Discovery

Yesterday my friends and I went to the place called Jabreen castle followed by the local village nearby.

There are some snapshots of this trip… :)

When I go outside Muscat, I feel that I am in the fairy tale. Nature in this country is just breathtaking!

Jabreen castle was built by Portuguese around 400 years ago, and was used for the Imam of Oman. We could see Imam’s rooms, his wifes’ rooms, conference rooms, kitchen etc., as well as multiple jails for prisoners.

Everything is the castle designed to protect Imam from his enemies. There are secret rooms under the floor for the soldiers who could get out right away in case someone would raise a hand on Imam.

There are also multiple holes in the floor in order to pour the hot date juice (smart huh?) on to the enemies downstairs or make them slip down in the hole itself in the darkness.

I am also impressed by the water system used in Omani villages. There are tunnels going throughout the place to carry water and supply it to wherever needed. This old system is still used nowadays, even in the places close to Muscat.

A small detail that made me think for a bit. There were many lights in the castle, and all of them were turned on, even it was the middle of the day. I remembered Shalimar Gardens in Lahore that had to shut at 7pm only because there was no electricity to provide light for the garden. Food for thought.

Although I have never been a big fan of beaches, Shatti Al-Qurum (shatti means beach in Arabic) in Muscat is absolutely wonderful, it is my favorite place in the capital of Oman.

I wish I could start and end every day of mine in this place.

For those of you, who are more inspired by literature, this is how it feels:

At Global Leaders Summit in Tunisia I attended the workshop led by the TCS - about diversity on the workplace.

That workshop really sparked a lot of ideas in my head about diversity.

First of all, I again realized (or - reminded myself) that diversity is not only about different cultures. It is easy to say that there is a diversity in the organisation if it has people from different cultures there. Of course, the diversity is stronger in this case than if the organisation has just people from one nationality, but at the same time there are so many other distinguishing factors. Diversity of experiences, age, physical abilitites etc.

Women in business - another “burining” topic in today’s conference agenda, especially here in the Middle East. But isn’t it the bigger question of accomodating people of different conditions in the common environment?

Another thought - diversity is not only about having different cultures working together, and not only respecting them and being interested in other cultures. If company employees are enjoying friendly dinners from different countries (e.g. this month a collegue from China is cooking, next month is Jordanian dinner planned etc.), it is great, but it is not sufficient to tell that the company really has a diverse workplace.

Having a diverse workplace (and really harvesting diversity) would mean that every employee is heard, included in the discussions and decision making and able to contribute in his/her own unique way. Harvesting diversity is bigger even than providing equal opportunities to employees, e.g. equal opportunity for women and men to become the department director, or for all employees to choose their working hours based on conditions they have etc. It starts there, but doesn’t end. The higher form would be such a place where performance of the company becomes higher because of diverse opinions and team work of people coming from different backgrounds, having different living conditions, different life styles, and of course genders, age and other factors.

~

I live in the house with people from 9 different nationalities, in the Middle Eastern country. It is a fantastic place. We all live together peacefully, enjoying chats about various traditions in our countries, different food and so on.

But can I say that we are really harvesting our diversity?

When was the last time we did something together, e.g. had a debate about the future of nations? When was it when we planned a holiday where everyone would contribute something from their culture?

I work in a team with 2 other AIESECers, one of them is from United States and the other one is from Australia. We like working together. But when was it when we talked about how our roots and background can contribute to the way we work?

One of my teammates, Anjali, is actually Indian born in the US with roots in Africa. So when was the last time I asked her how she could use such a mix of cultures in her work, and what is her working style that she can bring to the team, and what I can learn from her multicultural personality in the every day life?

~

Now, looking at AIESEC as a whole, we say that our value is living diversity. It is really true if we are talking about the cultures, gender and perhaps different perspectives/opinions of people. But stop, even with cultures.

Last month we were trying to send an Omani person to the internship to Turkey, to work with school children. And we couldn’t do it. Reason? In Turkey they do not allow women wearing headscarves to work in the government schools. And she couldn’t not to wear it. And AIESECers from Turkey didn’t tell this to us till 3 hours before the flight. It is definitely related to country laws more than to AIESEC rules, but still a food for thought.

