July 2, 2014 Wednesday

When the trainees were gone for their class I checked on Afshan to find her
weak with fever. AD and RI also came to see her and so it was recommended
that she may be taken to the hospital with her cousin Nosheen who lives in
Islamabad because otherwise she was reluctant to go to the hospital. I sent
her along with Raheela nad Azra to the hospital and also told Mr. Mirza to be
careful with his witty remarks in a girls class.
After the class all the girls were free, so was I, so I sat near the ailing one
who was diagnosed with low BP, fever and kidney problem, and asked those
with a talent of saying naat to come up. I was pleased to find that many of
them had beautiful voices and were willing for a milad the very next day.
After that I was back in my room; without newspaper, TV or telephone (again
deprived of the set). I thought I should read a book but as always it worked
as the best lullaby to put me to sleep. Within no time I was woken up by the
commotion of a snake seen in one of the ladies toilets. I wire signaled RI
Aurengzeb who came immediately with three other men.
The snake had crawled into a hole in the wall and came out only when smoke
was blown into the hole. It was killed with canes/spade and whatever the
men came up with. It was silver grey and soil in color, barely thicker than a
finger and more than a foot long, perhaps a little less than two feet long.
When the dying snake quivered some girls shrieked and honestly like
everyone else I was scared as well but I tried not to appear bothered, yet
could not fully succeed. I also told the RI to fill up the holes in the rooms
where trainees were living, yet to be done. The heat of the incident was so
much that I could not hold it to myself so I went over to the office and
telephoned my mom to tell her the whole story.
At 5:00pm the weather was pleasant so I accompanied the girls to the
ground; in my presence the girls were particularly jubilant and more
confident, I noticed that they chanted Haq hu Allah hu louder than they
had ever done before. I enjoyed watching them do the dry practice with
instructions like: hoshhhhhyar, shikaari position, takh takh and weapon
ground onnn it all reminded me of good old times when Waqarunisa and I
followed the instructions while standing behind our male batchmates. I
helped the girls improve their sitting posture and then left the ground. Before
iftar I met Mrs Bangash and thanked her for Dahi bhale she sent me for iftar.

Now that I am done with writing todays account I am retiring for Ishaa
hoping that the night passes without any mentionable incident. .ooops
there was something hopping on the carpet I took to be a scorpion
whatever it was Sajida squashed it with a chappal. Not to mention the two
fat lizards on my window still guarding me from sleep. Well then commando,
good night!