::Karavan Pakistan::

Daily Diary Of Batrasi

3rd January 2006

4th January 2006

5th January 2006

6th January 2006

7th January 2006

8th January 2006

9th January 2006

10th January 2006

11th January 2006

3rd January 2006 BACK TO TOP

Me, Saba Samee, and my driver, Chacha Aslam, started our journey by road on the 3rd Jan 2006, at 7:30 am. We bypassed Islamabad and took the Hasannabdal, Haripur and Havelian route to Abbottabad. This route has less steep climbing then the route from Islamabad, Muree, Nathia Gali and Abbottabad. On this route one gets to see lots of valleys as the road circles around the edge of the mountain showing deep valleys below. The main reason for taking this route was that I am basically height phobic, Virtigo, and as long as I can see ground and the road is less winding I am ok.

At 4:00 pm we reached Abbottabad. After a cup of tea and some Pakoras, we refueled our car and started our final lap of the journey, Pakistan Scouts Cadit College BATRASI, PSCCB. Batrasi College was our base camp for the KAPIT activities. After traveling for about 45 minutes on the Silk Route, Karakoram Highway, we saw the sign of PSCCB and we got of the main highway on the road to Ghari Habib Ullah. After only 5 minutes we saw a green banner of KAPIT Karavan-Ghar and we knew we have reached our destination. After inquiring our identity the gate security opened the gate for us and gave us the keys to the rest house named Strawberry Lodge, as the volunteer have not returned from the site yet. It was 5:15 pm when I entered the rest house which was going to be my home for 20 days.

At first I could only see a small white washed wooden door/gate in a white washed long brick boundary wall. There were green trees on both sides of the door/gate and a big football ground enclosed with green hedge in the opposite direction. Strawberry Lodge was a corner house and the other side of the house had a basket ball ground. Right across this ground and beside the football ground was the tent establishment of the Red Cross/Crescent Organization. On opening the door/gate of the rest house we entered into a small paved area which had a small three pillared verandah one the right and a small garden on the left. There were three trees in the garden and lots of rose plants without any flowers on them. This lodge is constructed in an army rest house manner, with a small entrance verandah leaing to a door situated on the far left side of it. It was a wooden door protected with a wrought iron grill second door from outside.

Upon entering I found myself standing in a huge lounge area (at least it looked huge at that time) beyond which were two bedrooms on either side and the left side also had a kitchen. The right room had an attached bathroom and one bathroom was in the lounge area. I took the right room and started to settle in. At around 7:30 pm Mir Wali Shah, the resident volunteer at the time, came and gave me updates regarding the work in progress in the village named Sachan Kalan. It had snowed today in that area and so work has gone slow. The rains have already started before my coming here so the after effects were only to predictable.

From the very beginning Mrs. Yasmeen Lari, Chairperson, Karavan Pakistan, had predicted the difficulties of the winter months ahead and hence she planned the KAPIT working strategies accordingly. Our main strategy was to start work from the very top and work our way down as snow will hit the top areas earlier then the lower ones. Deuli was the first village we started our work. It is more than 7000 ft above sea level.

Mrs. Lari came to Batrasi at around 7:30 pm and briefed me about the up coming activities of Karavan-Ghar. Then she took me to meet Major Ijaz, vice principal of the college. He had been very cooperative with all of the Karavan volunteers. We had tea in his office and afterwards we all went to the mess to have our dinner. Mrs Lari had to go to Abbottabad and after that she was going to Karachi only to return after 4 days.

The day ends in Batrasi at about 10:00 pm and I was very tired from my journey and very cold as well. We hit bed around 10:20 pm.

4th January 2006 BACK TO TOP

It was a beautiful morning with sun shinning and clear sky. Mir Wali and Attiq, appointee of Karavan Pakistan, left for Sachan Kalan early in the morning at 7:30 am. I was to stay back and organize some paper work as well as make arrangements for the Glasgow volunteers due to come on the 8th January.

Around mid day people from the telephone department of Mansehra came to install two landlines in the rest house. These were for the internet. At about the same time the television guy came as well with a TV set and a cable which had only two channels on it, Geo News Channel and Star Gold (Star Gold was later changed into PTV). Then came the sweeper and I had to go out in the garden and sit in the sun while they cleaned the house. At around 7:00 pm Mir Wali and Attiq came back from the site and I started to write their site progress report.

It has snowed in the area and the road had become very slippery. The driver of the hired Suzuki carry van, Razak Shah, kept on complaining about the road and the mud and the car tires and every thing else attached to the car. In the end he wanted us to raise the committed amount of money which was highly unreasonable and Mir Wali disagreed with him. The work on the houses were slow but it did not stop as people were willing to work and build.

