1
Haniya Tirmizi travelled
to several CAI-supported
projects in Northern
Pakistan this September.
The vignettes below are
her account of what
she saw, heard, and
experienced.
A FIELD REPORT FROM
PAKISTAN
BY HANIYA TIRMIZI
THE WINDS OF CHANGE
I
nvolved in the educational field for more
than 20 years — from teaching English
as a second language to development of
instructional materials — I was excited by
the prospect of taking on a writing assignment for Central Asia Institute (CAI). Yet, as
my departure for the northern provinces of
Pakistan grew closer, I hesitated. There were
so many unknowns: the projects I would visit
were a long way off in the mountains, flights
were uncertain, patches of road were buried
under landslides, and the languages spoken
were unfamiliar.
When I stepped out of the plane all my apprehensions and misgivings vanished.
40 | JOURNEY OF HOPE
Timeless, arid, and with gigantic mountains surrounding us, the valley we landed
in was magnificent. It was a glorious day and
the scorching sun did not bother me, even
after a long Illinois winter. There was something vaguely familiar about this place. The
weather-beaten faces with mongoloid features, green tea, grapevines, climate, rugged
terrain, and the pace of life were reminiscent
of years I had spent in Turkmenistan in my
20s.
Hard pressed for time, CAI-Gilgit Manager
Saidullah Baig and his wife Dilshad Baig who
is the women’s development program director for CAI-Gilgit, decided we must get to
work right away.
The drive along the Ghizer River to the vo-
cational centers was somewhat surreal; the
wide river with its grey, river-rock frame is
never far away from the road. On day one, we
managed to visit two centers in the villages of
Gitch and Singul in Ghizer District, located
on the main road to the capital, Gahkoch.
Interestingly, the center in Singul had a
sign outside with its rather English-sounding
name, Hill Bush Quilting House, written
phonetically in Urdu.
Both centers were local initiatives, conceived by the community and supported
by CAI. Several years ago, word had spread
through the villages that CAI’s co-founder,
Greg Mortenson, was helping nearby communities. When the villagers heard that
someone from the organization would be
CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE