Thursday morning in Islamabad

Well, we made it. We arrived in Is-bad about 7 am, thursday morning. Mostly uneventful trip, although John and I were given the same boarding pas in Philly, causing some difficulties. Nothing serious.

Once in Is-bad we quickly connected with Just Peace and DAve Harnish and 11 others went off with them to Balakot. I don't expect to see them until the 20th when fly back. We are in cell phone contact however.

It tokk us a little longer to connect with Human Development Foundation but after a few phone calls to Barry Hoffman in the US we mangaged to connect. Eight of us are currently relaxing at the HDF office. They fed us a wonderful meal of chapitis, eggs, and tea and we are now waiting for the CEO, Mr. Saleem.
Today has been, and will be, a day of hurrying up and waiting. There is some uncertainty what we will be doing but I expect we will decide this afternoon, at least in part. We will probably stay in Is-bad tonight and head up to Bugna (just south of Muzzarafabad) tomorrow morning. The drive is about 3-5 hours. We are learning how to be patient. All of us are do-ers and there wil be opportunity for that but not now.

The office here has about 20 employees and is bustling. HDF has about 100 people around the country working in education, medical work, economic development, and community planning. They are primarily supported by a network of Pakistani doctors in the US. They appear to being doing quite good work. I look forward to seeing some of it.

Well, take care all, and I hope to be in contact further but no guarantees. Here there is dsl but after we get to Bugna I don't expect to have internet access.