Visiting the slums

All round Islamabad, as in all the other cities in Pakistan, there are numerous areas with slums. The slums are mostly made of fabric, draped and shaped in to homes. ICAN workers kindly took us around one to meet some of their friends. In one way the slum village reminded me of glastonbury, or a peace camp. the main difference being that at Glastonbury or a peace camp people have other homes to go to.

Of course we have all watched tv shows with slums on them. But what the tv show can't tell us is the smell. In the street between the tents a stream of sewage ran, with shit floating or piling up.

the other thing you never see on tv is the pride that people take in their homes, however simple. Or the friendlines, or the endless cups of chai I was offered. One of the families we visited had lots of pets, including a rabbit and a green parrot!

In one of the homes there had just been a wedding. The lucky couple had the room decorated, it looked really beautiful. the young woman shyly showed us a few phots of her happy day. here is aphot of me and the lovely family with Carol from ICAN. The decorated bed is in the background.

Beautiful eh!

After spending time with the drug users and in the slums I was really knocked sideways. I think i've seen q bit of the world but I had never seen poverty like I saw today. Here we are in the 21st Century, I live in a land where each home has a couple of cars, where we rip out our kitchesns to fit the newest colours, where we all try to live like footballers wives, and here there are, lovely kind funny friendly people living in such poverty. It breaks my heart.