Or - are AIESECers prepared to recruit people from the lower classes of society? It is the organisation for students who are usually from higher classes. I saw that espcially in Pakistan, where AIESEC members were out of 1% of the population, kids of the higher class families. There is nothing wrong about it, but I also visited government universities over there where kids are not less smarter, and could contribute a lot to the organisation, they are just coming from middle class families and might not be able to afford paying fees for the conferences.

In AIESEC, are we prepared to have blind students in the organisation? Is our online system, MyAIESEC.net, equipped for this? Not really.

And the last thought, more about cultural sensitivity. I was thinking the other day, what we call cultural sensitivity. Respect is definitely fundamental. Then might go inclusiveness, ability to include others in decision making. But it is interesting to look from organisational point of view. Culturally sensitive organisation.

If we as a national team in AIESEC Oman do not create working practices that connects with the culture, are we a culturaly sensitive organisation? If we had not paid enough attention to the networking and building connections with people in this society, but rather continued working as we would in Australia, United States or Russia, can we say we are “culturally sensitive” or integrated in the culture? Or if we don’t plan well in the long-term, but work in the short-term mode in the country where key decisions take months to be taken, can we say we understood and leveraged on the culture we are in? Probably not.

There is still so much that AIESEC can do for harvesting diversity that it already has and accomodating new ways of diversity to be a role model for other organisations.

There is so much that I can still do living in the house with people from 9 different nationalities rather just watching TV shows in silence or asking them “how they are today”.

Diversity is an exciting and great tool to create exciting and successful life for individuals and organisations. I am so interested in exploring it more!

I just came back from the round table with the different NGOs operating in Oman.

The round table was held at the American Embassy in Muscat, by the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).

Mr. US Ambassador, opening the event, was very happy about the work that all organisations are doing in Oman, and we all were very grateful for such opportunity to meet and share what we do as well:)

MEPI supported the initial establishment of AIESEC in Oman in the country, and now we applied for another grant for the CSR project with them. So all organisations that also applied for the grants or thinking of applying, were present at the round table.

It was really interesting to get-to-know more about the social sector in this country.

There are about 250 not-for-profit organisations registered in Oman, however only 8 of them were participating in the MEPI event. This means that all other ones either have just the name and not really active, or not interested in the grants which is strange considering that citizens sector always need funding. There are mainly women associations, organisations dealing with disabled people and organisations working with children.

Social sector is very young here, and many people are not familiar with the concept of serving society. This country (and the Gulf in general) is very different from the rest of their neighbours in this sense, even North African countries. General “richness” of the society does not stimulate the thought of volunteering.

The challenges that NGOs face in Oman are quite similar to many other countries, at least what I have seen in Russia, Pakistan etc.: lack of funding, low attention from the government, low cooperation with corporate sector and with each other.

Tawasul, local think tank in Oman and the AIESEC partner, ran “Civil Society Award” campaign, for the first time in the country. AIESEC was also nominated for the award, but this is not the main point. It is good to see that the concept is getting out to the community.

However, sitting at the round table and listening to the financial challenges of the organisations, I realised that the concept of NGOs is already a little outdated. The idea of social businesses which generate income from their own products and therefore do not require donations, is much more sustainable. But for the country like Oman it is still a long way to go.

From the corporate side, luckily, things seem to be moving on, and if we look at the initiatives of some corporate organisations, many of them are running social responsibility projects investing in the society. They are still small and in most of cases stay a bit aside of organisational core work and strategy. We notice the biggest oil company in the country is investing money in supporting camels. Or a bunch of employees of a telecommunications company go to clean the beach. Good initiatives, but little connection with the strategy and meaning.

This is one of the reasons that in AIESEC we came up with the CSR project idea where we want to create the network of corporate, non-corporate and government organisations in order to influence CSR policies in companies in a way that they become more strategic and long-term oriented. We are planning to send Omani students abroad and get international interns in the country, then collect their research and create CSR manual that could be used by companies and the government.

Hopefully this project will be approved and we can start making positive change!

