Pakistani Intern Experiences

The Romanian Connection - Lahore & Beyond

2009-06-30T15:31:00.006+06:00

By Bogdan Radu, ex-intern in GlaxoSmithKline, Karachi

My experience in Pakistan is coming to an end unfortunately. Being in my last days here in Pakistan, my company – GlaxoSmithKline – thought it would be nice for me to travel around the country a bit, to get a deeper sight into Pakistani culture, society and beauties. The plan was made for me to travel to Hunza Valley, one of the most beautiful places on Earth, thought to be the the legendary valley of Shangri-La. On my way to Hunza I was supposed to visit Lahore and Islamabad, this meaning that I would see the the cultural capital of the country and also the administrative capital of Pakistan.

The experience itself was amazing and I would like to start with telling the story of me travelling to Lahore – also known as “The Garden of Mughals” because of its rich Mughal heritage.

I had only one day reserved for Lahore, and for sure I missed a lot of interesting spots. In fact… I saw only 3 up to 4 local attractions. In stead I was fascinated to how different this city can be to what I imagined it would be. I mean, I know Karachi, I stood here for almost 3 months but Lahore is so different and I somehow feel sorry that I didn’t had the chance of experiencing more of it, but at the same time I’m thankful for being there even for one day only.

The history of Lahore is pretty rich in facts and interesting happenings. It is said to be there for the last 4000 years at least and that its founder is Loh, son of Rama (hindu epic hero from Ramayana). More recently though, meaning in the last 500 years, it was ruled by Mughals (it was capital of Mughal Empire for a few years), Sikhs and British. Now its the second largest city of Pakistan with 10 million people, capital of the State Province of Punjab, a symbol for Pakistani independence and the cultural heart of the country.

Read the full story here: http://bogdanradu.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/the-garden-of-mughals/

...

After a 40 minutes bumpy flight from Lahore to Islamabad, here I was in the capital of Pakistan, a young city, built especially to serve as a capital as Karachi already became to crowded, to exposed, and it was not close to the center of the nation.

So, in the 1960’s the Pakistani Government decided and started to build this city, near the town of Rawalpindi, in the middle of the woods. As per this reason, Islamabad is one of the greenest and well organized cities in South Asia. It is said to count up to 1.5 million people nowadays and if you would ask somebody from Karachi or Lahore how the life in the Capital is, the most probable answer you would get is: “boring”. You could say so, but then again what city doesn’t seem boring compared to the near 18 M people, agitated and nervous Karachi or 10 M people, fascinating and filled with history Lahore?

I myself liked Islamabad very much. It is somehow quiet, impressive through its organized city plan or through some majestic pieces of modern architecture such as Faisal Mosque, Pakistani Monument or Saudi-Pak Building.

Read the full story here: http://bogdanradu.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/me-in-islamabad-and-murree/

Overall, this trip around Pakistan was one of the highlights of my internship, either it was hot or cold (Murree – 10 degrees Celsius and rain during night time), plains or mountains; it gave a better perspective over Pakistan and also the occasion of some new nice friends .

Life in Lahore goes on :)

2009-05-28T09:47:00.007+06:00

All international news channels are full of articles about recent attack happened in Lahore.

There is no need to be silent about what happened. We would like the guests of this blog to know the point of view of international visitors of Lahore who've lived and worked in this city for 2 months.

AIESEC interns, Laura and Matthias, working for SNGPL, have witnessed the blast from their office and shared their perspectives with BBC News.

The blast completely shook our office building. There is another building in front of us and the force was so great we thought that building had been blown up.

We went outside and saw a massive white ring of smoke in the sky. Within minutes there were police, all the streets were blocked and emergency vehicles were coming in.

People close by just ran away, others were heading towards the scene. No-one knew exactly where it happened because there was so much dust and smoke in the air that it covered the whole region.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8069523.stm

Office building where Laura and Matthias are working is located 700m away from yesterday attack's site. Right after the explosion they were kept inside the building, later on were evacuated.

They reached home safely in the afternoon. AIESEC interns' house in Lahore is located in a calm and posh area on the other side of the city, and constantly guarded by security.

I met Matthias in the evening the same day near Lahore University where AIESEC office is located. He is feeling absolutely fine. "I even wanted to stay and complete my work, but colleagues insisted that we go home".

- Are you going to the office tomorrow?
- Of course, as usual, it will be a normal working day.

- Oh by the way, would you like to go to Shalimar Gardens with us tomorrow evening?
- Sure why not. If I am not playing squash, then I will definitely go.

On the way back home we bought mangoes and yogurt to make an evening dessert.

Life in Lahore goes on :-)

Trip to the North of Pakistan

2009-05-27T09:11:00.002+06:00

By Jana Bielikova

This story took place half a year ago, but I believe will be still interesting for the guests of this blog.