At 3:00 am in the morning, I was woken up by loud noises coming from the tin roof and the wooden false ceiling of our rest house. Then I felt the shaking of the room. Only then I realized that it was a mild earth quake. By the time I managed to get out of bed and ran outside it was over. For the end of my second day at Batrasi it was a bit scary.

5th January 2006 BACK TO TOP

We managed to leave for the site visit at about 9:30 am.

SITE TEAM:
1. Mir Wali Shah          Student Architecture, UET Abbottabad.
2. Attiq Ahmad
3. Saba Samee             Architect, Heritage Foundation Pakistan
4. Chacha Aslam          Driver + house keeper
5. Razak Shah              Driver Suzuki carry

Due to snow and land slide it was dicided that only the village of Sachan Kalan will be visited.

On the way our car got stuck in the mud filled land slide area near Jaggla. The gear of the car got stuck and after a number of tries it got into gear and started moving again.

Snow in Sachan Kalan has started melting and due to this lots of mud ponds developed in the area creating slippery on the road. Mir Wali marked three houses in the village and checked on the houses already under process. Material for two houses were given. The drawings were explained to the people interested. Five new houses are expected to start on the 6th Jan 2006. Two widowed women came and they were interested in building the house but did not had any manpower. It was pointed out by Mrs. Yasmeen Lari that Karavan has to built a house for demonstration for the people of the area and maybe the house for these two women can be built for that purpose. Further decision has to be made.

A family compound is located right behind our store room area. One of the member of the family had his house destroyed in the earthquake. We went to see that house. The house was placed very dangerously on a concrete slab of only 3” of thickness. Half of the house was cantelivered from the ground onto the river below. Thank god there were strong rocks underneath the pillars he had made to support the slab with. Still the concrete work and the joinery was very poor and the reinforcement used in it was not sufficient and was exposed from under the slab. He had a stone wall of 3’ height on the side which is on the ground. One of the wall perpendicular to the stone wall was also made of stone and was half cantelivered . it also had a fire place in it. The rest of the two walls were made of wooden planks and he had erected a wooden roof frame as well. It looked very risky but the cantilevered slab was fully secure from the ground end by the stone wall and pillars from underneath. But the bad construction of concrete was the whole problem. We dicided that upon the examination by Mrs. Lari any kind of further dicision will be made.

It took us 3 hours to come back to Batrasi and we reached home base at 6:30 pm. After having tea we went to the mess to have dinner of yet again Daal Chana.

6th January 2006                                                      BACK TO TOP

SITE TEAM:
1. Mir Wali Shah          Student Architecture, UET Abbottabad.
2. Attiq Ahmad
3. Razak Shah              Driver Suzuki carry

The site team started early in the morning ,at 8:30 am.

Their first stop was Sachan Kalan. Snow had again fallen in that area. Before reaching Sachan Kalan their car got stuck in the snow, in the area of Jabbori, 5000 ft above ground, and one hour was lost to start the car again, the car gear developed a fault.

In Sachan Kalan the team checked the houses already in process of construction. 10 houses are in process and the speed of construction is satisfactory as there is lot of snow.

They went up till the village Jabbar and checked on the work done there. Karavan had employeed a supervisor Mr. Jan Muhammad for this area and he is also incharge of the material distribution in that area. He has to maintain a register for all the material delivered and distributed. That register is checked regularly by the site volunteer team and by Mrs. Lari. The work was in progress and due to snow there was no notable progress in this area but the work has not stopped.

The second stop was Banda Pachutia, more than 7000 ft above ground. Whole of the area was covered with snow. Almost all of the people wanted to start building houses there and the work is to be started on 7th January 2006. Some of the material was given today and they will start work immediately.

Third was the village of Jugal. In this area Mercy Corps are already in action. They are giving material, labour to the people. The team has still talked to Dr. Zafar, member of the health department, and he said that the final situation will be clear after eid.

The team returned to Batrasi at 8:30 pm.

As stated above the car got stuck a number of times either in snow or in the mud filled patches where land slide occurred. These are very difficult situations for traveling as the driver of the car demanded more money due to the bad and rough roads of the areas in which the team has to go and visit. Snow is an other problem as it has slowed the work and made it more difficult for the site team to go and check the progress

7th January 2006 BACK TO TOP

On this day the college closed for its winter break and Major Ijaz, Vice principal, called me and asked if I can come and see the tents were the volunteers were to stay.

Students used these tents during the remaining of their term time as all of the hostels were either destroyed or were unsafe to live in. Each tent had a capacity for eight people and Major Ijaz had put eight foam mattresses on the ground as well. Two of these tents were prepared.

When I came back to the rest house some volunteers from UET Abbottabad with Mr. Khattak had arrived.