Anyways, all this is very exciting and I keep exploring the reality of Oman in different fields every day.

I am on my way from Global Leaders Summit 2010 in Tunisia.

It was one of the best AIESEC conferences in my life, and I am extremely grateful to AIESEC that made it possible for me to attend this conference. I also feel big responsibility for bringing the knowledge and experience back to AIESEC in Oman, my members, my parents, friends, and my life as a whole.

For those who are not familiar with AIESEC conferences, you may visit www.gls-2010.org

In brief: over 200 participants from more than 100 countries around the world, all - leaders of AIESEC chapters in their countries, all - excited about leadership, personal development, and positive change.

One of the most life-changing experiences at this conference was the exercise of the world map.

All participants were asked to form the map of the world in the room. Soon, all 110 countries appeared on the human made map in the conference hall. How amazing is that! Totally overwhelming feeling of unity with the whole world. After breathtaking discovery, we were asked to think of a country each of us wants to visit, then go to this country and talk to the person representing it.

Here the real experience started. A few highlights…

*Traveling accross borders is easy?

It’s so easy to ‘travel’ to the country when I am in the room with all of them.

In that room, Indians could travel to Pakistan, and Pakistanis - to India, everyone could experience the Gulf, and non-EU citizens could discover European cultures.
In reality, various visa barriers do their best to stop people from discovering different places. Sitting in that room I realized that AIESEC does not accept any barriers, and will always serve for the peace and unity in the world.

* Small countries have their voice.

My friend Aparajita lives in Mauritius. Mauritius is a tiny island between Subcontinent and Africa. Despite of being small in size, Mauritus had a strong presence at the conference thanks to Aparajita who often shared her opinion on topics we discussed and represented her country confidently and proudly.

*Country is the people

When I traveled across the room, I didn’t see any war or violence in the world.

There were smiling people, passionate about where they belong and eager to share their culture. A country stops being just a territory and becomes people.

* How do I choose where to travel?

We were asked to choose one country where each of us would want to travel. First thought - how do I choose?

Country where you have never been before? Country where you have been, but want to visit again? Country where you are scared to go? Country that is good for strategic partnership for your AIESEC chapter?

When I heard the task to travel to any country I want, my first reaction was - Zimbabwe, perhaps due to the reason that I read about it and really want to visit. However, having thought more about it, Anjali and I decided that I would go to Tanzania. Why? Tanzania (Zanzibar) and Oman were parts of the same sultanate in the past (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_oman), so ‘traveling’ to Tanzania was a perfect opportunity to discover and connect to the history of Oman as well.

It was definitely the right thing to do. Could not imagine that I would find so many similarities with Omani culture! Hospitality, peace, treating a neighbor as a family member, greeting everyone in a bus (except the fact that there are no busses in Oman, but it can be applied to other occasions), and many more! At the same time, Amos (representative of AIESEC Tanzania) mentioned some things that I found completely special for Tanzania.

When there was a time to make a second choice, Anjali and I agreed that Anjali would go to Colombia, as many AIESEC students in Oman are interested in going there for internship, so we should know what the country is like. That moment, I felt a real responsibility for my choices, as I was representing an organization and wanted to think strategically and base my decision on what is important for AIESEC in Oman.

* Russia on the map: being big vs having identity

Victor (President of AIESEC in Russia) had almost half the upper part of the hall for himself on the world map. He could do whatever he likes: jump, run, lay down, invite friends. Does Russia know how to use the space it got? Does Russia have its own voice, its own - how we like to stay in AIESEC - stand?
Being the biggest doesn’t really mean the most influence. Influence comes with actions and reaching out to other countries. When will my country learn it?

* I am my country. I am the world.

The next exercise we did was about imagining yourself as your country.

What do you have to say? What is your story? What do you want to ask?
What if you are not just the country, but the whole world?

A girl from Brazil commented that imagining being the world she could feel that if there is anything wrong with one part of the body (e.g. a leg), then the whole body is in pain. Interesting thought. We should all care about each other. Too far from the current reality, but that’s why we are in AIESEC to make it happen.