...

Shortly before Christmas, we have decided to go on a trip to the north of Pakistan. Our destination was Islamabad, Murree and Lahore.

Our trip has begun in a very interesting way. We were supposed to leave at 9am from the railway station in Karachi, but since no one expects the trains to be on time, out train was also 2,5 hrs late.

Before the departure, I was warned that it will be pretty bad, so I imagined my experience with travelling in the train in Russia. In the end, it was not so bad. It was a vagon full of foldable bunks, snorring people everywhere, open windows letting in a cold breeze, shouting salesmen and small kids, people throwing trash everywhere on the floor and everything in a nice 22,5hr package. :)

... A nice morning wake-up in a green coach train has its charm. All your body hurts, you smell like a hobo and the only prospect of a refreshment is the train toilet, where all of your fellow-travelers have been before. With a strong will and pants pulled up, I put the toothpaste and toothbrush in my pocket and went with a bottle of water to do my morning hygiene. But as soon as with the first tremor my toothpaste fell right into the toilet hole, I knew that the hygiene was over for that moment. :)

Read more about 8 days of Jana's entire trip at: http://janie.szm.sk/blog_2009-01-04.html

Hot... extremely hot!

2009-05-21T10:05:00.003+06:00

By Bogdan Radu
http://bogdanradu.wordpress.com/

The title unfortunately refers to the Karachi weather in these last days, days of torture and pain, of sweat and sleep deprivation. When I arrived in Pakistan the transition was from 0′-10′ Celsius back in Romania to 25′-30′ Celsius and still I thought it was hot… I was wrong, way wrong. 30′ C is a reasonable temperature, even cozy compared to the genocide that is happening right now.

The temperature reaches 40′-45′ C on a daily basis, but still this is not all. Combine that temperature with an humidity index of 80% here in Karachi and it will result in a heat parameter of 50′-55′ Celsius – meaning that this is the actual temperature your body is feeling (Heat index). As you can see, since I started to experience such an extreme weather I started to become more updated with Meteorology as a science, otherwise a mystery to me.

I have AC at work so the office is quite pleasant, it’s like heaven compared with the outside hell; at home my room is “equipped” with a ceiling fan which makes the living there somehow bearable but thanks to the KESC – Karachi Electrical Supply Corporation the power goes off 4 to 5 times a day (1 hour each time). This kind of unhealthy jokes coming from KESC transforms my room into a huge oven, wakes me up in the middle of the night and even gets people out of their houses into the streets, on the roofs so they can have a good sleep at night (the picture is pretty revealing for this issue) transforming the sidewalks into huge open-air dorms.

Hot… extremely hot. I don’t even want to get into the mosquitoes discussion.

Book review

2009-05-18T14:52:00.004+06:00

By Rahab Njuguna, intern at JS Group, Karachi

At one point a really long time ago I read this book and watched the movie too. Both were awesome but the book was way better.

Pakistan: first months, first thoughts

2009-05-13T11:20:00.004+06:00

By Laura Jungmann

Asalamalaikum!

With the cusp of my first month behind me, I think it is about time to tell you all of my recent experiences in Pakistan. Upon my tardy arrival in Lahore, a cheerful crowd of AIESEC’ers, who welcomed me with posters declaring my arrival, open arms and cheerful faces, thankfully greeted me. The fact that I was almost 4 hours late, had me experiencing moments of panic during my flight- thoughts of arriving in Pakistan alone without any idea of where to turn, kept me occupied during the 2.5 hour flight from Dubai to Lahore.

As AIESEC Lahore, is based in the elite Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), I spent my first days within the LUMS bubble of a well kept campus, continuous electricity, air conditioning, and highly educated people. This time gave me ample opportunity to slowly acclimatize to the idea that I was now living in Pakistan (something which probably, even now, hasn’t quite sunk in yet).
Lahore is a city of atleast 10 million inhabitants, divided thoroughly into areas based very much upon socio-economic factors. LUMS, and our current apartment, are located in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), possibly the most prestigious place to live in all of Pakistan. With armed guards on each corner, wide streets, green grass, large homes, and neighbourhoods named after letters of the alphabet (ie A-block, B-block, C-block, etc…) it is easy to forget that poverty, lack of education, and gender inequality make up the majority of Pakistan’s some 172 million inhabitants. The reason I mention this, is because it is surprisingly easy to forget that one is in Pakistan at all, if one keeps well within the limits of the DHA…

Although it may sound rather ridiculous, my first important order of business upon arrival in Pakistan was a trip to the ‘H-block’ textile market. With clusters of stores filled with a heart racing overabundance of colourful fabrics, these stores cater solely to the female shopper, on her quest to find the perfect material for the newest addition to her collection of shalwar kameez. Once in these stores, it is difficult to subdue the feeling of complete sensory overload, as store attendants shove fabrics covered in multi-coloured stripes, flowers and patterns into one’s face, all the while attempting to outbid each other with prices and names. Thankfully, I had a trusted female companion, who knew the process of shopping for the perfect fabrics all too well. After 45 minutes, filled with picking, choosing, looking, locating and finally bargaining, we headed to the nearest tailor. He then turns these swaths of fabric (3 pieces for each shalwar kameez) into proper shalwar, kameez, and dopatta. Within a week, a great sense of pride filled me, as I sauntered down the lane, in my very own, outrageously multicoloured and patterned shalwar kameez.

