21 Nov - A long time coming

My sincere apologies to all the faithful BenThere.commers out there. It has been a very long three weeks that has gone by before my eyes. Since my last post, we have moved out of the Marriott to a private house, which is both cheaper and more convenient for our work. We have the newsroom on the first floor, engineering on the second, and live shots on the roof. Moving here also gave us a chance to start building from scratch, so things are much neater and organized than at the Marriott.

My best wishes to everyone at home and around the world on this Thanksgiving. Your thoughts and prayers have made a big difference for us. Pass another turkey leg, please! Here are some shots and a quick story or two that has been sitting on my computer waiting for the world to see.

Dry and Dusty

here are some pix from shooter Brian Young from a trip to Quetta to report on the refugee situation there. They also went to Posni to report on the military base there, and to try to hook up with the US Navy. They wound up being "guest" for a couple days of the Pakistani government. With Brian are producer Paul Tyson and reporter Greg Palkot.

Hard Rain's A Fallin'

For the most part the weather in Islamabad has been incredibly dry. But occasionally, out of nowhere, a tremendous storm comes along and chases us all off the roof of the Marriott. One night this happened and we had some urgent news to report, so we wound up reporting via a videophone that was set up in my room.

28 Oct - Islamabad A-Go-Go

An interesting night here in Islamabad. We began with a large group at the club we like to frequent. It was all decked out with orange balloons for Halloween. As you can guess, after about two hours and several rounds we decided to start a game of volleyball amongst the tables. This was great fun for everyone, except for a group of Turks who took our baloon and popped it over a candle. We let them get away with it, however, because they had a good looking girl with them, which is an enviable sight here.

Then we moved on to a private party that we thought we had been invited to. It turns out that we weren't. Which in some ways is OK with me, although I've never been kicked out of a party before. I've also never crashed on. This party was quite a trip. I came here with the preconception that Pakistan was a nation of straight laced, upstanding Muslims abstaining from vice and alcohol. For the great majority of the nation, I still think this is true. But for the group having this party, all was thrown out the window.

Men in drag, women in scanty outfits, wester alcohol everywhere. Probably some other stuff too that we never had a chance to see. I wonder if we were booted because we were seeing firsthand the other face of Pakistan...

Also added to the site today are some picture from the Murree Hills, an hours drive from here. Some of our team found a day off to head for the cool hills armed with my camera. Photos courtesy of TCE Harmeyer.