Word: kala
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...boats up the Indus, loaded with relief supplies, I jumped at the chance to sail into these forbidden valleys. Even though the tribes had requested assistance, UNICEF project leader Tamur Mueenuddin, a tireless Pakistani doctor, wasn't sure what sort of reception his team would get. What little money Kala Dhaka's tribesmen scrape together, usually from selling opium, is spent on guns. Scenes flashed through my mind from the film Deliverance, in which Burt Reynolds and his rafting buddies are picked off by vengeful hillbillies...
...chugged up the blue-green Indus in an armada of gaily-painted boats, each powered by belching tractor engines. Mueenuddin stood in the prow of his boat like a wavy-haired admiral. Occasionally he consulted his laptop; the Kala Dhaka elders huddled around in awe as though it were a glowing magic tablet. To Mueenuddin, this was "Operation Congo" because, he said, "We're going into the heart of darkness...
...Kala Dhaka tribesmen are ignorant of the world beyond their towering peaks. Some have worked as laborers in Karachi's port. Others, stirred up by preachers, took their guns and crossed into Afghanistan after 9/11 to join the Taliban fighting American troops. In the 19th century, they repeatedly drove back British forces from the Indus. These tribes were known to be as fanatical as they were fierce, but they do like to joke around. "Would you like to see your President Boosh?" asks tribesman Tariq Angar as he drags over a white-bearded elder with a mean squint. Lose...
...Each Kala Dhaka tribe is governed by a jirga, or council of elders, which rules on land disputes, feuds, and matters of clan honor and revenge. As our flotilla pulled up to the riverbank, a jirga and their gunmen were on hand to welcome Mueenuddin. He was escorted up to an ancient shade tree beside a mosque. This was a crucial moment: would the elders allow us to sail upriver, or would they grab all the aid for themselves? Mueenuddin made his case eloquently. A few supplies were dropped off, and I saw a line of men like ants hefting...
...everyone has been so helpful. In supposedly more civilized areas around the towns of Muzaffarabad and Balakot, gangs of thugs attacked aid convoys, stealing supplies for themselves while pushing the injured, women and children aside. In Kala Dhaka, UNICEF dropped off tents for 1,000 families, 2,000 blankets, 1,000 sweaters, 10 tons of wheat, five tons of lentils and five tons of cooking oil?the oil a gift of the U.S., read the labels on boxes. For once, the Kala Dhaka tribes greeted outsiders with grateful smiles?not gunfire...