Blocks

The shrine of Jalaluddin Bukhari in Uch Sharif is being restored.

Some surprised reactions to the train ride of the last entry. What about the bike? Where are you staying at the moment? Are you on some sort of in between holiday?

Everyday does indeed feel a bit like a holiday, even though I am working at the moment.

(Pictures: working area next to the office, where the furniture for the schools is manufactured. The bike to the left is a Sohrab, a brand you see everywhere in Pakistan. It has a sturdy frame, with two horizontal metal bars as a trademark.)

I mentioned earlier that I was staying with the Indus Resource Centre (IRC) as a guest. During those days there was a workshop organised in which staff from all over the province discussed the educational programme. It’s a programme that started at the turn of the century, and that by now, reaches thousands of underprivileged children in Sindh. For the IRC, education is key in building a brighter future.

It's not the only field in which the IRC is active though. They also have a skill centre for handicrafts and two stores in which artisan products are sold at a fair price. There are also a restaurant where food is prepared with bio gas (revolutionary in Pakistan) and a vegetable garden where crops are grown using drip water irrigation. The park in between the maroon-coloured office building - a heritage sight with 90 centimetres thick walls, 7 metre high rooms and a archway all around it - and the restaurant furthermore has a rainwater harvesting system. Basically, everything is geared toward sustainable development.

(Pictures: a woman at the skill centre, sewing traditional bed sheets, and a couple cycling on the bridge over the canal that runs parallel to the office.)

After the workshop the director of the organisation, who had come from Karachi to participate in the meetings, asked me if I would be willing to do some work. As the heat wave had shrivelled my desire to cycle, and as I was impressed with all the good work that I saw around me, I accepted. We agreed that I will try to capture the first 10 years of IRC's work in the field of education in a report that will be used for promotional purposes. For this I will visit a number of the so-called Sojhro (meaning 'dawn') model schools that IRC runs, to speak with students, teachers and supporting staff and hear from them in what way school has impacted their lives.

(Pictures: boys puzzling together at the Sojhro school in Amri, and a girl at the Sojhro school in Khanot.)

Last week I did my first fieldwork. I travelled with a vehicle from the organisation to Dadu, where I was met by the district coordinator for education, Farzana. She had many interesting stories to tell, including her own. A long story short: in rural areas girls' education is not seen as something normal, let alone desirable. In fact, many fathers think that education will have a negative impact on their daughters (they might get wrong ideas, become unfaithful, go off with someone and in so doing, ruin the family's reputation). And men are traditionally the decision makers in Pakistan. So many girls don't get the chance to go to school and spend their lives working in the household or on the land, until they reach the marital age. This can be when they are still as young as 13, 14, or 15 years old.
Farzana's own father, Mr Suleiman, with whom I had the pleasure of meeting, decided 35 years ago that his daughters, nine in total, would go to school. He had to face a lot of prejudice because of it, but remained steadfast, and now that his daughters are respected, educated members of the community, the family has become a role model.



(Picture: puzzling at the Sojhro model school in Amri.)

In the evening Farzana took me to Sehwan, where I had been before. It's also called Sehwan Sharif (like Uch 'Sharif'), which indicates that it is a pilgrimage sight. Sehwan has the shrine of Shahbaz Qalandar. Also this time there was naqqara dhamal, with big drums and many devotees swinging themselves into spiritual trance. Unfortunately there were no spinning fakirs dressed in red.
Had a great time, going with the flow. All of us in shalwar qameez, wringing wet from the sweat. For me, it didn't get spiritual, but the hugs in the end were memorable. It's social events like dhamal, or a game of football (at the risk of blaspheming) as we are having lately after work, that build the bond between people.