* The Gulf is in the middle of the world:)

I realized how exciting it to be in the Gulf at this point of time, both AIESEC and non-AIESEC-wise.Really looking forward for the rest of my experience over here!

~~

One thing that I am certain after this exercise and the overall conference is that I will not let myself do ordinary things in life, but will choose the path that will allow me to make a difference, no matter how difficult it might seem now or on on the way.

I am going to write more about the Summit during the next days, stay tuned. Hugs to everyone!

Global Leaders Summit 2010

It is the second year that I live in a country where Islam is practiced by majority of its citizens. And the second time I observe the holy month of Ramadan and the following Eid holidays. Although this time during Ramadan I was traveling around the world (Congress in Malaysia, then back home to Russia), now I am enjoying Eid holidays in my current home, the Sultanate of Oman.

Wikipedia will tell you more about Ramadan and Eid ul_Fitr.

Luckily, my team and I got an invitation from Nasser (an Omani friend) to visit his village, Dhabab. Just came back from there:)

It was lovely to experience Eid in this place! The village is located outside Muscat (the capital). We started our journey at 5 in the morning, and were welcomed at the place by local people with Omani halwa and Arabic coffee at around 7am.

Very soon men of the village were done with their morning prayers in the mosque, and were coming back singing songs and shooting rifles. Guests (especially newcomers like me and my team) were following them with a lot of curiosity:)

After this procession, we went to Nasser’s house to have a light breakfast of fruit and sweets, which followed by traditional and familiar for me ritual of putting henna on hands.

Anjali and Gail with local women and children

Local girls putting henna on hands

The set up in the village is very interesting. There is a concept of guest room which is usually separate from the main house. It is a different building, smaller than the house and has only one room with cushions on the floor, TV set and a bathroom. The explanation I got is that guests are not invited directly to the house in order not to disturb the family, especially their women, and for the host family not to worry about the atmosphere, as all efforts have already been put to decorate the separate guest room:)

Sitting room in Nasser’s house

Breakfast was one of the six meals we had that day, which included second breakfast in another house, then three lunches at the neighboring houses, finishing with the dinner back at Nasser’s.
I got opportunity to talk to local people, men and women, observe their traditions and taste delicious local food.

Small Ahmed, dressed like a typical Omani man in white disdasha with a hat kuma

Some interesting observations:

• Men and women are celebrating Eid separately in different rooms. Sometimes men were coming to women’ place, but it didn’t work vice versa.

• Women have bright dresses for Eid, very different from what we see during a usual day in Muscat.

• Some sisters have completely the same dresses! Anjali and I looked like we knew about this option before:)

• Most of the people in Dhabab come to their village only during weekends or holidays as they study or work full time in the capital, Muscat.

• I was talking to a local girl. I: “Your dress is very beautiful!” M (responding to my compliment): “Your eyes are beautiful”. I (thinking): “Oh very nice, it’s not often that I hear something like this about my eyes!” Later on, when I repeated my dress compliment to her in front of another girl, M. said back again: “Your eyes are beautiful”, and then explained that in Oman a person make a compliment about the eyes to the one who pointed out to his/her beautiful appearance:)

• And I definitely like this nice Omani style water tanks on the roofs!

All in all, the day was full of food and exciting conversations:)

In the evening, we went to the beach nearby, sat and talked for a while looking at the stars (appeared like an explosion on the sky, along with a new born moon) and the fire, listening to the water waves behind untill eventually fell asleep right there on blankets.

In the end of August I attended the biggest international conference in my organization – AIESEC International Congress in Malaysia.

It was the second International Conference I took part during my AIESEC career.
Similar to the previous one, IC in Malaysia reminded me that I am in AIESEC for a reason, and if I am here than I responsible for bringing the change to the society after I finish with AIESEC. It might sound superficial, but for me it is much more serious than it sounds.

At my first IC our chair (master of ceremonies), David Pollay, showed the audience the picture of his daughters and said: “I came to chair this congress to empower people who will create the better world for my daughters when they have grown up”.

