Took horrific 13-hour overnight van on the torturous high pass mountain roads past Dir (pocket-knife-making capitol of Pakistan), arrived in Chitral's mountain area. Within 5 minutes met an Aussie linguist named Dale and his wife with a pack of five babies. Both dressed to the hilt like locals. Went with them to the guesthouse they are staying in as they do their work creating a written perso-arabic script-based Kalash language.

I swam, explored the valley, had cultural encounters with Kalash kids and adults like the "Shisha-hon" or "woman's bread" ceremony and the Uchau festival where the women bedecked in the maxiumu number of beads side step around a nucleus of village elders telling inspired tales of oral history while the drummer beats away – their voices rang together, the ladies like the vibration of glass spheres turned slowly around themselves and the larger solar movement around the elders. 8 PM to 8 AM nonstop on the dusty dance ground.

Walked up the valley to idyllic Shekanandeh village and in the company of a Nooristani man walked up the north spur of the Afghani border approach valley. Noorestan is the Kalash territory just over the border in Afghanistan where one hundred years ago the Kalash there were forced to convert or die. At that moment the name of that area changed from "Kafiristan" or "land of the infidels" to "Noorestan" or "land of light."

On my way back to dale's guesthouse happened upon a Kalash graveyard of open boxes and a few jumbled bones standing and shattered among the tall trees.

The next day I had one of the local outfits (Salwar kameez) made for me after a morning spent admiring the flute playing of Lum's wife. The flute was a little tin drillhole number and the playing trilled calling like birdsong in the trees. Swam in the cold river in my pants (like the locals) chilling me deeply as I waited for them to dry in the sun.
Take Lum's wife to hospital, another Jeep goes over cliff

Next day Lum's wife fell ill and in a jeep we made the frantic journey down to Chitral (an agonizing hour of throttle and bump for the poor 20 year old woman who had never been out of the valley before, wretching and whimpering the whole way, her lolling head's proximity to roadside rock protrustions whizzing past causing all us onlookers panic). On the way I got to see the famous Kalash woman known as "'lection Bibi," the 3 times divorced commerical pilot who now drives a Land Rover. She was directing efforts at the sheer cliff roadside where a jeep went off theroad minutes before falling some 150 meter (500 feet) right into the roaring open river below – one child was not able to get clear and went down with it. In Chitral Lum's wife got treatment and I went to do email as she rested, potentially averting a Bigstep.com website deletion disaster.

Got back to the Chitral Scouts Hospital looking for Lum's wife, Dale and crew and found they had already departed. Got back to Bomboret by my own devices walking and hitching standing in the back of trucks. Hitch ended in Ayon village and I began walking again, the afternoon light fading quickly. Walking above Ayon got picked up by the caravan of Abdul Wali Khan on his campaign trail for rural committee member votes – he wants to be elected "Nazim" of all Chitral district, the highest office below governor of the North West Frontier Provence. Stayed with him and his entourage including freindly delitante princes until noon the next day. Voiced my opinions on the creation of a new environment of opportunity for the Kalash in the three still-pagan valleys. The princes were responsive to my point of view but seemed more interested in improving their English than any other topic of conversation.. Abdul Wali Khan himself was totally disrespectful of the Kalash culture, called it primitive, but may be open to persuasion if the financial repercussions on tourism of unilateral Kalash conversion to Islam are clearly illustrated.

Wrote up my best ideas for a turnaround of the Kalash socio-economic situation on Dale's computer (5 pages and only 75% of what I wanted to say) before the battery ran out.

Don't know how much longer I will stay here but peaches and grapes will be ripe & ready within four days. I also still want to sleep up at the shepard's high pastures near the Afghani border (Dale says he did it before and wants to go again). Maybe I will switch my living location up the valley to more peaceful Shekanandeh for a night or so, go over the mountain pass at my exit to Birir valley for a night or two before I return to Chitral. I promised the two princes I would call them when in Chitral and that may mean a couple of days in their villages.


Short Kalash Vocabulary Lesson:

Ush – cold
Uk – water
Ishpata baya / baba – hello brother / sister
Dot – grapes
Goduk – donkey
Gak – cow
Hon (pronounce the "o" nasally) - bread
Prust (trill the "r" slightly) – good
Bo – very
Bat – mountain
Bais (open mouth wide on "a" sound) – she goat