As a women living in this Muslim country, it is not compulsory to cover my hair. It is however, highly recommended, or even completely necessary in some instances. When visiting a mosque it is expected that women cover their hair, and remove their shoes (just as it is completely necessary that men uncover their hair). I also find it a form of protection from the stares of some, to cover my hair in certain situations- especially when leaving the protection of the DHA or in rural areas. And I always carry my dopatta, or long rectangular piece of fabric, for the instances when I do feel it necessary to cover hair, or skin.

I suppose I should address the principal reason for my trip to Pakistan; work.
As a ‘media affairs and public relations’ intern for the nationalized Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL), I am solely responsible for the creation of the monthly newsletter, and partially responsible for the creation of this years’ Natural Gas Conservation Campaign. I work in a small team of about 7 people, all are open, friendly, helpful and extremely curious about my culture, upbringing and whether I am the ‘biased, xenophobic, violent, heretical and taboo- filled, archetypical American’ as the Pakistani’s see it. They have quickly come to identify me, simply as, ‘the German’.

Even with an apartment in ‘T-Block’, DHA, we are not protected from the electrical load shedding, heat, mosquitoes and smells of Pakistan. With an average of 16 hours of electricity per day (give or take), I find that the electricity continuously goes out at precisely those moments when one would need it most. This, I suppose, is nothing more, than the common ‘Murphy’s law’.
In Pakistan, in the summer months (which means March to November), it is HOT. Hot, as in, 45 Degrees C in the SHADE. Maybe you can imagine how hot it is inside our (as of yet) non-air-conditioned home. The only adjectives I could use to define this ever-increasing heat are ‘stifling’, ‘suffocating’ and ‘seething’- the alliteration was unintentional, I swear. Although everyone here tells me, that the long sleeves and pants covering one’s body ‘help’ with the heat, I am inclined to disagree completely, vehemently even, and often have the feeling of actually melting while walking down the street. I have become prejudiced against any sort of outdoor physical activity between the hours of 9:00 and 22:00, unless, of course, it is for a trip to the ice cream store. I even find myself dreading weekends, as we have air-conditioning at work.

With our first trip outside of Lahore, Matthias (Austrian housemate) and I, had the opportunity to go to Kasur, considered a ‘small town’ despite its 1 million inhabitants, located on the Indo-Pakistani border where Sufism, and Matt’s boss, were born. Before entering Kasur, we went to the outer-laying village where Matt’s boss has some family, we visited their home, made of mud, greeting their children with 'Asalamalaikum', a greeting from God, and drank the hot, sweet, milky chai so common to Pakistan.
Kasur proved to be a swelling city, full of people, motorcycles, rickshaws, bikes, cars, peddlers, beggars, small shops, beautiful mosques, and delicious eateries. After savouring the area’s delicatessen, fried fresh-water fish, I covered my hair, removed my shoes and entered the hot open spaces of the local mosque. I am again, and again, surprised by human kindness, not only having been permitted, but actually invited to enter the ‘male-only’ portion of the Mosque, to view the institution's pride and joy, some 1,000 year-old articles of its founder. Upon leaving, I was gifted a beautiful deep green wall hanging, with Quranic verses, written in beautiful, and colourful calligraphy.

With continuous speak about the Taleban’s threats, the PPP’s inefficiencies, murders, rapes, and inequalities, it may be hard for some to believe that I have only encountered kindness, curiosity, and heart warming welcomes during my time here. I look forward to experiencing more and more of this rich culture, these wonderful people, and Urdu, a language which I hope to learn in the coming months.

Also, a special thank you goes out to Kiki, for making this all possible!

Perceptions about Pakistan

2009-05-13T09:47:00.005+06:00

Article published on Business Day Monday 11th May 2009, Arts and Living, Page 10.

My Favorite Intern

2009-05-09T11:35:00.008+06:00

Since June 2008, I’ve been living in Karachi in so called “MC mansion” or “Interns’ house”. It is located at Zamzama commercial lane, and welcomes all AIESEC people who are coming to internships in Karachi.

We are all from different countries: big and small; cold and hot; with the sea and not; located close by and far far away: Sri Lanka, Lithuania, Romania, Kenya, Slovakia, Rwanda, China, USA, Australia, and I myself come from Russia.

