Hello from a Kiwi in Pakistan

[globalbabe]

Hello everyone

I'm a regular reader of Scubaboard but first-time poster and thought it time for an introduction. Though I'm relatively new to diving - after getting certified in late 2008, I didn't dive again until a year ago - I've done just over 100 dives in the last 12 months. For what it's worth, I just got the MSD rating last month, although I still feel like a novice each time I encounter new conditions or strong currents.

Fortunately my current lifestyle permits a lot of travel - I have to take an R&R break ever 6 or 7 weeks - so I've been able to dive in Oman (Dimaniyat Is, Mirbat), Jordan (Aqaba), Egypt (Marsa Alam, Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab), Greece (Santorini, Kos, Ermioni), Cyprus (Larnaca, Paphos), the Philippines (Visayas), Thailand (Similan Is), and the Maldives (Ari and Male Atolls) since April 2010. Right now, I'm planning my next diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef for next month - Ningaloo is a long way to go so fingers crossed for whale sharks!

I've been living in Pakistan for almost nine months and would like to give diving a try off the coast of Karachi at some point. It's monsoon season right now so it will have to be post-August. I've heard the visibility isn't great but hopefully the marine life is abundant - it will still be good to see how it compares to other sites in the Arabian Sea.

See you around on Scubaboard!

:cool2:

 

[Insta-Gator]

Sounds like you are taking full advantage of your current situation and location. Good for you. Be safe over there. Welcome to ScubaBoard.

 

[globalbabe]

Thanks for the welcome. Trying my best to stay safe! These are interesting times in Pakistan!

 

[Quero]

globalbabe, I have a Pakistani friend/student/customer who lives in Karachi and works as a documentary filmmaker. He has asked me a couple of times if I want to come up for some diving, and I did go for a work gig of a different sort about 18 months ago, but couldn't dive (or do much of anything for that matter, due to security concerns). Anyway, from what I gather, it's best to do the diving with a kind of club group. If you want to be put in contact, let me know. Here's his website with some of his u/w video footage.

 

[globalbabe]

Thanks for the referral to your friend. Yes, once the diving season starts up again, I think I'll probably go with Indus Scuba. I'm really curious to know how many female divers they get, given the modesty issues and cultural taboos here over showing skin!

 

[Wantonmien]

globalbabe,

Welcome to Scubaboard.

Seeing the locations you mention, and having worked on contracts with very frequent R&R escapes in similar places myself - (including 2 years landlocked in Pakistan, Muzafragah !) I'm intrigued as to what you are working on, but whatever it is, keep safe and keep enjoying the travels, I'm jealous !

I never got the chance to check the Karachi waters, so am looking forward to hearing your dive reports.

cheers

Cheers

 

[globalbabe]

Nice to meet you Wantonmien. I'm with a humanitarian aid and development agency and we're still working on the flood response (these aerial shots of Muzaffargarh underwater last year will probably surprise you) as well as stepping up our efforts to stamp out polio. It's a huge task in such an insecure environment! What were you doing in Pakistan?

 

[Wantonmien]

Hi globalbabe,

Thanks for the link, yes amazing photos, and another indication of global warming ? I can well imagine the humanitarian relief work there is not the easiest, as it was an extremely undeveloped and rural place while I was there, mud huts, open sewers, single track unpaved roads, and about as far removed from civilisation as I've ever come across. I was actually there working on a huge industrial development, employing all the locals ! Will drop you a PM.

Cheers, and keep safe.

 

[Quero]

I'm also working on a Pakistan project as a non-profit enterprise (though Oxford University Press). I'm an educational writer, and the textbooks they use in the English-language classes in the government schools were written about 50 years ago. They are woefully antiquated and have outdated information (not to speak of horrible teaching methodology). My job is to update the teachers' resource manual so that teachers can teach the mandated materials but with more modern classroom practice. I can say that it's been the most challenging writing project I've ever been involved with, and for the least remuneration. I hope it helps students, though! English is one of the official national languages of Pakistan, but I can't see how anyone could like English class with the materials teachers are forced to use if they use them in the traditional grammar and translation way. I know I would hate it! I'm bored to tears just thinking about the textbook! So, kiwi, one of the lessons is about the development of vaccination (for smallpox), and in trying to update the materials, of course I asked teachers to get students to do a little research regarding when vaccinations were stopped in Pakistan, as well as what the most urgent need for immunization is in Pakistan. Your post got me wondering whether it is, indeed, polio. I have read that there are campaigns for measles immunizations as well. So what's the real answer?

 

[globalbabe]

Hi Quero, Sorry I couldn't get back to you earlier. Are you asking whether there are vaccination campaigns going on in Pakistan right now? I'm not sure what your textbook says about immunizations being stopped, but I can confirm that massive polio vaccination campaigns going on every month here where over 30 million children under the age of 5 are being immunized regularly. Children also receive measles vaccine and Vitamin A drops (during the flood emergency response, more than 11 million children were vaccinated for measles and polio). I think this article on nature.com and this one in the Guardian give a good rundown of the polio problem that Pakistan faces and what is being done about it.