We did it. After what felt like just a few moments among the amazing people of the Hindu-Kush mountains and what felt like two weeks on airplanes, I have safely returned home. It is such a relief to be reunited with my Bride.

The trip was simply amazing. Neither words nor the dinky pictures i took with my camera phone will be able to adequately communicate all that i experienced (but as a teammate demonstrates, a camera is enough to engage a small army of children!). I’m hoping that the stories i share here over the next few days are able to communicate some small elements of the truths i learned, the beauty of the people i met, what was accomplished, and what remains.

We did it — the various teams worked to get hundreds of shelters built through out the earthquake zone. We got the materials we needed. We beat the snow. We kept an emphasis on developing relationships with the locals. We trained them in the construction. Lives will be saved. Thank God.

My team (including Jon W) spent two days bending pipes to be used in shelter construction, and then about a week in a mountain valley helping villagers set up the shelters. We returned Monday to Phoenix, AZ for a debrief.

The Pakistani people are not terrorists. They are not nuclear war mongers. They are not stoic, unfriendly, or hateful. While i always doubted these negative stereotypes, I had nothing with which to replace them. Before i found out first hand, i believed these lies (at worst), or forced myself to think blankly about Pakistanis and other middle easterners (at best).

But now I have real faces with names, real stories and lives, real interactions and experiences that give me a much more factual and positive picture of who exactly it is who lives in Pakistan. I am very grateful for this, and hope that some of this alternative vision is communicated as i share my stories in future posts.

Stay tuned for more soon!