Karachi baby rescue

Jodi dances with orphan girls in Karachi. Click to take a look at one my favorite projects to date.

Suicide bombing in Islamabad

We were sitting down to our last dinner in Islamabad when the manager came out of his room with his cell phone in hand. "There's been a bombing," he said.

So much for dinner. Jodi went for her cameras and I got my notepad. It was very close, and we arrived about 15 minutes later - friends later told me it's best to wait 20 to avoid double blasts.

The intersection where the blast went off was a gory mess. Blood trails on the sidewalks pointed the way to its origin. The suicide bomber had targeted police officers and managed to get quite a few of them - 11 people were confirmed dead by the time I filed for The New York Times, but the total kept climbing. I think it hit at least 20 by morning.

Click here to see what Jodi and I produced for The New York Times on this blast.

Home again home again

The train ride back from Lahore was quite comfortable, aside from my having fallen deathly ill.

Anyhow, our flight leaves tomorrow for London and then Boston.

Lahore's mosques and brothels

Lahore has been enchanting and very sad. You can find anything you want in this city: art and beauty, filth and depravity.


We met a family of prostitutes that depends heavily on one of its youngest and prettiest members in order to keep its home and lifestyle. She's 17 years old, and her client list includes some of the most elite public figures in the country. Her family pushed her into prostitution when she was 12.



From the fourth-floor roof of Cooco's Den, a 300-year-old brothel that has since been converted into a restaurant, you can look into the courtyard area of the Badshahi Mosque, which is roughly the same age. Heera Mandi, Lahore's red light district, begins just outside the red gates of the mosque and extends to another, much smaller mosque several blocks away. Imams over dueling loudspeakers in the mosques blast the call to prayer five times a day while sex workers earn their living in the squalid conditions below. Iqbal Hussain, self-proclaimed son of a prostitute and owner of Cooco's Den, reflects the neighborhood's juxtaposition of holy fervor and earthly vice by mixing religious icons with his paintings of local prostitutes throughout the building.

Lahore in the morning

Kalasha women wear bright headdresses, belts and other trimming, which contrasts nicely with their black dresses. As you can see.

Today we sat tight in Islamabad, catching up on writing and processing photos. Also, shopping and getting massages.

In the morning we will take a bus to Lahore, where we will meet an artist who is by all accounts quite fascinating. He will, for example give us a tour of Lahore's red light district, which provides him with most of the subject matter for his art.