Hamid Zulfikar 3rd year Architecture
Farman Ullah 3rd year Architecture
Adnan Amjad 2nd year Architecture

initially this was the group who worked for Karavan in the beginning. Mir Wali Shah is also part of this group. They have also worked with the army relief efforts and have surveyed lots of villages in this area. They were to stay only for one day as eid holidays started from the 8th January 2006.

Gas cylinders were to be filled and blankets were to be arranged from the caretaker of the college.

When the site team returned from the site they reported of rain and slippery roads. The driver complaint again about the road and said that he will need one day for the car to be serviced.

7:30 pm we ran to the mess for yet another day of daal, but surprisingly and with great relief tonight they had cooked chicken Qorma.

8th January 2006 BACK TO TOP

Eid holidays have started and now it is more difficult to find any transportation. All the volunteers had gone home. Only Mir Wali Shah and the 3 new comers are staying back till the 9th January.

When I came out from my room Mir Wali Shah was very disturbed as the 3 volunteers had left without him or Attiq, who were the present volunteers and knew the current location of the work. They also took the only car we had and so all the gas cylinders and bbreakfast list was put to hold. The main concern was of Mir Wali not been able to go to the site to check the routine work of Karavan Ghar. All of the day got disturbed.

At around 11:00 am, Mr. Ehtasham, Head Dept. of Architecture, Comsats Institute of Information Technology, CIIT, called and informed me that the Glasgow team of volunteers are on their way to Batrasi.

The Glasgow team arrived at 1:30 pm and consisted of 12 members, 4 girls and eight boys, including one professor, Mr. Alexander Page, Deputy Head Dept. of Architecture, Undergrad Studies. List of the students and their pictures are attached.

Mr. Ehtasham suggested that there is no need for the boys to go to the tents as all the four girls can sleep in the room opposite my room and the boys can sleep in the lounge area. That suited every one. The only problem was that they all had brought -10 C tolarent sleeping bags, as they thought that they had to live in the tents. Mattresses were brought from the tents and clean sheets were distributed. Warm blankets arrived from the caretaker.

Few of the team members went for a walk in the village and the remaining got some much needed rest. Tea was served by Chacha.

My work space was now crowded with sleeping bags, luggage, mineral water bottles and fruit. There was no way I could have worked at that time. I had a laptop as well but I was to distracted by the coming of these people and the disappearing act of the other 3 boys.

The boys came around 8:30 pm and after giving them a bit of scolding and hearing their story of the areas where they went and checked Karvan work I told them that they are not going to leave at this hour of the night for eid holidays and made them sleep in the lounge with the rest of the boys.

The day was finally over for me and every thing got ok in the end.

9th January 2006 BACK TO TOP

We had breakfast at 7:30 am and our Suzuki carry and a big van from UET Abbottabad came around 9:00 am. Every body was ready to go to Sachan Kalan.

This was the first trip for the Glasgow team and they were very anxious to start the volunteering work. They had all the working gear with them.

Mr. Faisal, resident of Sachan Kalan and administrative officer for Karavan Ghar Project, also accompanied us to the village. The road was even worse than the first time I went up there and even more slippery. Upon reaching Sachan Kalan the team was shown the three houses marked by Mir Wali Shah on the 7th January. The foundations were dugged in but the work was very slow due to snow and limited supply of tool kits, they had to share one tool kit every 5 houses.

Major distruction in this area has occured as 80% of the houses have been
collapsed. There are some houses in which only one wall is standing. The
houses which had concrete roofs are in the worst state. Houses with GI and
wooden roofs have partially survived. The roof of these houses are still
intact and standing where as the concrete roofs have completely and flately fallen
down. There were luckily no casualties in this village and lots of people got small
injuries as cuts and bruises.

Mr. Mubarik is the store and area supervisor for Sachan Kalan. As is traditional over here the guests were invited to tea first. The tea was in Mubariks house and he showed his house as well. All the house has fallen down. Only the front verandah was left and that is where the whole family is staying in the mean time. His was a beautiful big double storey house with a central courtyard. The house was constructed in a U-shape and the side of the river was left open for the view. An orange tree was still holding its fruit in the courtyard as if unaffected by the earthquake. Two of the children went straight for their swing in the garden and started swinging in it. Now they had all of the space as their play ground and no body disturbed them.

During tea we met with a small girl, Bakhtawar, 3-4 years of age, who got stuck under the rubble of her house. Her father saved her after much difficulty. She was alright now, happy to be alive.

Then I took them to the guy who’s house is located on the concrete slab. Alexander Page, tutor, drew some sketches to explain him that what he should do with the house and gave good suggestions. All the volunteers examined that house and had a good discussion on it. Different ways to strengthen the house was explained to him and he said that he will do them to protect his house.

