Aik, dooe, teen,

char, paanch, chae, saat, aath, no, dus, or 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.

Urdu lessons are going well and I am starting to learn some of the grammar and vocabulary necessary to gain a understanding of the language. I am practicing on the staff at school and they are impressed with the efforts that I am making.

I have also been dinner with the Bavingtons, to celebrate the fact that for the first time in 22 years, Dan, and his brother and sister were together in Pakistan. They were all born here and did part of their growing up here and then in the UK. dan returned here on Boxing Day 1960 and his brother remained in the Uk and his sister finally moved to New Zealand. They were together for the rededication of the renovated chapel at their old school up in Murree. The college is now a Muslim college, but the Principal wanted the chapel renovated and dedicated as a Christian place of worship. Dan is a structural engineer and his company was responsible for the work and he was then involved in the service of dedication.

Rehearsals for 'An Inspector Calls' continue a pace and the first Act is coming together. We have set the performance dates for the first weekend in March which seems ages away at the moment, but will be here before you know it.

The situation here continues to be calm and lets hope that Mr Sharif's return doesn't make this worse. There have been some terrorist attacks up in the north on military targets. The elections are set for 8th January and so far all is on course, it remains to be seen what the President will do about the state of emergency.

Last night the Warden and Deputy Wardens were invited to the British Deputy High Commission, for a State of the Nation talk from the Deputy High Commissioner. He didn't tell us anything that we didn't know before and just reassured that if the worst happens and we have to be got out of here in an emergency then there is a plan and tickets will be on sale (and I do mean that literally, the dear old British Government will charge us for getting us out) and they will get us out of Pakistan and then its our responsiblity to get ourselves back to the UK. I doubt very very much that it will every get to that, as I will have left the country long before that. I am not in the slightest bit worried that the situation will get that bad, its just nice to know the British Government have our backs, even if there is a price tag attached!

mai urdu janta hoon...

My declaration above might be a little ambitious. For those who don't speak Urdu, the translation is ' I know Urdu'. Which is one of the phrases I now know after my first two lessons of Urdu. Mr Ahktar Hussain is now coming three times a week to teach me Urdu, for the princely sum of Rs500/- per hour, approx 4GBP. The lessons have gone really well so far and I now have a lot of homework, and vocabulary to learn. I really want to get to grips with the language and hope that soon I will be able to communicate with some of my colleagues in their own language.

I have also arranged to learn another skill this week. Stewart (Head of Sixth Form) and I have signed up to do the PADI Open Water Scuba Diving course. This will include theory, pool diving and 4 open water dives, which will take us further up the coast to dive off an island in the Arabian Sea. Again we are benefitting from the cheaper costs here in Pakistan, as the PADI costs is about a quarter the cost in the UK. All being well I will be qualified by the time we finish for Christmas and I may get the chance to dive in the Red Sea when I am Egypt at New Year to see Thomas.

Today has also seen more rehearsals for the school production of 'An Inspector Calls'. The cast. Although they haven't quite got their lines yet, they are starting to come together. I think that we could be putting on a great show next March, ticket Rs500/- each, available from the school office, how many shall I put you down for?

Kuwaiti Weekend Part 2

All day Friday was spent by the kids in rehearsals and practices. Whilst this was happening I had to sort out the missing Passport. We had managed to get the girl in to Kuwait with her British Passport, but we couldn't get her back to Pakistan with out either a new passport or a visa.

I talked to the Vice-Principal who made a phone call, and told me we had an appointment at the Pakistani Embassy at 1pm. This being Friday the Embassy was closed, but it was being opened especially for us!! So after a 20 minute at the Embassy we had the necessary paper work in place. It pays to have connections.

The rest of the day went well and the kids really really enjoyed themselves and worked extremely hard, their behaviour was fantastic and I was so proud of each of them.

On Saturday after another couple of hours rehearsal, the whole group, roughly 300 kids put on a show containing dramatic preformances, dances and songs. It really was amazing what they had pulled together in about 10 hours of practices.

After lunch we had about 6 hours before we needed to be at the airport, so we were taken to the Kuwait Towers, which Kuwait's most famous landmark.

During the Iraqi invasion a lot of damage was done to the Towers, as it was such a symbol of Kuwait. All the damage has since been repaired and they look really impressive and the view from the large Observation ball. Also the outside of the ball moves whilst the inner part is stationary. So in half an hour you stand still and be shown the full 360 degrees view of the bay and the city.

And here we have my wonderful students inside the ball

After the Kuwait Towers we went to the Avenues, which is a huge shopping mall (I know that's an Americanism, but that's what they call it). It was actually quite a weird feeling inside the Mall as I felt really strange. I have only been here 10 weeks or so, but I was really struck by the extreme affluence in Kuwait compared to the poverty here.

From the Mall we went to the airport and after a wait, we finally boarded the plane to Dubai. We arrived there at 1.30am in the morning with a 6 and halfhour wait before our flight to Karachi. During this time I had to go and report the lost passport to the police and then after a look around the shops, yet more affluence, I nodded off for a little while, and apparently there is photographic evidence of this.

Thankfully the flight was on time and we arrived in Karachi at 11am, and our adventures were over, or so I thought! When the last of my girls got to the immigration desk, it turned out that what we thought was an extention to her visa, was in fact only permission to stay so by leaving the country she now did not have the right to enter the country. Thankfully, her parents are both Pakistani and once we had their Natioanl Identity Cards, we were able to enter the country! Oh the joys of international travel.