As I mentioned before, we all live in the same house, have fun together, and got to know each other quite well.

Now, Pakistan is not an easy place to live. The one can easily freak out from small surprises that we have every day: water starts coming from the floor of the flat; shower suddenly breaks and you can’t do anything, because you do not speak Urdu; power goes off for 1 hour exactly at the time when you’ve ironed your shirt from one side only and you have a very important meeting in the next 20 minutes; you wake up and see no water in the bathroom(and you need to go to the roof and fix the tank); and so on.

And this is just the house. When you go on the street, people are staring at you, taxi drivers rip off, then you suddenly notice that the nice cocktail shake in the street restaurant last night left you with a diarrhea for entire week; and it is so hot outside that you completely loose your mind.

Luckily, most of all internships are interesting, so work takes time and helps in general satisfaction, but again, you will get your portion of cultural shocks at the office as well.

I will let alone all cultural differences that you face living with people from 10 countries in the same house.

So now you can realize what kind of challenge you take when coming to Pakistan.

Working in MC, I am interacting with all interns coming to Karachi. I noticed that they behave very differently when it comes to adjustment to the culture, carrying on their working responsibilities, living with other people.

It started about 2 months back, when my flat mates asked me: “So Katya, who is your favorite intern?” I didn’t think of this question before and really liked it. So I really started to think – what kind of behavior I adore. This is how I came up with my criteria for a favorite intern.

“My favorite intern” should have the following 5 characteristics:

Stay positive even when facing a difficult situation (e.g. at work), and do not complain all the time. It doesn’t mean that the person should not talk about these things at all – the point is to be solution-oriented and making steps to make situation better.
Be independent enough to organize his/her own time if needed (e.g. during weekend)
Respect house rules (make payments to the house pot, clean dishes, not to break things etc.)
Make time to socialize with other people in the house
Contribute to the well-being of others: e.g. sometimes to cook food for everyone, invite others to interesting places, share washing powder and milk, crack funny jokes etc.

Who do you think is my favorite intern? Feel free to have your say! (Please vote only if you know these people).

Guest Diary

2009-05-07T16:50:00.003+06:00

Article published in Business Day, 7th May, 2009 in Arts & Living, page 10

The greatest pleasure in the world

2009-05-07T00:31:00.003+06:00

As in any big city around the world you can find everything starting from poverty and finishing with amazing luxury! Karachi, the biggest city in Pakistan is not an exception.
Pakistan, as a country exists only ~60 years. In such short time of period Pakistan managed to gain reputation of suicide bombers, terrorist, Islamic fanatics and etc. I heard that in New York City they have more crime acts per day when anywhere else in the world… However today I’m going to leave aggressive topic aside and introduce you with the greatest pleasure in the world which is valued by all nations and in all historical times. Because of all kind of spices, fruits, seeds and other products we had wars and colonies appeared in different continents.
It is quite difficult to understand while being in your home country, that simple rules, behavior or attitude can not be applied here. For example, there are people who always take care of hygiene. Unless you will be eating all the time in the most expensive restaurants, you won’t get a fork and knife in casual street restaurant (a simple place for eating traditional dishes) – everything is eatable with your own hands and usually from the same plate. It is amazing how people still alive. The places where I’m going for lunch during my office time would not be even allowed to start business because of not existing hygiene. 6 months have past and I’m still alive and actually feel just great.

There are few types of restaurants (here I use word ‘restaurant’ as a word describing place for eating). First type is restaurants, expensive ones where you can feel like at home (or even better). In Lithuania sometimes is quite problematic to call waitress to be served or to give order, differently from Pakistan, where each table gets at least three people serving you. Sometime it gets annoying, but I believe that after one year I’ll be missing that back at home (despite that I’m not going to such restaurants too often). In these restaurants you can get any kind of food: traditional stakes, pastas, Chinese food, spicy and regular dishes, snacks, drinks (non-alcoholic), deserts and etc. Everything is served perfectly fine on white tablecloth, with A/C and etc.

Second type is family restaurants, the place where people can come with their family members, friends (I mean girls and boys), sit, and chat and have good time together. Probably this type of restaurants are the most common and most popular. You get tasty food for a reasonable price, there are always enough place to sit for big group of people and they can arrange order from other restaurant which is on the same street (for example if I want some specific juice which are not available in restaurant I am, they will arrange it for me without any additional charges). As per my knowledge, these types of restaurants are mostly crowded in evening after work or sunset when people have more free time and can relax. That is why these restaurants are located in busiest streets and they can offer table inside or outside. While passing one of these restaurants by car or by walk you will meet from 5 to (unlimited) number of guys and small kids running right after you being ready to jump under the car just to convince you to choose their restaurant. You can call them ‘club promoters’. Believe me or not, but their strategy is working (more or less). As soon as you put your soft ass on the plastic chair to be served – their job is done.

