Muzaffarabad

Muzaffarabad is the capital city of Azad Kashmir. (Azad meaning "free", as in not under the control of India)

Dean and I had the opportunity to go with Mr. Mujtaba and Yasir (the hospital's ambulance driver) to Muzaffarabad on the first Friday that I was in Kashmir. Some of the guys that had been there ahead of us warned us about the trip into town riding in the ambulance. The ambulance has one fixed bench seat in the back that faces backwards, and any extra riders would have to sit in plastic lawn chairs. Apparently, Jay and Steve had to ride in these chairs on their last trip into town. Every time that they went around any sort of serious turn, (which is something like every 60 yards of road coming down the mountain!) one of their chair legs would buckle, and they'd almost take a spill. Fortunately, Dean and I got the bench seat.

Muzaffarabad is a decent sized city, a bit larger than my home town of Lancaster, PA. Like most Pakistani mountain cities, it is situated on steep hills, and dust is everywhere. The main landmark is the confluence of the Jehlem and Neelum rivers. Between the two swift and deep rivers and the mountains all around, it is a beautiful place.

Unfortunately, Muzaffarabad was only 20-30km from the epicenter of the earthquake. It got hit hard, although not all is lost. Most of the government buildings survived, but the university took a lot of damage, and several schools and market places were destroyed completely. You can't look anywhere in the city without seeing heavy damage. A good number of people are camped out in the ruins, and a large encampment has been set up on a sand bar next to the river. The river is fairly low in the winter, but you can see that the river rises about 15ft in the wet season. I'm not sure what they plan on doing with the thousands of people who are camped below the high water line when the rainy season comes.

We didn't have too much time in town, but I did get a chance to take some photos. Mr. Mujtaba needed to stop at the barber shop and get a trim and a shave, so Dean and I tagged along. Dean decided to get a shave while we were there. I, obviously not needing a shave, started taking some photos. The trick was to ask one man who looked fairly curious if I could take his photo.(ok, ask isn't quite right; I don't speak Urdu. I gestured with the camera.) Then, I'd show his photo around, get the rest curious too, and snap a bunch more. By the time Mr. Mujtaba was done, I had photographed just about everyone who came in and out of the shop.

We stopped on the way out, got a few supplies, and then headed back to Bugna. I noticed that Yasir had the ambulance emergency lights flashing as we drove home.

The whole group of us got to spend the next Sunday in Muzaffarabad. We divided up into smaller groups, and spent most of our time in a shopping district down near the Jehlem. We walked down to a hotel a bit further south along the water front, and had a delicious lunch. The hotel was still in operation, but had a ton of damage done to it. For example, the mens' room had a regular door that you would expect to see, or, if you were feeling lazy, you could walk through the nice, big hole in the wall. A crew of about 6 men was at work rebuilding the lobby when we walked in. One wing of the downstairs hall was completely blocked with rubble. We ate on the balcony overlooking the swimming pool and the Jehlem.

Shezad, our driver, was held up with something at Bugna, but he showed up in time to take us to Balakot to visit the rest of the men that EMM had sent to Pakistan.