planning "cash-for-work" programs to help families regain their livelihoods and will distribute household items. ACF will also provide vouchers to purchase basic necessities and micro-grants for restarting small businesses
ActionAid International USA - will provide immediate support in terms of food, non-food items, water, sanitation, hygiene and construction of shelters
Adventist Development and Relief Agency International - expects to distribute aid such as shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, food, and water
Aga Khan Foundation USA - providing food, temporary shelter, education materials for children, medicines and clean water to affected people. In addition, mobile medical teams have are providing emergency health care
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - has opened an emergency relief fund and is collecting donations to directly assist the floods victims on a non-sectarian basis
American Jewish World Service - emergency support for victims of the flooding and helping to prevent the spread of disease
American Refugee Committee International - deployed mobile health teams to Baluchistan in Sibi district to provide health assistance. In Swat, mobile health teams have been deployed by boat to reach areas made inaccessible by washed out roads and collapsed bridges. ARC Pakistan’s maternal child health center in Swat remains operational and ARC’s team is distributing non-food items to patients and offering health and hygiene sessions, emphasizing education around contaminated water. The team is also distributing essential medicines
AmeriCare - delivering and distributing lifesaving medical assistance and emergency aid to flood-impacted communities
Baptist World Alliance/Baptist World Aid - sending funds for medical, food and shelter needs
BRAK USA - Pakisan has begun to deliver food packets containing such items at rice, lentils, flour and water purification tablets
Brother's Brother Foundation - plans to send requested donated pharmaceuticals and medical supplies (Gifts In-kind Accepted: pharmaceuticals, medical supplies)
CARE - distributing tents, shawls, mosquito nets, plastic floor mats, water purification tabs, hygiene kits and kitchen sets.
Catholic Relief Services - aid packages include water purification tablets, soap, cookware, jerry cans, mosquito nets and more
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee - intervention that includes tents, mosquito nets, hygiene kits, and trauma counseling. CRWRC will also provide emergency food assistance to 64,000 individuals displaced by the disaster in hard-hit Nowshera and Charsadda Districts of Khyber Paktunkhwa Province. CRWRC will work with Pakistani partner Interfaith League Against Poverty (I-Lap) to provide 8,000 families with a one-month food supply including flour, salt, sugar, oil, beans, and spices
Church World Service - Assistance includes food and non-food relief items, emergency shelter and basic health services
CONCERN Worldwide US - prioritizing the distribution of: clean water, food, shelter, emergency medical assistance, mosquito nets, and basic hygiene and kitchen items
Doctors Without Borders - provides emergency medical care to millions of people caught in crises
Food for the Hungry - distribution of food, NFIs, tents and hygiene kits (Gifts In-kind Accepted: NFIs: mosquito nets, hygiene kits, kitchen sets, cooking stoves as well as water purifying tablets and filters)
Friends of ACTED - essential non-food items, water & sanitation, cash for work, emergency shelter and rehabilitation of basic infrastructure
Giving Children Hope - tents, food and blankets as well as will be sending medical supplies to help those displaced by the flood (Gifts In-kind Accepted: Disaster relief materials: tents, blankets, flashlights, food, etc. [all new and in good dates])
Global Fund for Children - providing emergency support to our grassroots grantee partners in regions affected by the floods in Pakistan to help meet their communities’ immediate needs
HelpAge USA - has partnered with medical aid agency, Merlin International, to provide targeted emergency care to the most vulnerable older people and their families in the Nowshera district in Northwest Pakistan. Preliminary efforts include distributing mobility and hearing aids, emergency health assessment kits, as well as household items such as food, flashlights, bedding, and water containers
International Catholic Migration Commission - medical staff are providing individualized consultations in UC Prango, distributing medications, while also developing referral protocols and coordinating primary health care response with government hospitals, health centres, private clinics and dispensaries
International Medical Corp - support displaced people through mobile medical units serving the hardest hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the northwest, treating cases of acute respiratory infection, acute diarrhea and skin disease. In addition we have deployed psychologists to address mental health needs, as well as hygiene promoters in the worst affected districts
International Relief & Development - provides safe drinking water, sanitation, household items, and emergency temporary shelter (Gifts In-kind Accepted:Tents, bedding, shelter for children, toys, solar flashlights, livestock feed, medicine to prevent and treat infectious diseases)
International Rescue Committee - water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions
Islamic Relief USA - providing food and water as well as distributing tents and blankets
Life for Relief & Development - tents, blankets, pillows, medicine and medical supplies, hygiene kits which include buckets, towels, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, laundry detergent and food baskets to feed a family of 7 for a month
Lutheran World Relief - In addition to food will distribute shelter kits, jerry cans, plastic mats, hygiene kits and mosquito nets (Gifts In-kind Accepted: LWR accepts quilts, health kits, school kits, baby layettes, sewing kits and soap for distribution during emergencies. Specific information about donating in-kind items is on our website.)
