Arrival to Pakistan - Islamabad

Here my AIESEC experience starts... On the 22nd of Nov 2009 my journey to the DtF program got under its way. The first place that i was heading to was Pakistan. After a stopover in Dubai i landed in Islamabad, located in Pakistan. The airport over there is slightly bigger than an average parking space and there are obvious lacks of a proper organization. However they certainly don't lack soldiers, there were plenty of them watching us very very closely... i went through all the arrival process successfully and i even met some czech people at the airport putting me off this visit in Pakistan (they went there for business), but there is nothing better than to experience that on my own.. so let's start..

When i managed to go through the arrival process (with some difficulties though and a gun pointed at me because i forget to hand in a piece of paper saying where i am going to live etc.) i met the AIESEC people waiting for me in front of the airport waiving at me with a sign, cool to see somebody who is actually going to show me this place around. Other people in front of the airport main gate looked really strange, dressed differently and staring at me like i was an alien.. It needs to be noted that an airport pickup is a must, there is no bus connection that is known from developed countries, these local buses can be used solely by local people, i can't imagine myself using that.. there is basically no system or timetable, everything works on a random basis, or even worse.. anyway, AIESEC people drove me from the airport to my accommodation, on the way there i was told some interesting facts about Islamabad.

While i was having a chat in a car with AIESEC people, i was looking out of the car at the environment passing us, in a nutshell, these slums i saw were really below any known living standard i have experienced so far.. Fortunately, this is not the place where i am supposed to live :) After 40 min drive we have reached my accommodation and i have to say, honestly, that it totally exceeded my expectations, a big house, with its own security workers, cleaning service all day long, spacious living room, my own room is really big with its own heater, beautiful bathroom and pleasant people living in this house (one from Russia and the other is from France, yes only three people living in such a huge house, there could be living comfortably 10 people). We have got even our own driver who drives us where we need..how cool is that! So the accommodation is great, more than that actually, it is spectacular!!

I settled, managed to cook something and chilled out after nearly 2-day journey where i slept roughly 5 hours. The following day, already fresh and full of energy, was my first day in the organization where i am going to stay for another 6,5 weeks. I was introduced to all members of staff, i was told what i would be doing (roughly though) and i was given my own desk etc..

People here are really easy going, easy to get along with and hopefully it will be like this further. The only problem is my job assignment, it is not quite clear and the way people work here is a little bit chaotic. I am supposed to come up with some solutions and suggestions how to improve efficiency here, how to deal with problems more efficiently etc.. it is a hard task to do considering local culture and the fact they are used to it. Well, i will try to enjoy it. For last two days i have been speaking to local employees regrading what they do and how they do that. It is a good start how to get my head around that. That's pretty much about it, there will be much more stuff going on in a next few days, today i should go out with AIESEC people, so i will see finally what Islamabad can offer. Besides that, i really want to do some sports, gym or running (however i was advised not to do that) but i cannot remain without doing sports, i would feel really unpleasant and bad. So i will try my best to do that safely. Ok, that's it for now. This weekend i am going to create report n. 2 explaining some stuff from work and describing local social life that i will hopefully experience over this weekend.