Teas

Tea is a very important part of this culture. When you meet someone, often the first request from them is to have tea. There are also different types of tea in different parts. In the south we mostly drink milky tea (black tea with milk and sugar), in the east we drink green tea (with sugar), and in the north on our vacation we drank tumuro tea (I heard it is made with thyme). In northeast apparently the tea is pink, but I haven't had that yet.

On vacation we were always wanting the native experience. A local widow invited us in for tea. She asked how we wanted it fixed. Joe promptly said, "just like the locals". She poured us some tumuro tea into a large cup (looked like a bowl). Took a couple of sips- delicious. After this though she proceeded to put in salt. I took a couple sips and thought, "I can handle this. I like salt." But then she put fresh butter. And then broke up pieces of fresh bread. Two large bowls of salty, fatty tea with bread chunks sat in front of us. The first couple of sips/bites were okay, but then it became quite obnoxious to our taste buds. About 50% down, when our host wasn't looking, we began pleading with the other to finish each other's tea. We gulped down another 25%, but then had to call it quits. Our host seemed to understand.

The next tea time we were more careful in our request of how we wanted it fixed.

Public Shame

The other day we were walking in the bazaar when we began to hear a lot of noise and people all looking in the same direction. The commotion was coming quicker and we couldn't figure out what was going on. We finally pushed ourselves to the edge of the road and saw a group of policemen coming with a large group of people behind them. The people the police were escorting looked like they had been rounded up like a herd of cattle. As a group (about 20 people) they were lassoed together in a rope and all walking together. In the front were men who all had blank ink smired on their faces and clothes. They also had their hands tied together with rope. In the back of the herd were women. It was another one of those instances where we had absolutely no idea what was going on. We asked the ever helpful, "Kya hua?" (what happened) to a few people. We were able to piece together that it was group that was caught drinking alcohol in a hotel as well as some potential prostitution activities. They were being publicly shamed by being paraded through the busiest part of town.

Last Month at School for the summer

We started our last month of language school this week. We decided to up our classes to 6 (from 5) and asked if the classes could be consecutive instead of spread throughout the day. So we are studying from 8:15-1:05pm M-F. The schedule is working great for us and it is jammed packed with really good teachers. After our vacation we have felt re-energized to hit the books again and learn more Urdu!

Yesterday as we were walking around town, a local kid started to walk alongside us, and wanted to chit chat. We ended up taking him to dinner with us and I was able to to get some good Urdu speaking practice in. Joe laughed, because I used my new piece of grammar over and over with the kid and he didn't seem to mind.

Vacation

Last night we came back from our week long vacation in Karimabad. Amazing. I posted our photos which you can look at when you click on "my photos" to the right. The photo here was taken at the start of one of our hikes. This was one of the most beautiful places either of us had ever been to. Take a look!

Harvest Time

This last weekend we went way up into the mountains to visit a friend's village. A few posts will follow about this with photos. I thought I would get the first one up tonite. The village was in the area that was affected by the earthquake a few years ago. Many will remember that Joe and I were here during that time doing relief work. It was great to revisit these areas that we fell in love with at that time. There are NGO signs everywhere with listings of work that is still going on in these areas. We had a great time.

Here are some of the pics:

Wheat

Tater Time

Illegal weeds (at least in the U.S.)

Visit at friend's hours

These are photos are at our friend's house. Second picture is a big break through for me- not fearing a farm animal is going to bite me.

rest weekend

After 1 month of intense language learning, we decided to come down from the hills and have a weekend away in Islamabad. We were able to stay at a great guest house for the night.

Here is what this place has to offer:

1. Decent internet! I was able to download quite a few podcasts to get me through the next month.

2. TV

3. 10 minute walk over to Pizza Hut and an amazing book store

4. Lots of Westerners so you fit in as just another white person in the crowd

Here is what I would like more of:

1. More uninterrupted electricity (power would often be on for about 1-2 hours at a time then off for a few)

2. Middle Eastern Restaurant with some good hummus

3. Movie theater to see a new flick

Now we are ready to go back and face another month of learning.