It was 7:00 pm when we got back from the site and we ran to get our dinner. Thank god Chacha had informed the mess people that all of these new people will also join us in the dinner. They made chicken and daal in our honour.

At night Mrs. Lari called to tell us that she has reached Abbottabad from Karachi and that she will come in the morning to Batrasi

10th January 2006 BACK TO TOP

Mrs. Lari came at about 9:00 am and we started towards Sachan Kalan at 10:00 am.
Mir Wali and all the other local volunteers have gone home for eid except for Attiq. His new duty was in Astan Gali and he is staying with us until the eid holidays are over.

The site team

Mrs. Yasmeen Lari
Mr. Alexander Page
Mr. Faisal
Ms. Saba Samee
All the Glasgow team (list attached)
Mr. Mubarik
Razak Shah Driver

The site team chose an area along the road to build the demonstrative house. Mean while Mrs. Lari identified an old house, owner – father of Mr. Faisal – as Heritage protection project. That house was built by Mr. Faisal’s great grand father and partially it survived the earth quake. One non load bearing wall collapsed but the upper wooden bracing part was still intact. The projected balcony was only slightly tilted downwards.

Mrs. Lari with the women squad went to visit the women of the area and ask them about the skills they have so that they can support them selves in this time of crisis.

In the meantime the boys had setup two tents for them selves in the courtyard of Mr. Faisal’s house, as they were planning to stay there from tomorrow.

The lime was brought to the plot earlier selected by the site team and every one started to clear the site from stones and unwanted rubble. They started to build the demonstrative house. This house had a core unit of 10'x15' and a kitchen of 8'x6' and 8' wide verandah at the front of the house. Karavan Ghar’s design and construction method was to be used in this house. If it is felt that some new improvement should be done it will be dicided on site. The Glasgow team itself is going to build the house. If locals wanted to help they can join in as well.

First they measured the plot and marked down the boundaries of the house. Then they marked the walls plus the foundations with straight white string. After that they transferred it to ground by Lime powder. They dug the lines first and the middle area had to be dug by the people whos house it was. It was getting dark and we had to leave.

We reached Batrasi at 8:00 pm and th mess people were upset as they had to go to early morning eid prayers but so considerate of them that they gave us food, this time daal of two kinds.

11th January 2006 BACK TO TOP

On eid day

Today 11th
on eid day transportation was not avaliable untill 10:30 am and the day started late. at about 10:45 they left Batraisi for Sachan Kalan. There the boys will stay in the tents tonight and the girls will come back to
Batraisi. this will give a head start to the boys on the 12th and we will join them later. it is a 3 hour drive from Batraisi to Sachan Kalan.

Mrs. Lari said that i should stay back today as to organise some paper work and to give this report to you. As we do not have any digital camera with us i cannot send the pictures of the lodge but have given Mrs. Lari the picture roll so you have to develop it.

following is the list of the names of the areas (villages) Karavan has worked till now and they are all above 6000 ft in elevation.

As Mrs. Lari suggested that we should start from the top and work our way down as snow will hit the top
areas much more early then the lower ones, so Deuli is the first and the topmost area in the list

1. Deuli , now covered in snow
2. Chinar Kot, in snow
3. Jabbar Kund, 25 houses completed another 35 in process, covered in snow now so work is slow but has not stopped.
4. Jabbar Nala, in snow
5. Nawazabad
6. Banda Pashotia (previously misspelled as Manda Pachutia)
7. Astan Gali, work in progress. this area is also covered in snow
8. Sachan Kalan, has snow but work is in progress and this is the current village karavan is working in.
9. Ghairan (11) Sachan, this area is opposite Sachan Kalan, across the river stream, and it is very difficult to go there, but two houses have been started in that area and foundations been completed. progress has to be checked after eid.
10. Jabbori, survey has been done, and some houses are also started ( i do not know this for sure as i have not visited this area but after eid when the site team will be back i will be able to confirm it as well ) In this area snow has not come yet.

i will also send you the lists of the houses built and in process. these lists should not be considered final lists as they are still in the process of completion.

i hope to add more statistic in other reports as well but as lots of different groups of students come and go and lots of them only write in their registers and some time people say they will start the house and do
not and it is written in our register that it had but then we have to update it the next day so as long as the houses do not finish it is not added in the finished houses list and so we had to made this in process list.

after these glasgow students have built this demonstrative house in Sachan Kalan there will be more willingness to construct as well.

i will have to finish now. i will try to get some digital pictures from the students as well so hope to send you some pictures as well

Eid mubarik to you and to your family and yes you can survive here, it is very much better than in the begining. i hope you come here and see the situation first hand, it will be a very nice experience for you. maybe i will plan to come at the same time as you do. that will be fun. let me know. it can only be for one week as well.

saba Samee