Let’s forget about those grey days of escort and come to colourful Pakistan, kindness and our freedom.
Lahore
In Lahore, we got welcomed at a place called Miracle School, where we decided to volunteer for about a week, but ended up staying two. Why? Because it was the first time where we got to see slavery with our own eyes. In Lahore, we also finally got the chance to explore the Pakistani culture as it really is and experience the country on our own.
Martin our companion for the month before have already left, off to get a visa for India and we met up with another couple, awesome overlanders from Germany, with their Mr.turtle (their blog: 8wheels.blog).
Since we spent most of our time in Pakistan just being escorted or working for a school in Lahore, we didn’t have much time actually exploring, so I can not speak for what Pakistan really is. My experience says it is a great mix of Iran and India. It is not the cleanest country, but cheap, people are incredibly kind and welcoming. nature that we have seen was really beautiful, we especially liked the wild camels in the desert the first day. Roaming on the streets in Lahore and tasting the traditional food was more than pleasant and very delicious. We got ourselves in a lot of weddings, unfortunately, those had a lot of meat on their plates(to show the richness of the family), but also a lot of kindness and welcoming feeling from all family. Sometimes even a bit too much! Ah… all those selfies… sometimes we were even more important that the bride and groom themselves…
Volunteering at school-Lahore
So as I mentioned, we stayed at a School in Lahore, where we made a short video about the place. In short, that was an amazing group of people, that worked as an NGO (non-profit, non-government organization) that helped people working in the Brick-kilns (Brick making factories).
The families working there were basically slaves, getting paid about 3 € per 1000 bricks they made. The whole family had to work, including injured, children and elderly, to make enough bricks to survive the next day.
They were so-called bonded labours, they had big debts to the owners, since they had to take loans every monsoon season, when they could not work because of the weather. The work and debts continued from generation to generation.
Miracle school that we worked for was doing a great job, taking children from there and educating them and parents, take the whole families from their duties, paying off their debts, finding them a better job, providing clothing, drinking water to their living areas and much more. I can not explain what great work they did and changes they were implying to those people’s life.
In case you would like to donate for the school, we will be happy to send them any money you donate through our donation link, just kindly mention Miracle school in the description. (You can find the link here: Support Connection page).
Find the video we made for the school here. (the documentary coming soon!)
Wagha border
Wagha border is a big attraction for anyone that visits Lahore, or Amritsar on the other side. We didn’t really plan to go too much, but luckily our friends with a van did! So we were taken along and enjoyed the show.
Border crossing
The time came, we had to leave Pakistan, even if there was much more to be discovered. We almost missed the crossing, our visa was running the last day, but we managed, 5 minutes late but good enough! We ran, just before the border closing ceremony. The crossing was simple, fast and easy with no problems. We had two dog check-ups on our bags and we were out. Off to hitchhiking again, to our first goal destination, India!!
