East of Hercules: Summer #2 - Pakistan - with more pictures etc!

It felt so good to get off that plane in Islamabad, get through customs, and charge out into an entirely different world again. Being in different cultures is exhausting and stressful in some ways, but for me it's always exhilarating. I'd been stuck in Canada too long.

Len was waiting for me outside and away we went to catch a local bus north to Abottabad. In line for that bus I had my first conversation in Pakistan. It went something like this:

Guy: Why do you think we are all terrorists?
Me: Uhhhhh... We don't. Uhhhh... Otherwise I wouldn't be here, and uhh....
Had I had my wits about me, as my friend Len did when another Pakistani asked him the same question a different time, I would have used his response: "Why do you think we are all infidels?"

We spent most of our time up in Kalanderabad, near the area affected by the earthquake in late 2005. This was the view out the front gate of the house we stayed at.

My first supper in Pakistan - at a Chinese restaurant?!! It was surreal, but the food was very good.

We took a day to drive north deep into the earthquake-affected area. 2.5 years later, and they're still clearing entire mountain sides off the highway. The earthquake killed about 79,000 people, and some estimate that a full half of those were children, since it happened just as the school day was beginning.

This guy was probably a migrant laborer, just getting a start to his day. He looks like he could have come straight out of the pages of Genesis or something.

Len at a town TEAM is partnering with in a variety of development projects, including earthquake proof housing, agricultural development, and a school.

A baby in an incubater in Bach Christian Hospital in Kalanderabad.

Lots of marijuana growing under a bridge!

We spent 3 days in NW Pakistan near a town called Murree. It's something like the Banff of Pakistan, a beautiful mountain area where the rich folks from the big cities come for their holidays. We had a prayer retreat there with the TEAM workers in PK. Amazing people to meet. The picture is of the path to our cabin.