The third type of restaurants I wanted to introduce you with is with the lowest quality in terms of service and hygiene. I’m not proud to say that I’m going everyday to one of these restaurants to have my lunch.
The best they can offer is a traditional dish for really cheep price. Usually there are one or two guys serving tables. What is the most amazing for me is that they don’t need to write down your order – they always remember what and how much you ate.
Imagine a guy with very oily and dirty shalwar kameez, caring one rag with which he cleans all sh*t from the table (most probably all day long). With the same hand bring you a plate with your ordered food, taking with bred with hands and giving to you and etc. People are throwing cigarettes, small papers or any other useless stuff right on the floor or under the table (and its stays there till the end of the day). Homeless cats with broken tale or leg are common view as well. If you have a good mood today, you can throw a piece of chicken for poor animal.

In such places you will never see women. As once my colleague from office said: “they most probably would forget eating and keep staring at me”. I think she is right. In these restaurants are coming people from lower class, workers and etc.
Depending how strongly you want to feel Pakistan culture you can choose your lunch/dinner place.
Bone appetite!

Wanna take a bus?

2009-04-17T12:58:00.003+06:00

Last weekend, having been a long one, had nothing much to offer but we decided to explore somewhat of an adventure by hopping on to a bus and go to where it would take us. Of course we were not crazy enough to do it all by ourselves, during the week we had requested Muneeb from AIESEC to accompany us which he gladly agreed to. He had a huge task of babysitting five foreigners on the public bus in Karachi. Now, naturally you would think that the public bus is a normal everyday means of transport for the average Karachite, but unfortunately or fortunately that is barely the case. The public buses are used by the really poor workers to move across town to places where the are employed which in many cases is from the poor slums to the rich suburbs. In Karachi buses there is some form of etiquette that is to be observed, first of all there are separate compartments for the men and the women. This is mainly to keep the men from harassing the women and Pakistan being a deeply Islamic state there is also unspoken rules of separation. The buses are highly colorful decorated with Persian style designs embossed on shiny metal. the inside is equally decorated with hanging beads on the roof and blaring Urdu music over terribly terribly sounding speakers.

Secondly, it is highly advised that you try and blend in as much as possible with the crowd in the bus otherwise you will be subjected to stares that would make you feel as if the people are boring holes into you. Blending in, in this case, meant that we either dress in the conventional traditional dress of shalwar Kameez or whatever you wear make sure it covers you up pretty much and do not forget to carry a veil or shawl in case the stares get to you- that's for the ladies. The guys have no choice but to be looked at :)

Well it was about 2pm we decided to hop onto the bus 19D. We did not have a route planned out but at least we knew that the bus would pass by the Central Business District of Saddar which was as far as we had actually gone even by private means. So us girls hobbled upon the bus into the women's compartment right at the front next to the driver and all the boys were at the back and there was a separation barrier between us. I was seated right at the windscreen so i was having a front row view of the way we were taking. It was sort of normal route up till where we passed the CBD and we entered unfamiliar territory. The women sitting in the bus were looking at us as if we had just landed from an unknown world and despite the language barrier some tried to make conversation. The punch line was when one asked if Jana and Katya were sisters.

The driver being well aware of our presence also seemed to want to give us a show by trying to display how good a driver he was by squeezing that huge bus into the tiniest of spaces left after the human traffic, parked cars, motorcycles carrying whole families and rickshaws all blended together and plastered smack in the middle of the road. At one point during the ride I could have almost sworn that we were going to have an accident and the fact that I was right there at the windscreen did not make matters any better because every time he would step hard on the brakes I would directly head bat the windscreen. Its a wonder I did not come out of that bus with a concussion. After about an hour and a half of being in the bus and in some random market the bus stopped and the driver got off. This did not mean much at the time, but when we were still on the same spot ten minutes later I brought myself to ask where the driver had gone and I was told that he was out to lunch. That super cracked me up. The route is so long that the driver has to take pee breaks, water breaks and in this case lunch breaks. Well at least he stopped right in front of the Arabic cushion market so we had quite a bit to fix our eyes on and gawk for a while before we even realized that he was gone.

