First Letter:

My Somalian contact from London (Raagi) and I boarded a light aircraft, full of "mira" at 7 am on Thursday morning at a small airfield in Nairobi. The normal price to Somalia is $250 but we were charged $400. It was a take it or leave it situation. It was freezing as the cargo had to be kept cool. I had to wrap newspapers around my legs to keep warm.

We had to make a drop at another small airfield in Somalia enroute to our destination. I was told by our pilot that this area was known as Baidoa. We landed on a small airstrip and within minutes we were surrounded by 4 pick up trucks with anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on top and manned by teenagers. There were at least 100 people including women and children near our aircraft. As the last of the their cargo was unloaded someone had started shooting, followed by 3 heavy ex army trucks with heavier guns appearing on the airstrip.

Our pilot took off immediately and soon we were flying high again. Welcome to Somalia! We reached our destination, Beledweyne, at 10am. We were warmly welcomed by about 40 members of Raagi's family. We travelled slowly through the town with everybody staring at me, but in a curious way and not in any malicious way at all. I did not see any person carrying any sort of firearm on the streets, which was exactly the opposite to the information given to me in the UK and Kenya.

We drove to Raagi's house, freshned up, changing our clothes and had tea (Somalian tea is without milk and very sweet). I had just finished my tea when a man put a 9mm semi automatic Russian pistol into my hands. He told me to strap it to my waist. I gave it back to Raagi as I didn't see any point. We already had 3 armed guards for our journey into the country. While Raagi had his lamb and rice, I had my cereal bar and some dried fruit & nuts (which I had brought from London ). We stocked up with bottled water and went to meet the local World Food Program (WFP) agent. I informed him that we were travelling to Halgan and asked him whether he knew any NGOs operating in the area. He was very helpful and volunteered his time if we required it. He himself was from Halgan. We left for Halgan at 3pm."

Second Letter:

On the way to Halgan we stopped at a small village (Noorfanah) where there was one well for over 200 families. The village is right next to a river and when the river overflows it floods the well thus polluting their only source of reasonable quality drinking water. We sat down with the village elders who were again very welcoming. They informed me that they have a very high rate of stomach-related illnesses due to drinking polluted water. They need help with an alternative source of clean drinking water in the village. It's amazing how these people only ask for a basic human need and yet we in the west cannot get enough of the most useless of things. I told them that the Sikh Sangat will do whatever it can to help them. These are simple people with simple needs. I was asked if I needed a bride as they would be very happy to provide me with one from the village. I kindly declined as they laughed amongst themselves.

After driving through dry river beds and across dusty plains, we reached Halgan at 6.30 pm. It was getting dark and the town had no electric supply. The first thing that I saw was a long queue. There were at least 50 families with donkey carts and empty barrels. I asked Raagi to follow the queue to the end so that we could see the reason for it. They were all queuing up for WATER.....it was very sad to see the dust covered women and children looking very tired. We went to meet the operator of the pump. Tt was run by ADRA (a christian charity). The operator charges 3000 Somali Shillings ($1 = 22000 Somali Shillings). I spoke to some people in the queue and most of them had come from the surrounding villages. They could not drink the polluted river water.

I was told that there was another pump in town, but it was not working and it was too dark to go and see it until tomorrow. We reached the house of Raagi's uncle and again I received a very warm welcome. The whole family came to greet me. His auntie's exact words to me were "you left your mother in England, but don't feel unloved as I am your mother here ". We sat under the stars while Raagi was talking to his family. I was talking to the villagers in my broken arabic. We sat under a stary and warm night discussing the local water problem."

- March, 2003