At the recent congress, another person, Arthur Johanson, gave similar message saying that he wants to see the better world around, and this is why he flew from Colombia to Malaysia to chair this conference.
I had a break in AIESEC and then came back, because I wanted to get a life-changing leadership experience to be able to bring change (I felt I hadn’t fully taken it in the past). And if I am here, I will never be a usual corporate worker. I am responsible for bringing change to whatever I do.

I would like to share some moments from the IC that stuck in my mind:

…Juan, President of AIESEC International for 2008-2009 led a session with report for his term in AIESEC international. He started with the basic principle of his which is a promise. He asked the delegates: “Tell me, what have you promised to people last year and what have you delivered?”. He was giving the mike to randomly chosen people in the audience asking them this question. It was an interesting moment of truth. Being honest with myself, I realized that I delivered on some of the promises, but didn’t fulfill all of them that were important for me and for people I led last year. And being the person who respects promises more than anything else, it was not an easy thought to experience. However this question gave me the power and push for my current role and reminded about giving 100+1% every day. Easier to say than do, but at least I am striving:)

…There are sessions at the International Congress, when Presidents of all AIESEC countries make decisions to improve the working process of global AIESEC. In the beginning of this session, the chair makes a check-point to make sure that representatives of each voting country are present in the room. When it was a turn of Russia, Victor (current president of AIESEC in Russia), said Ya zdes’ meaning I am here. Many country representatives before him had said this in their own language or in English - I am here  - however this simple Russian expression Ya zdes’ reminded me about here, now, and pay full attention to what is happening in the present moment. Ya zdes’ every moment, every day.

…We had a session called Leadership Journey where Aman (current president of AIESEC International) asked us a few interesting questions about leadership. I remember two of them the most:
- Are you leading or following how things were in the past?
- What is your leadership challenge?
Great insight and discovery

…Youth to business forum. This forum was organized to connect AIESEC members with representatives who shared their opinion on 3 different topic: entrepreneurship, sustainability, and labour mobility & diversity. I attended the workshop about social entrepreneurship to understand if I am passionate about this topic, and realized that I am not that strongly passionate to work on the problem of poverty, although I have seen a lot of it in the past year and know how worse it can get. If talking about social businesses, I am more interested in learning/educational ones.

A few more observations:

- It’s great to work with and connect to fellow AIESEC Presidents from other countries
- I really enjoy being with my team
- I like to stand up and express my opinion in the plenary of 600 people, even it is often a challenge for me to do that

And.. Kuala Lumpur is a great city: fast, efficient, and super green!

I am now back to Muscat and will give you some interesting updates very soon.

Leaving Pakistan was a real adventure.

In short: my visa got expired and no agency could issue a plane ticket to Oman for me. According to the rules of Ministry of Interior I could overstay in the country for 2 weeks after visa gets expired. An interesting thing though is that I can stay, but not leave the country, how smart is that! There are no fines apply to this, the only way to prolong the visa was too apply for its extension. However extension for my type of visa takes 2 weeks in the best case scenario, and I could’t afford to wait for so long.

By some luck (as it usually happens in Pakistan - God blessed country), I got a contact of an emigration service at the airport and they let me go to my flight (I booked it online to avoid visa request).

After a year in this country I knew that here in Pakistan everyone creates their own rules, there will always be a rule for you, and there will be someone in your endless network of contacts that will suddenly help you before you even realize that; all with the help of God (InshAllah)

I arrived to Muscat on the 4th of July, the Independence day of the United States of America. Very symbolic indeed: there are 6 Americans in my new the house. Some of them are working for AmidEast, an organization set up to bridge the gap between US and Arabic countries. The other part is working for AIESEC.

Extreme heat embraced me right after I stepped out of the airport. It was different from the one in Karachi, more similar to Lahore: not humid, and much much stronger, like as I jumped in the oven!

Some of the observations of my life here in Muscat:

• I made banana shake, automatic washing machine washed all my clothes in 50 minutes, cooked Pakistani tea in 5, and had an awesome sleep in an air-conditioned room. It can sound funny, but after our apartment in Pakistan I was impressed how easy & simple life can get.