After two and a half hours of being baked in that tin can we landed in one of the no go zones of Karachi, at least that is what the UN security briefing told us, which was Baldia town. I think because of the frequent security warnings to foreigners not to go there, it had been a while since those people last saw people of a different origin than theirs. We chose to get off the bus at this point because we seemed to be moving and moving and not coming to the end of the city or the end of the bus route for that matter. The moment we hit the ground we became an attraction to the locals. All the shopkeepers surrounded us and were trying to make conversation and find out where we are from and how long we are in Karachi and it was almost what I would call terrible. so we took a few photos to mark that we were at Baldia and stayed somewhere strategic so that we could catch the next bus out. Some random guys even whipped out their phones and started taking photos of us. This was our cue to unleash our shawls and cover up properly to get them to loose interest in taking photos of us. :-)

Coming back we took a smaller bus but just as eventful all the same. This one was kind of the same size as what we call 'manyangas'(mini vans - usually 25 seaters) back at home, originally meant for about 25-30 passengers but same thing here it had two separated compartments with a barrier in between. The people here value their women but also have a tendency to harass them so clearly the men have to be literally kept away. After a short while the bus began to fill up with people probably the industrial workers from the site area trying to get back home. Once the men's compartment was full and there was about two rows of people standing in the manner we used to call 'javelin'* back in the day, streams or rather hordes of people started climbing up to the roof rack carrier. Every time the bus would stop I would see more and more people fighting to climb up the roof rack carrier and we from the inside now had the view blocked by hanging feet from up above. We took a much shorter route back to familiar ground so I guess we were traveling in a curve on the previous bus.

We dropped off at boat basin at a few minutes past six and went for lunch cum dinner since we had not had much to eat on that trip. I always wondered if breakfast cum lunch is brunch what is lunch cum dinner? Now boat basin usually has the best local food you could imagine and at this time it was start of business so we got really tasty top layer kind of food :-) Definately something you would want to experience!!!! Of particular interest would be the best tropical blends of juices and shakes that they have. Trust me it has been more than one occassios when we have travelled distances just to have a tast of that awesome juice!!!

*Javelin - A term used as street slang in Kenya to mean travelling while standing on a bus holding the handles palced on the top of the buses as you would a javelin stick :-)

Experience Pakistan VI

2008-02-11T04:01:00.000+05:00

And last but not least, we take up the issue that you probably wonder most about: just how dangerous is the the world's most dangerous country really? There is no right answer to this question, but maybe this can help you get a bit of a first hand impression about safety, paranoia and common sense when living in pakistan...

Experience Pakistan V

2008-02-10T23:11:00.000+05:00

G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S. the flossy, flossy :) (imagine fergie's song to it)... It's hard to believe, but we had to become interns in Pakistan to understand the true meaning of glamor and luxury... Super dressy people, belly dancing performances, incredible buffet (at midnight)... Dive into a gala dinner at Islamabad's Marriott!

Experience Pakistan IV

2008-02-10T22:57:00.000+05:00

Yet another peek into intern life in Pakistan... This time listen to live Sufi music sung by one and only Arieb!

Experience Pakistan III

2008-02-10T12:39:00.000+05:00

More impressions of intern life at the Hot Spot (in every meaning of the word): Life is a piece of cake - spiritual healing by Alexander the Great.

This one goes out to Kurt: thank you for being a constant source of inspirational pie charts, trend setting T-Shirt messages, dead baby jokes and general lack of political correctness, facilitation/fueling of club house drama and business ideas that the world needs to hear urgently. You are the heart and soul of the intern community!

Experience Pakistan II

2008-02-10T07:54:00.000+05:00

VERY random 'interview' with my driver Shazad, who gets me around in my daily life and on crazy weekends like this one: discovering Murree, close to Islamabad. The traffic chaos in the background was unplanned but very much in line with 'Experience Pakistan' :) It took all of us off guard - hence the wiggling around and improvisation, but we thought we'd just leave it like that!

Experience Pakistan I

2008-02-10T01:28:00.000+05:00

Here a first little insight into normal intern life in Pakistan... Live from Islamabad!

WE ARE BACK!!!

2008-02-09T04:23:00.000+05:00

There have been rumors that we are dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are far from dead people.....Let us tell you that Pakistan is the place to be!!!! We are alive and we are rocking more than we have ever been!!!!! It takes more than a few bombs and a bit of political unrest to move us on.

So the question is.....do you dare join us? Today for example, we have been for cheesecake, bought the latest in dvd entertainment, we've seen the next big thing in global rock n roll... and the best part is: we've got footage!!! enjoy some videos - live from islamabad, to be uploaded soon, as soon as we have overcome the technical issues (slow internet = experience pakistan!)...

with love,

alexander the great (MCVP UK 06/07, intern in Karachi for JS group)
C the point rufino (MCVP Switzerland 06/07, intern in Islamabad for Mobilink)

Blog revived

2007-08-10T11:05:00.000+05:00

Actually Rabia sent me this blog when I first applied for the post of MTI Pakistan in March 2007, and I found this little place so awesome! But how come the posts stopped at that time??!! the last post is dated back to Feb 2007?!

