🙈Every time @tehreemranjhaa posts after a visit to me in Chitral I welcome a whole bunch of you to the little (big?) journey I’ve taken to reroot back to Pakistan. Long story short: I left the city life to reroot rural. I’m a huge fan of substantial captions that actually tell you stuff. And a big hater of word count caps. If I have ever had an opportunity to figure out how to do something or learn something you’ll usually find me trying to teach it to someone else, writing about it, or thinking how lucky I am we have the capacity to learn things in this life. ☺️ Tehreem says it’s time to open a little airbnb at my place for girls to come & enjoy. What do you say? ☺️ Photo by the talented @zumrad.normatova

And this is a nod to myself to get back in the saddle as soon as I can. Life is more fun when hobbies and animals are involved. ✨

P. 4 of 4:❓Have you ever read your family history, like as you are Pasthoon, are you familiar with your blood line or where your ancestors came from? Yes, for sure. I am very interested in getting to the root of things, including with matters of identity, and recently a lot more became evident too about my family history. A few years ago I picked up an interest in horses and horse riding. Nobody else in my immediate family had been into equestrian sports growing up in London. But I just got a pull. Later I would discover riding and horses were a big part of the place where my relatives and ancestors were from. I enjoyed weaving this in with my interest in archery. In terms of blood line and ancestry, my Paternal Grandfather was of the Kundi tribe from Gul Imam / Banu / Tank area and my Paternal Grandmother was of the Katti Khel tribe from Tank. She sadly died early on in my father’s life. My maternal Grandparents were both English, from England, and worked as Missionary Christians in places like India and Malaysia.

P. 3 of 4:❓Did you ever think to bring any project or upskilling to people in Chitral in any field? Yes, I have. I recently donated power beams and an internet satellite to an institute of technology in Drosh so that the girls have good internet to study and train to work remotely. I found that very exciting to see lots of young women figuring out how to earn money remotely, and tap into the global economy markets. I also want to encourage girls in pursuit of better teaching skills and teaching careers in general, because I feel it’s one field that is ‘acceptable’ by society’s standards for girls in particularly conservative contexts, yet also provides a means of financial independence and confidence building. But I don’t think anyone should teach just because of convenience or lack of other options. If a girl is interested in the field, it is useful because the holidays and structure also mean that girls can manage around their family commitments, which are a huge task to complete in addition to trying to work. For young men, I really think there is huge talent here in Chitral particularly and wish that more of them could tap into remote work and benefit from the global economy. But it is not that straightforward or easy to do - if it was, everyone would be doing it. I’d like to see more collaborations remotely with Chitral based talent. ❓What kind of workshops do you deliver? I run workshops about teaching skills, teaching ideas, and sometimes on my subject specific area - English and Mandarin. ❓Do you have any interactions with Students or only Teachers? Mostly teachers, less so with students these days. ❓Did you ever work with any organisation? Like AKDN or something? Yes, previously I worked with Oxford University Press, GEMS Education, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, international schools around the Middle East mostly, and with international publishers like Hachette Learning and some schools in Pakistan. I’m in touch with the AKDN too and appreciate the work they’re doing here in the North.

P. 2 of 4:❓What about the archery? Did you complete the course, are you an expert now? Archery is one of my great loves because it’s a never ending learning journey. I completed one level, but there are many more. I will forever be learning and practicing it. However, most of my arrows are all damaged or broken and I am waiting for a new batch to come. Whenever things are hard, hobbies are one of the first things to go out of my schedule. It’s taking my some time to pick back up on the things I love to do just for joy. But I have done a little shooting here and there recently. ❓So are you doing a job now or just looking after your home? Are you doing a side hustle? In Chitral? Why Chitral? I work as a teacher trainer and facilitator full time, and my main focus right now is on the international teacher membership at Well Teachers - The Well. There, I coordinate monthly workshops and webinars for teachers to join. I also teach - like, actually teach courses - and will be delivering our Mandarin hobby course in 2 weeks with our first group of teachers. Well Teachers isn’t a side hustle, it’s my main work. I had to tweak and readjust things after my father passed to account for the space I’m going to need to finish things he had going on and the buracracy. Thankful that I’m here to be able to do it. In the past, I have often overworked myself, and I appreciate that Chitral makes me slow down and provides me with everything I personally think counts as a rich life around my work efforts. A love of animals. Sports. Goats in my garden. Good weather. Simple food. Cheerful, easygoing people. No high rise buildings. Not having to step through machines to prove my identity or humanity. The list goes on and on. Next questions, next post.