• All streets are very clean, roads are nice, green grass and palm trees are everywhere around, along with big buildings, monuments with Oman national symbols and white villas.

• Muscat is very different from all cities I have ever seen. There are several highways crossing the city connecting small oasises of life with each other. Each oasis has a few coffee shops, office buildings and universities. It takes 20-30 minutes to get from one oasis to another.

• It is so hot during the day that I live in the AC rooms, cars and shopping malls. All people seem to be doing the same, so there is almost no one on the street. I feel as I am living in the long tunnel made of thick glass which I can not break.

• Tristan (my team member) and I went for a walk around our area (Mawaleh) in one of the evenings when heat is getting cooler (around 10pm) and got lost. It was a nice walk though; physical activity is always a great thing!

• We came to Arabic restaurant and took rice with meet, which we all ate with hands from one big plate in the middle. Arabs are very clean: they wash their hands before food, unlike Pakistanis who wash hands after food only:) I don’t mind any. I really like eating with hands.

• We went to a beach to see big green Omani turtles. Our instructor from the scientific institute explained that they do not disturb turtles’ life, they just do research and create conditions to let animals live happily in the nature. Omanis are taking care about their country and all its inhabitants wholeheartedly.

• The portrait of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said is on the all of every building we go. His Majesty has served this country for 30 years, and led a great development that Oman has ever seen.

• Omanis do not use titles like Mister, Miss etc. that I have got used to. I can simply use You, unless I am speaking to a Royal Family member (His Highness), a Minister (His Excellency) or Sultan Qaboos (His Majesty) himself.

• Shops’ labels are both in English and in Arabic. It’s interesting to see how they are using branding in both versions:)

• Girls greet each other by extending a hand. When I walk in a room I should greet everyone individually - it is a friendly gesture. If anyone is late for a meeting, he/she would nevertheless greet everyone in the group. Being friendly is something absolutely necessary in Oman.

• Walked in the mall and saw women dressed in black and men dressed in white.

• Came to a meeting in shalwar kameez. It is considered as an official outfit here in Oman. Extremely happy, I have taken all my favorite ones with me!

• I have met more expatriates than Omani nationals so far.

• Pakistani workers came to our house to fix AC. There are many of them traveling around by bicycles. I went to the airport in the night and suddenly thought that I am in Karachi: loads of people in brown and grey shalwar kameez were stocking arriving passengers:)

• Went to lunch at 1pm and came back at 6pm. The Cafe we went is located near the beach, so after food we went along the cost line; Muscat looks like a tourist resort even in a busy working day!

• And by the way, the working week in the Sultanate is from Saturday to Wednesday.

I have a challenging mission over here - to lead a young organization, an extension of AIESEC to Oman. AIESEC has been in Oman for 2 years, and I am the first President of AIESEC in Oman.

I will be working directly with two people: Tristan from Australia and Anjali from United States, two amazing individuals whose passion for work and life is so strong that keeps them doing great things whatever they have to do. I know we will make a legendary team, and looking forward to see it happening.

We have around 50 talented members in the organization at the moment, and a high ambition to build an exciting platform of opportunities for them and achieve outstanding results together.

Apart from that, I am learning Arabic, traveling around Muscat and its surroundings on weekends, and reading Girls of Riyadh.

Life is good.

Arabic-style lunch

My new home

Visiting Muscat Grand Mosque

During my last days in Pakistan I went for a trip to Northern Areas of the country, with Shermi, Andrius, Zhen and Sheeraz. It was a very special vacation, different from what it would have been, had we taken a travel guide or used one of the common routes. Our initial plan didn’t work out well, so we started to plan on the way: in odd 10+ hours buses, hostels without electricity and gas, and near the endless mountains, forests and rivers, breathing the air we could only dream about living in Karachi. All in all we visited Naraan, Kagan and Hunza Valley.

I would like to share with you some special moments from my trip.

Sheeraz and the family.