MAP International - coordinating with in-country health institutions and programs for the delivery and dispensing of medicines and medical services (Gifts In-kind Accepted: Accepting appropriate long dated pharmaceuticals, OTC medicines and medical supplies)
Medical Emergency Relief International, USA - has set up 28 health clinics and deployed 18 mobile teams. Merlin medics are running 24-hour clinics in Jalozai camp, home to over 100,000 vulnerable people, in response to a significant spike in diarrhea and other waterborne disease
Medical Teams International - have shipped three containers of medical supplies to partners on the ground in the flood-affected area of the country. The medicines and supplies are enough to help hundreds of thousands of people and are valued at nearly $2 million
Mercy Corp - Mercy Corps helps people in the world’s toughest places turn the crises of natural disaster, poverty and conflict into opportunities for progress. Driven by local needs and market conditions, our programs provide communities with the tools and support they need to transform their own lives. Our worldwide team of 3,700 professionals is improving the lives of 16.7 million people in more than 40 countries
Mercy - USA For Aid & Development - providing food, water and hygiene packages to families left homeless by severe flooding in the northwestern Khyber Pakthunkhwa Province. Each family package contains: 88 pounds of wheat flour, 11 lb. of rice, 6.6 lb. of pulses, 11 lb. of dates, 2.2 lb. of sugar, 1.1 lb. of dry milk, 2 liters of cooking oil, one portable gas stove, matches, one large water proof plastic sheet, one 10-liter jerry can, 5 liters of bottled water, water purification tablets, one towel, toothpaste, 3 toothbrushes, one fingernail clipper, 2 combs and 6 large bars of soap
Operation USA - helps communities at home and abroad overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid (Gifts In-kind Accepted:Bulk disaster materials including water purification chemicals, shelter supplies, electric generators, medicines and medical equipment are accepted from corporations)
Oxfam America - installing toilets and water-storage tanks and delivering clean water by truck to prevent deadly waterborne diseases from sweeping through communities of displaced people
Plan USA - provision of tents, food and water, as well as health and hygiene kits in shelter camps. Plan is also working with local authorities to monitor and address possible disease outbreak
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance/Hunger Program - provide food, shelter and medical assistance.
Red Cross/Red Crescent - In a world of poverty, war, displacement and disaster, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies serves those in need without regard as to race, religion, class or political belief.
Relief International - deployed emergency health units to ensure immediate access to primary care and medical supplies; are distributing Emergency Family Kits that include water purification tablets, clean water receptacles and temporary shelter materials; providing clean drinking water to communities suffering from water contamination and to those with no access to water at all. Our team is organizing the distribution of non-food-items (such as clean clothing, bedding and household items) to children to ensure their survival
Save the Children - Of particular concern is the health of the floods’ youngest survivors. The agency is providing emergency medical care and distributing tents, shelter kits, hygiene kits, food and supplies. Save the Children has mobile health teams working in flood zones and is supporting health clinics. The organization is distributing hygiene and "clean delivery" birth kits and conducting hygiene promotion to prevent the rise in waterborne diseases like acute watery diarrhea. Save the Children also has established a diarrhea center for flood-affected communities in Swat
Solidarity Center - will use relief fund contributions to distribute clothing, medicine, and non-perishable food to displaced workers and their families, build temporary shelters, and assist in providing needed counseling and health care
United Methodist Committee on Relief - providing clean drinking water, food, temporary shelter, and medical aid to tens of thousands of people affected by the crisis
US Fund for UNICEF - have set up nine medical camps and are providing medicine, water treatment tablets, nutritional supplements, hygiene kits, and jerry cans. The agency is also supporting the local authorities by providing clean drinking water
World Food Program USA - providing monthly food rations to flood‐affected communities in 24 districts (Gifts In-kind Accepted: Please contact for more information)
World Vision, United States - has begun distributing food and water to flood survivors, and and plans to provide medical assistance, shelter, hygiene kits and other basic relief items as soon as possible
• • • • • •
We are looking at what may be the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in a century, and the worst Climate Change disaster yet.
Some of us at Daily Kos use a Google group to help organize for the crisis in Pakistan. Anyone who would like to get involved or get alerts when a new HELP PAKISTAN diary is posted, please join
( CLICK THE PIC )