Steve's sandbox

Tag: Pakistan

  • Edward Mortimer – Final Case Study

    This young girl is being given some basic education along with about thirty of her peers. Classes took place once a week in the open air on a straw mat.

    My John Speak Scholarship took me to Pakistan for a period of ten months to perfect my command of the Urdu language; widely accepted as the lingua franca of the Indian Subcontinent, a rich blend of Persian, Arabic and Turkish vocabulary with a Hindi grammatical base. Much like the English we speak today it could be described as a ‘mongrel’ of a language, but what a playful, diverse and beautiful mongrel she is!

    Prior to my Scholarship I had been to Pakistan twice. During those short visits I had developed a keen interest in UK-Pakistan relations, and this was the initial impetus for learning the language. I was already an intermediate speaker, and my reading ability was well developed, but I simply could not express myself on the level that I wanted to. During my Scholarship, everything changed.
    I spent the majority of my scholarship teaching in a large school, and this was a fantastic experience that really stretched me. However it was living with a Pakistani family that was the true catalyst for my language development. I found myself in such a diverse range of situations, and had to call on every noun, verb and adjective available to me: From attending colourful engagement parties and making speeches to large groups of young children, to hospital visits and running errands.
    Possibly one of the most rewarding experiences during my Scholarship was participating in an education project in my spare time, which was run by the family I was living with. This involved working with the children from some extremely poor tribal communities, and being able to communicate love and encouragement to the children in a language they understood was an incredibly moving experience.

    I hasten to add that my time in Pakistan was not always easy. I had to jump through multiple hoops in order to obtain the correct visa, and I often got discouraged during the initial period when I found it difficult to express myself. In addition I developed some health problems about half-way through my Scholarship, on top of having to go 6 hours a day without electricity (a daily occurrence in Pakistan). Despite all of these challenges I was given fantastic support by the Trust from day one, I couldn’t have asked for more.
    Having previously interned at the British High Commission in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, I am champing at the bit to use my newfound language skills to further British interests in South Asia, economically, diplomatically and culturally. I’ll be keeping the Committee informed of my progress, and once again I’d like to express my gratitude to them for giving me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

    Edward Mortimer – John Speak Scholar, Pakistan

     

    A wise man

  • Enjoy the Ride

    This young girl is being given some basic education along with about thirty of her peers. Classes took place once a week in the open air on a straw mat.

    It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged, and life has not been dull in the interim. It is sad to think my scholarship will come to an end in approximately two weeks, but I intend to make the most of the time remaining, and develop myself as much as possible. Even at this stage I am still meeting new people. Yesterday a rickshaw driver in whose conveyance I travelled insisted that I call him directly in future whenever I needed to go anywhere. It seems I have procured my own personal taxi service (although many of Pakistan’s roads are in such a state of disrepair that travelling this way can never be described as glamorous). Travelling by Rickshaw is fun though, for a short period you are in a confined space with a complete stranger, and it offers a wonderful opportunity to encounter the culture from another new perspective…

  • Queries…!

    I get asked all sorts of bizarre questions whilst I am here in Pakistan. For example ‘What kind of face cream do you use?’, ‘Is London near the UK?’ and ‘Where you ever any good at cricket?’ I always try and answer these questions to the best of my knowledge (it’s Nivea, just in case you were wondering) but besides simply providing a ‘stock response’ I am always grateful for the opportunity it presents to engage in a deeper conversation, as it exposes me to the different ways in which people use language. On that subject I wrote a poem today (in Urdu) for somebody’s birthday card. It seemed to go down well, in spite of my rejection of several grammatical rules that I am very familiar with. What is art without a bit of creative rebellion?!

  • Feeling Humbled

    I have been reflecting a lot on education of late, and how the receipt of it (or not as is often the case here) can have such a profound impact on person’s life. But that said I have realised intelligence is not just about ‘what we know’, i.e. naming the World’s ten fastest growing economies, or correctly applying Pythagoras’ Theorem, but also takes into account what we have experienced, and our responses to those experiences. When I looked closely at the girl in this photograph (who has never received any formal schooling) I saw such an-depth of understanding of what life is, that I felt humbled. At times like this I am reminded that my scholarship has bought me here to learn. Whilst that is indeed a humbling experience, it empowers us as well.

