Travelling with children: Ken Gibbs

The Author in 1980

On reading Nuzhat’s recent offering on the XUNICEF blog, I was reminded about two events both of which started in the Dhaka airport in Bangladesh, and which involved children who are best seen and not heard, didn’t they say ?

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Our two children had come to Dhaka on Education Grant Travel and, because I had worked for WHO in Nepal in 1979/80 and because Colin Glennie had been the WatSan PO in Kathmandu for around four years when we did some exchange of staff, we thought a quick trip to Kathmandu would be good for the children as well.

We didn’t choose our timing very well. There had been a threatened coup d’état a couple of days before we were due to travel so that when we arrived at Dhaka Airport, there were very few travellers and probably more armed guards than travellers. I never did feel comfortable in situations where people were waving loaded guns around.

At that time, I was a heavy smoker which the children detested, and they chose their moment to booby trap one of my cigarettes so that when I took out a cigarette as the last one before boarding the aircraft, I was wanting to get my nicotine-fix quickly. I lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply when the cigarette blew up in my face. Immediately all guns swivelled in my direction while the children were weeping with laughter, they thought it so funny. Father with the remains of a cigarette in his lips and tobacco scattered around must have looked a bit incongruous, but I was fortunate that the guards were not trigger happy that day.

Later, we had to explain to the children that there is a time and a place, but Dhaka Airport was probably not a good choice. Besides, it didn’t stop me smoking – in fact I needed more cigarettes to calm my nerves. . . .but I did examine every last cigarette in the pack before lighting any of them, and made sure that the children never had another opportunity to booby trap me.

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The second ‘event’ was as the family was leaving Dhaka bound for Karachi where I was to meet them and drive them to Quetta, where I had been rotated. The family was made up of my wife and our two children and, most important of all, our Alsatian rescue dog named Paisha who had been examined by a vet to ensure that all entry conditions for a dog to Pakistan were met such as health, vaccinations and the like. Later, we were glad that he had been examined so carefully.

ALSATIAN ‘PAISHA’ AND FRIENDS

The children were unhappy that Paisha had to travel in the hold, separate from them. Their mother had to explain how these things were done, and there could be no special cases. They were eventually made to board and took up their seats, unhappily, especially my daughter who had recently had a hair-cut and who was identified by one of the cabin staff as a boy.

On arrival in Karachi, the family caused so much trouble about being reunited with their dog that my wife was allowed to accompany him to the arrivals area, but the children were made to wait in the arrivals.

Enter a very tall, turbaned Sikh Customs officer who wanted to see the papers for the dog. As we had been at great pains to ensure that everything that was required by the Pakistani High Commission in such matters had been obtained and was on hand, they were all handed over. The Customs Officer examined the papers and said that there would be a charge to admit him to Pakistan of something like Rs 25,000/-. My wife felt that this was incorrect and there followed a lively discussion between the two of them as to why this fee should be paid ? Apparently, the Customs Officer said it was because he was pedigreed.

Now, you don’t cross my wife and come away unscathed as I know from many years’ experience – but the officer was unaware of this. That was, until our daughter, fed up with having been separated from her friend Paisha, walked straight though the barriers into the area where my wife and the Customs Officer were debating the demand, and asked what the problem was ? My wife told her that it was allegedly because Paisha was pedigreed in the opinion of the Customs Officer.

Our daughter’s reaction was as blunt as it was immediate, “How can he be pedigreed because he has only one testicle ?” This had been discovered by the vet’s examination for the export/import papers. Now when a 15 year old young woman said this so that everyone in the area could hear it, the Customs Officer just folded. He said, “Get that dog and your daughter out of here. . . . .”

It was a good try but it failed miserably because of a 15 year old girl and a missing testicle. I must remember this for future reference.

There were no Customs charges and the family’s immigration status was found to be regular and they were released to me very quickly for transfer to Quetta by car. Welcome to Pakistan !

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