Guys, let's contribute and revive this nice place! ;)

Franky

Our intern family is growing.. :)

2007-02-08T04:16:00.000+05:00

We have two more interns who'll be joining us in Pakistan really soon! Iram Bahawal (Kenya) and Aura Sera (Romania) will be working in Lahore with Abacus Consulting and Greenstar respectively =) This is an extremely exciting time for us to see our intern family grow..

Aura's already started blogging about her upcoming adventure in Pakistan: http://follow-my-adventure.blogspot.com/

Can't wait till we have more trainees in the house!

Email from Thomas!

2006-12-27T19:55:00.000+05:00

Just got an email from Thomas, who returned back to Germany after his internship at BMA. He sends his regards to everyone, and sent a picture of himself with his family in Germany! :)

First Reminiscences…with the LC members in “KHI”

2006-12-07T09:26:00.001+05:00

I looked around the airport, saw the immigration officer, gazed at the disembarkation, administrator, glanced at Saba, Mikaal, Saaim, Sadaf and Omar, viewed the roads and felt the weather but still was unable to figure out exactly where I landed after being air-borne for three long hours. Did the airplane take a u-turn and touched down at some other city in Bangladesh or it never took off? What the heck was going on? Before I could get more perplexed and impatient, I was greeted rather coldly and warmly, tiredly and enthusiastically by the LC members. The reason for this MIXED reaction was the long and exhausting wait at the airport gate. I did apologize for it, but hey that wasn’t my fault and neither was the plane slow. It was the bag-opening ceremony at multiple airport check points and the trust of the airport officials on Muslim travelers which made me literaly sweep my luggage all around the arrival area and fill out various forms, hence confining me in the airport for over 45 minutes. What a welcome!!!! Oh yes by the way, after talking to the AIESECers and observing the billboards in Urdu, I finally got convinced that I was indeed in another country which was “AN INDIA” away (in geographical point of view ofcourse).

And so there we were sitting in Saaim’s car smiling at each other with no apparent reason, may be due to the fact that six of us had to cram inside the car pretty oddly or may be it was the sign of bafflement after seeing me and wondering “Is this guy really from Bangladesh?” In all this aura of grins and smiles Mikaal took out his mobile and started making a mini documentary. It was an awesome idea to preserve a memorable/unmemorable state of affairs taking place, provided that he has not deleted it.

So the journey went on. I was too tired, both mentally and bodily, to actually grab the smirks and jokes being spurted out inside the car and to my respite finally the car stopped in front of Barbera (I don’t know whether it’s the right spelling) Coffee shop. We ordered some fresh juice, coffee and a couple of plate of custom made cheese-layered fries [thanks to Omar’s long-term relationship with the hoteliers… :)] and chit-chatted a bit before heading to the MC house.

Eventually, we arrived at the MC building.

I thought it would be a right abbreviation for Military Cage because to get to the house you have to undergo three layers of inspection operations. First is the main gate, guarded with an armored person. Then there is the voice recognition system. After your voice verification, a prison-like gate electromagnetically opens and you climb up the stairs. While climbing the stairs one might get the feeling of walking through a multi-storied cell with reinforced iron railings on every access-point. Finally when you reach the MC house, there is the third and final layer of security, the iron-fenced door of the house itself. Pretty secured isn’t it!!!

At the MC house, I met Wangari, the Kenyan girl doing her internship at Asoka. Wangari, Sadaf, Saba, Omar and me sat around the dining table conversing while poor Mikaal and Saaim carried my “50 Kg” luggage all the way to the 3^rd floor. Thanks a lot guys. I feel really indebt to you two for this favor. I wouldn’t and couldn’t have carried all this mass alone.

It was around 8:00 pm local time and there I was seated at the MC house with all the MC people missing. The event which followed next was enough to make me go besmirch and ruin my jubilant and exciting mood. Stay tuned for that story to be covered in the next blog.

Well that was my recollection of the 13^th of November, my first day in Karachi.

Sincere thanks to Taha, Emad, Wangari and Saba for pressurizing me to write my very first and overdue blog annotations which I finally wrote during the late hours of 6^th December.

Till then…

“Bhalo Thaken” (Stay well)

- Karim A.

Kouadio Yao's experience!

2006-12-01T02:20:00.000+05:00

Hey all!

A message from AIESEC in Pakistan's 5th Trainee, and AIESEC in Karachi's 2nd Trainee, Kouadio Yao! He is a former MC VP PD in AIESEC Cote d'Ivoire, and is here in Pakistan working for Berlitz Language Center!

I-THE TRAVEL PREPARATION

To come in Pakistan it means you need to have a visa, to get it in West Africa you have to go to Senegal for some countries and Nigeria for some others.