    This girl is no more than 8 or 9, and yet often she is responsible for looking after younger siblings!

  • Different Countries, One Future…

    As two of Pakistan’s neighbouring countries, India and Afghanistan undergo general elections it is interesting to reflect on developments in one country affect the wider region.  Both countries are geo-political heavyweights (due to a booming economy and the presence of NATO forces respectively) and as such the government ministers in Islamabad will be watching closely.  It is no secret that Pakistan’s Northwest frontier has an impact on the situation across the border in Afghanistan due to a shared ‘Pathan’ heritage.  In the East, both India and Pakistan have taken genuine strides in recent years to improve diplomatic relations in the hope of boosting bi-literal trade.  How will things look 12 months from now?  Let’s wait and see…

  • A Waiting Game

    I have been thinking that you can tell a lot about a culture by looking at the way people queue (or don’t as the case may be!). I was in the bank today to take out some of my penultimate scholarship instalment, and everyone waiting to be served was standing in little groups around each of the tellers. Every now and then someone else would walk in and join one of these ‘clusters’ each vying for the clerk’s attention. I used to think this was rudeness, but I have realised it is not. Who am I to say what works best, and what doesn’t? If you go to the bank in the UK or in Pakistan, and come out in the same amount of time, having completed the work you came to do, then why change anything? To be honest I think some people where there simply to utilise the air-conditioning system, as the bank is one of the few places in Pakistan where you can guarantee it will be present.

  • An Aural Extravaganza

    Today I thought about the menagerie of sounds that one hears on an average day in Pakistan. There is the ice-cream cart that plays an electronic version of ‘fur-de-lise’ on repeat, I wonder how it doesn’t drive the poor man bonkers. There are the cats and dogs. Nobody owns them (indeed, the average Pakistani is terrified of dogs), they’re just there, wailing at all times of the day and night. Then there is the cockerel, which seems to have forgotten that he’s only supposed to crow when the sun comes up, he appears to like doing it on the hour, every hour. In addition, there is the call to prayer, or the ‘azaan’, issued five times a day from minarets up and down the country. Finally, there is the noble tradition of Pakistanis using their car horns at least once a minute. It’s something of a national pastime. I used to think people were must be extremely angry when they were honking at me, until I realised they do all the time. As I write this, ironically my surroundings are eerily silent. It’s late, I should get to bed…

  • Making Light of Things…

    Today has been a fairly relaxing day. The weather is changing here, slowly but surely the temperature is rising. Although fortunately the mosquitoes have launched a full-scale invasion as yet, and the ceiling fan has not been needed as yet. Every day the citizens of this country go without electricity for between 3 and 10 hours (depending on which part of the country you live in). Needless to say, this is at best, an inconvenience, and at worst, a serious health risk, but the resilience shown by the people here to deal with this daily occurrence is nothing short of admirable. Many Pakistanis simply take the opportunity to sleep, others take a walk outside in the fresh air, and nearly every mobile phone purchased in Pakistan comes equipped with a torch for those times when you can’t find the door handle. One interesting thing is that if, for example, the light goes off at 7pm it always comes back at exactly 8pm. Within what many might describe as a rather chaotic situation, there is a great degree of precision! At least I can plan my napping routine around it with confidence…

  • Eyes of Sadness

    Foreigners are not particularly common here, so it is hardly surprising this young girl looked at me in this way. One has to get used to being something of an oddity!

  • Our Changing World

    It is now drawing closer towards the final month of my scholarship, so I want to make an effort to blog more regularly. I would like to give readers an insight into what life is like here, and the potential ways to strengthen ties between the UK and Pakistan in decades to come. A couple of days ago I was invited to visit the family of a friend, and I was simply overwhelmed by the welcome I received. I have found it so much easier to relate to people now that I can communicate with them on a deeper and more personal level. I often feel very encouraged when they told me the Urdu I speak sounds very ‘pure’ (I am sure they just wanted to tell me very gently that I sound old-fashioned). In truth, just liked English, Urdu is a whole mixture of different languages: Hindi, Farsi, Arabic and more recently, English. This shows real potential in the language, a willingness to change, and adapt according to the needs placed upon it. The world we live in is now changing faster than ever and thus our methods of communication must learn to keep up.