The Diplomatic Scene

I live in what sometimes seems to be another world. It can feel like the people here are also living in their own world, I think living in such a tense situation can do that to you. Around the dinner table in the evening, the subject of our projects and our internal politics never tires us. I am living and breathing MSF 24 hours a day, it would seem!

In pursuit of respite, and to receive some objectivity from outside of my organisation, I have been making friends who are outside of our vacuum. I have been lucky to meet some nice people, both Pakistani and foreign. One circle I have been mingling in is that of the diplomats. Friends of friends have kindly approved my membership to the British High Commission club, which means I now have access to fish and chips, an enormous swimming pool and of course, liquor to stave off the dryness.

It is a world away from how we live as volunteers and they too appear to live in their own world. They seem not to want for much and many have a lifestyle more comfortable that they would have at home. At times I am rather envious! They live under the same security pressures as us, however, and it is heartening to see that everyone shares identical worries, though we all carry on as if there was nothing to worry about.

Lazying down at the British Club on a Sunday afternoon