AROUND Pakistan: Cholistan Desert near Bahawalpur

Hello lovelies, continuing with some photo stories of places from our recent trip to see our families and here is one from our time in Bahawalpur¹. We drove down to where we could see the Cholistan desert, with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, and absolutely enjoyed watching the sun go down as Anya had fun digging her gold shoes in the dirt ;). It was so serene and peaceful. We loved it. Here is a peek.











The Cholistan Desert, locally known as Rohi, lies near Bahawalpur in Pakistan and covers an area of 10,200 square miles. Its connects into the Thar desert which then extends into India. The desert has an average rainfall of 5 inches a year and there is very little cultivation. The area was once well watered by a river, now called the Hakra in Pakistan and which was known in Vedic times as the Sarasvati. All along the 500-km of dried up river are over 400 archaeological sites, which date back to the Indus civilization 4500 years ago and are clustered around Derawar Fort, one of the major landmarks of the Cholistan desert.



For more photo stories from around Pakistan go here.

Thanks for reading. Lots of love.

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FYI

¹ Bahawalpur, my husband’s hometown is a desert city in the south of Punjab in Pakistan.

Around Islamabad: SOS Village

On our last trip, we finally made a visit to SOS Children’s Village in Islamabad. Many of the children here are those that were left with no home and no family after the devastating earthquake in 2005. The children attend school on the premises as well as attend after-school educational and recreational activities. It was such a beautiful and humbling experience for all of us, to meet all those sweet children and just spend some time getting to know them over a game of passing the parcel and some quick snacks. I really wanted Anya to experience this and she loved going around with me asking the children their names and just making chit chat with them.

Here are some pictures my sister Waliya and I took of the beautiful children and just our experience there. Take a look.

























SOS Children's Villages of Pakistan is a private social welfare organization affiliated with the world's largest orphan and abandoned children charity SOS Kinderdorf International. SOS Pakistan is one of a large family of SOS Children Villages active in 132 counteries and territories worldwide. It was established in 1975, with the first village in Lahore established through the support of SOS Kinderdorf International. Since then , they have been on their own. Outside Europe, SOS Pakistan is the only SOS that is able to finance itself from donations generated within the country. The special feature of SOS Children's Villages is that they are not traditional orphanages. They provide children with a home and family. Every effort is made to enrich children with strong moral values, a good education and skills that will enable them to become productive citizens.

HOW WE ALL CAN HELP

The SOS Children’s Village in Islamabad is still under construction and needs all the help it can get. And here are some ways we can contribute. If you are in Islamabad, you can also call them for volunteer opportunities.

HOW TO DONATE // HOW TO SPONSOR A CHILD





While we were there we also decided to include them in our joy and have a little birthday party to celebrate Anya turning 4, with cake, goodie bags, snacks, birthday songs and a silly game of passing-the-parcel with the sweet kids. It made for one truly memorable birthday celebration, Alhamdullilah.

Thanks for reading. Lots of love.