Andrius and Sheraaz went to buy train tickets for a journey from Karachi to Islamabad. There are two types of “groups” in Pakistan transport (and other outdoor places): male and families (mixed males and females). So the tickets were issued not for individuals, but for “Sheeraz and the family”. Although it might sound funny, but it turned out to be the truth. Throughout the trip Sheeraz (the only Pakistani in our group) took care about us during days and nights: organizing breakfast and lunches-dinners at local places, buying bus tickets, making contacts with the right people so we could visit most interesting places for the lowest price, keeping an eye on us during sleepless nights in a bus from Naraan to Gilgit and so on. Yet the international “family” contributed in their own way: attracted an interest of local people who barely saw foreigners in their entire lives, and we got special attention in everywhere we went.

Breakfast in Rawalpindi.

Rawalpindi is a twin city to Islamabad, and the place where we were about to take our first bus to north, Naraan village. It was an early morning when we arrived to the bus station, so we went to a daba (local food place) to have breakfast.

I: I am taking an egg, paratha, and Pakistani chai.

The rest of the guys took chai only: food in such places must cause stomach ache.

Zh.: Do they have a mango shake?

Those who know how Daba looks like, must be smiling :-)

Later one, while traveling in the northern areas, we were eating the same “egg-paratha-chai” for breakfast every day and chicken karahi (meat) every lunch and dinner, with locally made bread, accompanied with noisy flies. We ate in places that have old beds instead of chairs, newspapers instead of tissues, and bathrooms where you can’t enter with open eyes and nose.

There were no much variety in food, let alone mango shakes and ice-cream that our funny Zhen was looking for everywhere :-)

Breathtaking views.

Buses took us from Rawalpindi to Mansera, and then from Mansera to Naraan. There was nothing special for the first 2-3 hours, except a free improvised Urdu songs concert in a bus by its Pakistani passengers, which I really enjoyed:) however after some time we saw something that caught our attention for the next hours and then days – mountains. Strong, cold, peaceful, scratching the sky, - these huge stones are fantastically beautiful.

Later on, we climbed them on a jeep on the road lying many kilometers up from the ground, as well on foot to lakes, glaciers and valleys. We drank water coming from their tops and looked at them endlessly for many hours every day and night.

No light, no gas, no hot water – but we are in the mountains!

In Naraan we stayed at a very interesting place – Youth Hostel located a bit far from the other hostels, on a hill facing – guess what – mountains. We decided to stay in this particular hostel because we stayed in the same one in Islamabad, and already had membership cards. Our loyalty to the Youth Hostel was so strong, that we didn’t back out even after realizing that the hostel didn’t have neither electricity nor gas, nor hot water which meant we’d sleep under 3 blankets, warm up chai and food on the fire, and boil water for 3 hours in a pot to take a shower. In the evening of the first day in the hostel local police inspectors from Naraan came to visit us. They were very much concerned about “foreigners staying in such place”, and suggested to place us in any hostel around for free of charge. We thanked them and.. stayed in the Youth Hostel:) during the first night I could barely sleep because of the cold, so woke up around 5am and went outside to do morning exercises, then climbed the hill and sat for about an hour listening to a water fall.

At nights we were watching the million of stars. It seemed like all stars were taken from Karachi and Lahore busy cities’ sky and placed to the sky of the Northern Areas.

Sunrise in Hunza.

In Karimabad (main city within Hunza valley) we spent one night in The Eagles’ Nest hostel located on top of a high hill from which we could see the whole Hunza valley. For many years people have been coming here to see sunset and sunrise.

Shermi and I woke up at 5am and climbed up on a hill. It was still too early for a sunrise, but we were so worried to miss it that came earlier than needed. Soon the first light touched Rakaposhi mountain (the highest in Hunza), then more and more till the hole valley was full of light. It took the sun more than hour to do it, and during this time I had the most meaningful thoughts. Sunlight… There is a pose in yoga called “the mountain”. It is one of the basic poses; it teaches to stay and look straight pretending to touch the sky with your head. Top of the mountain touch the sky first; those who woke up early and strive to heights get blessings of the sun. Sitting on this stone on a hill in a valley, watching sunrise, I am getting sun blessings too. Who are the people I am thinking about when I am looking at the sunrise? These should be the people who are the closest and dearest to me. I should be wise with my thoughts and think of meaningful people and meaningful actions. My time on this earth is limited, and I should spend it wisely. Sounds of the nature are very peaceful. Soon they will be replaced with sounds of cars and people walking around the city. I will take present moment to listen and take deep breaths.

