<p>mini brings up another good point that IF your D is intent on going, she should listen to your fears and concerns as you would have some valid questions and she should explore these directly with the NGO rather than covering her ears. Preparation and being informed about the situation and precautions she should put in place and so forth would be important.</p>
<p>I also agree with others that your D should not feel she has to do this to get into grad school. I don’t know the specific degree she hopes to seek but if she talks to an academic advisor, she could find out the myriad of experiences that might be beneficial to have before applying for a doctoral program. This can’t be the ONLY experience that would “look good” on the resume.</p>
<p>Can she buy Canadian clothes, you know–stuff with maple leafs on it? Yes, I am being serious–it’s a disguise.</p>
<p>^ That can work in Europe, not in Pakistan. In Pakistan the disguise that might work is to become brown skinned and wear traditional garb and speak Urdu.</p>
<p>I lived in Pakistan as a child many years ago. I would not want my D there. I am very concerned as my daughter is going to Spain as well. I think they are young to negotiate such different cultures and rules. the government is also not the most stable.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input. I should have said that I have spent a lot of time trying to talk her out of this plan. She is fully aware of my opinion on the matter. Zipping shut just seemed like a good idea at this point.</p>
<p>We have had the NGO investigated on site by a friend of a friend. It is well regarded by the locals. There is an armed guard that would go out with her anytime she was off the grounds. Other armed guards patrol 24/7. “But it’s really more a social thing than security” is what one of the current employees tells her. I guess that means that the guards are friendly and fun to have around?</p>
<p>The job is not her career choice but getting development experience is the goal. This would allow her to apply for jobs that require at least a year of it. It’s a job she is willing to do for a year but would not want to do for longer than that, or in this country. The PhD program she wants is extremely competitive and she has hopes that this would make her app stand out if she chooses to go that route.</p>
<p>I like the idea of a sat phone and plan to look into that further. They are pricey but so is peace of mind. I do wonder if merely having one on her would make her more suspect though.</p>
<p>She is reasonably good with Urdu (hopes to get fluent) and can wear the traditional clothing but I don’t know that she can ever pass herself off as a native.</p>
<p>My son (a freshman) went to Pakistan over winter break to interview people about nuclear arms in that part of the world. He LOVED Pakistan, said everyone treated him extremely well. He was really impressed with the kindness of people who have fewer worldly goods than he does. He said over and over people said to him, we like Americans, but we really don’t like your government. They are very upset about the drone attacks. I hope that with the death of Osama bin Laden, we really will be pulling back in the area. </p>
<p>We asked that he let us know where he was daily, but other than that had to trust him to keep out of any obvious trouble. I’d have been considerably more worried if he’d been in the provinces and as it was he left the day the Punjab governor was assassinated and a week before the CIA operative (or whoever he was) killed a man.</p>
<p>My boss’s sister is a principal of a Pakistani NGO. She has lived in Pakistan all of her life, except during University in UK. She travels for her work all the time, but her family (which is not wealthy) pays for a bodyguard for her because a woman alone is not safe in Pakistan under any circumstances. The worst harassment she ever faced was from a nextdoor neighbor of the house she grew up in. After her father died and brothers immigrated, she lived there alone and worked for the betterment of her country. Unfortunately, men as a general rule saw her as a whore and available for whatever they wanted. It’s just not a good place to be a woman. I just asked my boss his thoughts (he travels home several times a year) and his answer was that he is proud of his country, he loves the people, but no way in hell would he allow his wife or daughter to be there without protection and the fact that he pays out of his salary for his sister’s security tellls all.</p>
<p>OP, I’ve sent you a PM.</p>
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<p>Good heavens!</p>
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<p>^^The key word here is “son”.</p>
<p>This thread is strengthening my resolve to encourage and support my daughter’s love of English literature…or art history…or biochemistry…<em>anything</em> that doesn’t involve travel to trouble spots. Good luck to OP and her D.</p>
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I agree, I hadn’t focused on the issue of this being a young woman involved. My son did travel with a young woman (and I think her family was grateful that he was there.) They weren’t a couple, but they did everything together.</p>
<p>vicariousparent, I’ve had the same thought sometimes about my younger son (he’s off to Jordan this summer). </p>
<p>That said, I grew up in an adventurous family. My father leapt at a chance to open a post in Hargeisa, Somalia. I’m pretty sure there had been border skirmishes with Ethiopia only a few months earlier. He served in Tanzania when Jane Goodall’s students were kidnapped. He was the first ambassador to Uganda after Idi Amin was ousted. I probably have a somewhat warped sense of what is dangerous. I’ve been travelling alone in the world since I was 15. Many men have tried to pick me up. The worst that has ever happened to me was finding myself alone with a flasher in a train compartment in safe Switzerland.</p>
<p>I have great empathy for the original poster. We are in a similar situation with a college aged daughter and a fellowship in Indonesia. Great opportunity, but lots of worries also. Don’t want to hi-jack the Pakistan thread, but there are many common concerns. The global approach to education/work puts more parents than ever before in this ambivalent position. I’d welcome any input from those familiar with life in major cities in Indonesia. Happy to start another thread if it is preferable.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t even let my son go to Pakistan and definitely not a young girl. I really don’t feel it is a good idea to go to Pakistan specially right now. You might want to talk her out of it.</p>
<p>Right now, Pakistan is probably the most dangerous country in the world for Americans. I can’t think of a single reason why going there to pad a resume could ever be worth it. There are so many other places in the world where OP’s daughter could do this type of work in a safer environment.</p>
<p>If your daughter continues to follow through with her plans to travel to Pakistan despite the widely broadcasted warnings for Americans not to travel to this area, it says something about her degree of common sense. She needs to understand the reality that the raid on Osama’s compound and the killing of him and his heir of terror is going to make things worse before it gets better. It is a ridiculous idea for anyone, let alone a young American woman, to travel to Pakistan at this time–especially for some hope that it’s going to enhance her grad school application. It’s an unnecessary risk.</p>
<p>Agree with UCLA Band Mom. My daughter has traveled alone extensively in foreign countries and lived overseas many times. But as I wrote earlier, I draw the line at State Dept. warnings and even the State Dept. seems to be warning Americans about traveling to Pakistan now. I think your D really could get similarly valuable experience doing whatever the kind of work she has planned in some other country that is currently not under travel warnings. That doesn’t mean she’ll be 100% safe wherever that is (nor is one safe right here in the USA all the time), but the risks will not be as great.</p>
<p>Right now, by far, the United States of America is the most dangerous country for American civilians, especially in certain areas, such as three miles southeast of the nation’s Capitol Building. And American college campuses are the most dangerous places (for rape and sexual assault and assault) for young American women.</p>
<p>(Of course, they will have to travel there, if they hope to go to graduate school.)</p>
<p>There are more annual gun-related deaths in the U.S. than ALL the terror-related deaths, and Kashmir-related deaths in Pakistan combined.</p>
<p>And American college campuses are the most dangerous places (for rape and sexual assault and assault) for young American women.</p>
<p>hmm
I wonder what resources are available to a woman who is assaulted on an american college campus as compared to the streets of Islamabad</p>