I decided to go to Senegal for this application. Once I arrived there I went to the embassy of Islamic republic of Pakistan in Senegal and I applied for one year and half as a result the ambassador refused my file without explanation. After telephone contact he told me that I need some additional documents. One must prove how can I live in Pakistan and another proof that my country government know that I’m leaving the country for Pakistan. To have all these proofs I told the committees to do their best to send me these documents, and for this I told the MC of AIESEC Cote d’Ivoire for my governmental documents and the LC Karachi for my living documents in Pakistan. When I got the documents I applied again and obtained visa for 3 months renewable.

II-THE CHECKING AND ACCOMODATION

I took off in ABIDJAN on Friday the 17th Nov'06 at 16:25 (GMT) after a long journey, I arrived in Karachi on Saturday 18th Nov'06 at 11:30am. Firstly AIESEC members and trainee came and picked me at the airport, and then we went to the restaurant for eating and finally I joined at the MC house with the MC and trainees, where I would live for the time being.

At the MC house we buy all of our need (breakfast, dinner …) I use the computer of the trainees and the MC internet connection. Everyday the VP ICX-C Taha Durrani comes and visits me. He was also responsible for my initial transportation to my office. Whenever he is busy his brother comes and picks me from office. In the office I have made some friends, whom I talk with.

III-SUGGESTIONS

I would like AIESEC Pakistan to meet the foreign affairs ministry in order to facilitate visa obtaining that will be very good for AIESEC one side and for the country the other side.

IV-THANKS

As thanks, I thank the LC Karachi because this is a king of LC we are looking for in AIESEC because the members are friendly, before coming, all of them sent me a message that is one thing I noticed. When I came many of them came and visited me some sent me the welcome message. I particular thank the LCVP ICX-C TAHA Durrani who now is my brother!
I recognize the work done by AIESEC in a small time (2004-2006) 2 years for all this progress. I say that not because I’m here but since joining AIESEC in 2001, I traveled in some countries and saw the progress they have done in many years.

Honestly my expectations about the culture of the country when I was in my country, were different, because at the airport when the policemen saw my visa they kept it and started asking many questions. As the change agent I’m here to see what happens really (the AIESEC role) and one day I will explain to everybody really what is the Pakistani culture!

Thank you all for everything! Insha-ALLAH we will change the world!

Kouadio Yao
Trainee
Berlitz Language Center

THIS is what we are here for. THIS is AIESEC!

You can contact Yao on kouadio.yao@aiesec.net

Thomas has left the building..

2006-11-10T23:05:00.000+05:00

Thomas, our German trainee left this week after completing his traineeship with BMA Capital Management. Thomas was absolutely fun to be around - and has left behind two copies of books about Germany, a signed flag for the LC and a very sweet note :) Thanks Thomas! All the best for life back in Deutschland!

2006-10-27T00:14:00.000+05:00

This last week has just been a whole rollercoaster of experience. For starters we all had a few days off so no office for me.
Anyway on Monday the MC had to go to office as they have so much work to do...when it was almost Iftar Omar came over and we went to get Iftar for the crowd little did I know that I was just about to get a shocker...well to cut the story short he took me to a barber shop....yap!! It was crazy I was the only woman so I was sitted there reading a two year old Vogue magazine scared to look up (you get the picture)after a while I was able to throw a few glance and I can tell you there is a whole difference between barber shops here and back home...

After that very scary ordeal (am only joking I find it trully humurous now) I experienced my first hit and run in Pakistan I have issues with the driving here(thats a story for another day) a moterbike rammed into a car and destroyed the bumper the guy then zoomed off.....I was duly informed that is the norm here.

I finally went to Boat Basin...we had gone for the last iftar together as a household(Thomas was leaving for the North) its quiet an amazing place, shop after shop after shop after shop....we went to Karachi broast and the shocker here: the next shop is a hair place!?!?

Chaand raat was quiet interesting we went to Forum and it was so packed! Everywhere they were women having a good time and very bored looking men...the atmosphere was carnival like (tell you the truth it was the first time for me to see so many young children)

Saba took Joana and I to get mehndi done and it was amazing those ladies are really talente: how fast they create such pretty designs...after a while I got introduced to Indus which i can say have yummy yummy biryani.

Eid was another whole some experience. Saaim had invited us to spend the day with his family.(He is such a great guy) we went to his house an dhis parents are amazing they had prepared an array of finger licking snacks....I had forgotten we woke up to our own savinya(vermicilli) made by MCP it was finger liking...back to Saaims house we ate a whole array of delicacies and I discovered something I like 'Safe'(hope thats the spelling) we meet his extended family and they are such lovely people.We got tokens from Saaim's mum!!!!!!! We then went to their family friends house where we meet another group of very nice people with such a great sense of humuor. In summary Eid:"...good food,good company,good feeling.good memories..."

Thanks all of you who were able to make this week memorable you enabled me to celebrate Eid Pakistan style am indebted to you all for giving me such intense memories...

Thanks
Kare