On Monday, I was driving from school to Park Towers, our more humble shopping centre, and I was thinking to myself, how much I love being here. I love the chaotic roads, the donkey carts and bus drivers who don't seem to notice any other traffic on the roads. I love the people, I love the kids I teach, I love my apartment and the people that look after me there. I love the fact that someone, somewhere thinks that rush hour is a good time to turn off the traffic lights!! And despite the dust and the dirt, the power cuts and the State of Emergency, I love being here!!!

And I thought Junior Doctors worked a long week...

When I added up my total working hours this week, I came to the grand total of 80 hours, which included, teaching, parents' evenings, and escorting a school trip to Kuwait.

The Parents' Evenings went well and it was good to meet all the parents and to hear some very nice comments from them about what the children have been saying about me, which is very gratifying.

We left from school at 8.30am on Thursday, 18 young people and 2 staff and arrived in good time at the airport, unfortunately, the aircraft wasn't so co-operative! It arrived late from Dubai and so we were delayed in our departure for 2 hours. This meant that we only had an hour on the ground in Dubai and so were met of the plane and rushed through to our connection. You would imagine that being on the ground for less than 45 minutes would mean that nothing could go wrong! If you think that then you have never travelled with a group of teenagers. We arrived at the gate for the Kuwait flight and one of my 12 year old girls told me she had lost her Pakistani Passport! Thankfully, she is a dual national and was entering Kuwait on her British Passport, there was however, a problem to overcome as she needed her Pakistani Passport to re-enter Pakistan! More on this later.

So after the race through Dubai and the missing papers we arrrived in Kuwait and then had a two hour wait in immigration whilst the non Pakistanis had their visas processed, there really is no rushing goverment officials.

We were meet by British School of Kuwait's (the host school) staff and taken to a reception at the British Embassy, where we meet HE The British Ambassador to Kuwait, and enjoyed food and a couple of presentations from some of the BSK students. After that we went to the school and and the students were assigned to their host families. All my students ended up staying with Madame Vera (the school's founder) or one of her children. When my lot returned on Friday morning they were full of all the things their hosts had done for them, it sounds as if they were being spolt rotten!!

Well its nearly 10.30pm and I have been up for over 36 hours with only a few nods on the plane, and I have school in the morning, so I will tell you more tomorrow. And just to whet your appetite, there are more problems with passports to come...

All quiet on the Pakistani Front

I have to admit that its not complete quiet, but as long as you are not a judge or a lawyer, the State of Emergency seems to have little effect on life here.

There have been some demonstrations around the High Courts here in Karachi, and up in Lahore and Islamabad, but no where else. The city here is very quiet and at the moment there appears nothing to worry about.

After a day indoors on Sunday, we went to school as normal on Monday, after which I went to the market and bought my bread and fizzy pop. Then across the road to Musizca to pick up Frasier Series 7 for Rs400/- (just over 3 GBP). Then home to make tea and do some marking.

Today has been similar apart from the 12 hour day!! I arrived at school just before 7am and left just before 7pm after Year 7 and half of Year 8's Parents Evening. Tomorrow is a similar story for the rest of Year 8 and Year 9!!

Then on Thursday I am off to Kuwait with the Music Teacher and 19 students. I think everything is in place, the visas and air tickets arrived today, and the bus is booked to take us to the airport. Emirates have cancelled a flight so instead of arriving back at 4.30am on Sunday morning now we arrive back at 11am. This does mean however that I have had to let teh Commonwealth Ex-Serviceman's Association as I won't be back in time to take their service of remembrance.

Thank you to all those who have been in touch to check that I am alright, and thank you for all those who are praying for me and for Pakistan, it is much apppreciated.

It's been a funny old week...

It really has been a strange week.

I started the week with a cold and cough which got progressively worse, though I am nearly over it now. This meant that I missed house group on Monday, though I managed to make it through school all week, I really am such a trooper!

Wednesday I had a meeting with Col Iqbal and Sqr Ldr Hasan, who are the committee for the Commonwealth Ex-Service Association, for whom I am leading the Act of Remembrance next Sunday. They really were two retired military gentleman, awfully well spoken and proper! I have got a slight problem witht he service next weet as I arrive back from Kuwait at 4.30am on Sunday morning and the service starts at 9am!! We are hoping that the flight is not late.

Thursday night took me to the Opera with Dan and Ruth from church. A group of French opera Singers were here to perform excerpts from Mozarts Operas. They were very good and I enjoyed the evening, even though I didn't really know what was going on as it was all in Italian and German. I travelled over to Dan and Ruth's before the concert for supper, which involved crossing the centre of the city at rush hour. Add to this that all the traffic lights were out, so it was the usual chaos of driving here, times ten!!

Saturday, took me into the safe hands of Prof Ambreen whilst she fitted my crown to complete my current dental work. I am now the proud wearer of a new porcelain crown for the cost of 64 GBP.

I spent the afternoon lounging around and made a couple of calls to the UK, spending most of the time telling Katey and then Meg how much I was enjoying life here and how happy I am here. And that is still true, life here is great and I am loving it.

Later of course I realised that the President had declared Emergency Powers and that we are now living in a State of Emergency. The immeadiate effect is limited at the moment, all news channels have been switched off, so I can only find out what is going on by checking with teh BBC website. We were also advised by the BDHC that we should stay inside today, which I have done. I have had a message to say that school is running as normal tomorrow, so we will have to wait and see what else happens.

At the moment Karachi is very quiet and the information I can get on line is that most of the country is quiet. What happens next is anyone's guess, we can only pray that people remain calm and don't become violent.

Next week I am supposed to be taking 19 pupils to Kuwait, whether this goes ahead I won't know until tomorrow, but if we have to cancel the President will have more than the politicians to worry about, he will have 19 very dischuffed teenagers to deal with, far more scary in my opinion!!!