Author: hupfundweg

Through Balochistan to Quetta, Pakistan

Cop guarding me from the passenger seat near Taftan, Pakistan

Travelling in Balochistan is a rather interesting experience. Due to the tense security situation, I am always escorted by a massive police escort (carrying Kalashnikows). Two days I was travelling through the desert, always following a Toyota Hilux with some serious looking cops inside, sometimes they even joined me in my car for a while.

In Quetta, I am not allowed to take a single step without my bodyguards. I am not even allowed to visit the supermarket on the other side of the street. Anyway, I applied for a visit to the local SOS children village at the Home Department, and they allowed me a visit on November, 24th. I waited for my police escort at 9.30am, but they kept me waiting and waiting. I read two books, afterwards in was 8pm and they just did not show up at all.

Apparently, I could not go the next day either, because my permission was only valid for one day. But I know this kind of bureaucrazy too well to just give up. After some 15 calls to police, they assured me to pick me up the next morning. 9.30 came again, and surprise, there they were!

First job successfully done: generator

They dropped me off at the SOS village, and I learned there was no electriciy. Bah, minor problem for me and my generator! We bought some bottles of gasoline (yes, it’s sold in plastic bottles here) and the bounce could begin.

I was really hypnotized by all these colorful dresses hopping up and down on the castle, and when I woke up from my trance, it was 4pm and my police escort had already arrived. As they were in a hurry, they helped me to put everything back in the car, and I followed them back to my hotel with a big grin on my face. Kalaschnikow-guarded bouncy action is indeed something special!

Usual view from my car in Baluchistan, Pakistan

Trucks in Baluchistan, Pakistan

My russian co-traveller with his motorcycle

Checkpoint near Dalbadin, Pakistan

Second-most useful thing in my car (after the castle of course)

Buying gas near Dalbadin, Pakistan

No bad thing can happen to me!

Police escort in Quetta, Pakistan

Buying train tickets with pur escort in Quetta, Pakistan

My fellow Swedish co-travellers in Quetta, Pakistan

Quetta, Pakistan

Girls after I told them they have to wait 6 more minutes to go on the castle

Quetta, Pakistan

SOS poster

Bouncy castle in Quetta, Pakistan

Children cleaning the castle in the end, what a service!

SOS children in Quetta, Pakistan

Caritas day care center, Tbilisi, Georgia

I found Caritas Georgia in some internet NGO database, and they replied me very politely to my initial email. They operate a house in Tbilisi, where children without any proper homes can go after school, get food, help with their homeworks or just shelter. A perfect place for the castle, so we agreed I would come by the next friday.

When I arrived with a friend at the Caritas house, noone had heard about us or the castle (English is not very common here, which doesn’t make it easier). We tried to explain by jumping up and down and pointing to some kids, but we just got blank stares. I mentioned my email contact, though I could only remember the first name “Nino”, which did not help very much as maybe 90% of the population is called like that (just now as I am writing this, I realize the name was actually “Nana”. so maybe that played a role about the confusion as well ;) ).

children waiting for their turn on the castle

After some time though, the directors showed up and we set up the castle in the courtyard. The ladies from Caritas had it perfectly organized, the children showed up in small groups and respected the rules. In the meantime, the director shared some anecdotes with me, which again showed me why I’m doing all this:

it is possible to go on commercial bouncy castles in Georgia, but it costs 2 Lari for 10 minutes (~0,80€). None of the children can afford this.
some of the kids’ families don’t have a flat, but live in a regular car garage, 12 people without any water or toilets
one kid told the director, it tries to eat Fridays as much as he can at the Caritas house, because he won’t get anything until next Monday

Very sad stories, but at least the castle reached definitely the right children. Plus the perfect organization from Caritas made this day like it should always be. Tomorrow, I am off towards Iran and have already the first contacts there. Stay tuned!

At the beautiful Black Sea, East Turkey

After some weeks of relaxing in Turkey, I felt the strong urge to set up the castle again. I stayed with my friend Evrim in Findikli, in the Eastern part of Turkey at the Black Sea. And whoever has not been in this area, should book his tickets now. The area is famous for its tea and hazelnut growing, and therefore everything is so green and juicy that you directly want to take a bite from the mountains.

Evrim’s newly opened Bageni Pansiyon

Anyway, Evrim is probably the most famous guy in Findikli. We were walking around at night, and literally EVERYONE on the street shared a joke or said hi. Therefore, the permission to put the castle on the central square was a piece of cake. We walked into the major’s office in the morning, Evrim wrote a note saying “We will put the bouncy castle on the square today for all the children to have fun. Evrim” and it was done. THAT is how bureaucracy has to work!

Wishful thinking: chilling with cay

The castle started and a few kids gathered on it. At first I was a bit disappointed by their small number, but then I realized I could just sit around the whole day, drink cay and enjoy the compliments from the children’s parents what a good thing I do. I could not have been more wrong.

Slowly, but steadily the number of children increased. They started to come from all the corners of the city, from the nearby restaurants, from their homes, some even from the sewer! The castle was fully crowded, and this time me a my friendo Ozan had to organise the party all by ourselves. My Turkish is fortunately good enough for some basic conversations with the kids. When I told them “üc dakika sol” (three minutes left), and they begged me “bes dakika, lüüütfen!” (five minutes, pleeease) I could answer “taman, bes dakika, ama hizli dakikalar” (alright, 5 minutes, but quick minutes). And they even listened!

When all the children were tired and exhausted, they begged me to close it and put it back into the car (alright, I begged THEM if we could stop). In the evening, Ozan and me wanted to have a drink on the successful day, I went into the next shop and found myself buying drinks from one of our kids. The End.

“I wish that my refugee camp will have a park & playground one day” Maryam, 10, from #Gaza. #51days51children pic.twitter.com/ReadMSriqp

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) July 30, 2015

Anyone knows a ferry to Gaza?

Balat neighbourhood, Istanbul

As usual, I am stuck in Istanbul longer than expected (its nearly 4 weeks now), but at least this time Istanbul’s kids get their share as well.

Children counting down the time to their bounce time

I found a Sufi community, who take care of over 460 families in one of Istanbul’s not so fancy neighbourhoods, Balat. So we went there with the castle and set it up in a central square, and all kids around were invited. The message spread quickly, and around ~80 children have been gathered during the whole day. Fortunately, my Sufi friends had the ability to deal with kids, and so the children waited in line well-behaved, always counting down the last ten seconds of the ongoing session.

Some little anecdotes:

I am slowly getting ready for the insane traffic in India: I took a wrong turn in the narrow streets of Balat, had to turn without Servo, honking Turkish drivers all around me, but I stayed relatively calm (and only shouted fuck off once)
an elderly woman turned up around 3pm and told us, what a bad idea this all was and what the heck we were thinking. Her kids had not come home for lunch on time because they were distracted!
just to embarrass me, the kids were told to chant “Thomas, Thomas” when we were about to leave. And they were so ecstatic about it, that they were running around my bus when I drove home, hitting my car rhythmically and shouting even louder

Intense day, but it was a lot of fun, and I guess the children had some too :)

Thanks to the whole Derviş Baba team, keep up your enthusiasm!!