Other trip highlights

Lake in the mountains. This lake lies up in the mountains, and we had to climb them till we finally saw it. Climbing was the most tiring yet exciting part of the route! On its end we took lots of pictures and tried locally made green tea – kawa. It is quite cold over there and the lake is half-frozen. Absolutely amazing!

The bus from Naraan to Gilgit was hilarious. Crappy chairs, bags everywhere, loads of people sitting even in the middle between chair rows, a road so bumpy that you are about to fall down from your seat, I am not even talking about reading in a bus. Our bus stopped in the middle of the night to repair the tire. Unable to sleep, Shermi and I went to take pictures of this occasion.

On our way back from Hunza to Islamabad we found out that Karakoram highway is blocked: villagers went on strike against local administration and police because of the death of one of their neighbors. Our bus was the government one, and Karakoram highway is the only way between Northern Areas and Islamabad, so we had to go back and wait till the strike finishes. While waiting, we visited a local village in Aliabad.

We went to upper Hunza to watch tops of the mountains. Suddenly we saw a glacier down the hill. Our guide said he takes only climbers and trackers to the glacier. But we were so determined to get there that forgot about the fear.

We were supposed to get back to Karachi on Monday, however trip plan got messed up and on Sunday night (in fact – 2am on Monday) we were sitting in Youth Hostel in Islamabad thinking how we’d go home as we had no tickets back. Flights seemed very expensive, especially in travel agencies (compared to Internet) and Sammi Daewoo bus – too tiring with its 24-hours journey. Soon we realized that bus station is not working at night, let alone air travel agencies. Not having any other option, I tried to log in my mobile Internet (that was not working properly before and didn’t open websites of Air Carriers). And – suddenly – we saw the lowest fair offered by Air Blue and the option to pay through internet. At 2am in the morning we were booking tickets through mobile phone paying with the credit card we had to activate through a bank (due to robbery cases in Pakistan all cards are blocked for Internet payment usage by default and should be activated for 1-2 hours when needed), and at 9am of the same day we were sitting at the airport having breakfast and waiting for a flight that would take us home – to Karachi.

This trip was one of the most memorable moments of my year in Pakistan. Who knew that “the country of emergency” where most of the people are afraid of going, would have such authentic, beautiful places with pure nature which can make you a different person after you experience them. Surprisingly, many Pakistanis have never been to the Northern Areas.

Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to visit Skardu, a city in the North that has beautiful forts and lakes; and the book I am reading is about life in Skardu. The flight from Islamabad to this city is very famous: you get to see K2, second largest mountain in the world. InshAllah I am going to Skardu next year for my vacation :-) who is in?

I remember the feeling I once had on 2nd or 3rd day in Pakistan.

I was traveling in a rickshaw (local transport - small decorated moving box:) for the first time, observing sand-color houses, armed guards, crowds of people, and waving flags on the sides, with wide-open eyes and wind in the head.

3 days before I was living in a city of 24-hours lights, 17th floor restaurants, 12-hours working day, and life-long careers - all planned year-by-year with % of salary increase.

And - boom! - I am on the other side of the world: sea-smelling, right-to-left writing, and totally overwhelming by its not-yet-discovered nature.

It felt like I was beyond the space & time, as well as the age, lines in the CV, career plan and amount of salary. In the other words, it did not matter how old I am, where I live, and the title that is written on my business card. What did matter was who I am right here, right now.

Pakistani friends did not understand me when I tried to explain this feeling to them: “I have no idea what you are talking about, Katya!” Maybe it is because I was on “another planet”, and they were in their own country they had been living for over 20 years. Or maybe (as I later found out) they were too busy with planning their Masters abroad or applying for “multinationals only”.

Yet I remembered that feeling, and from that time onwards, when I find myself doing years-age-salary-title comparisons with the help of mathematical formulas, I make the feeling live again, and continue walking my way - which is beyond arifmetical logic.