Had a much needed quiet day yesterday. Spent most of it online catchin up with friends and doing some life administration… banking, email, online shopping 😉 etc. The only interruptions came from the soliticous enquiries as to whether Mem’sab would like another cup of tea. Mem’sab – that’s me apparently… is what the house servants call me (I know their names but stuffed if I know how to spell them! ) … from what I can tell it is for the ‘Mistress’ or ‘lady of the house’ in any case. Dont know about he ‘mistress’ bit… I forgot to bring my floggers! 🙂 I must have had about 8 cups of tea yesterday. The house servants are very respectful and at the same time it kinda creeps me out that there are people in the house with whom you have no social interaction with… but no one could complain about their work … this place is spotless and they only get paid about AU$130/month. The house gets cleaned everyday and I mean cleaned… even the dusting is done… MD tells me that every time the chess board gets dusted, the pieces are never put back on the board in the right spots! I love that 🙂
There’s a lot of strange little things around here that have piqued my interest… some one came to the door last night and handed MD a wad of cash. It turns out that one of the foreign officers – the Kazakhstani – has a wife who has been experiencing some women’s health issues and the situation was getting quite bad – no decent doctors in Quetta. The Kazakhstani officer gets paid the same here as he does at home, so his pay doesn’t necessarily stretch to sending his wife to Islamabad for specialist treatment so MD and the other western officers threw the hat around to send her off to Islamabad for treatment before her situation had long term repercussions. This apparently guilted the Pakistanis into returning the collected funds and funding her trip to Islamabad themselves … hence the returned cash. It seems all the foreign nationals are on their own in this regard … which is okay if your people have your back … but not so great if you’re from a place of limited resources I guess. Not good.
I just heard another jet going over…. I’ve been sitting here listening to the jet fighters and the helicopters going over head for two days now… I’m certainly not used to it. I stop whatever I am doing every time and wait until the noise passes over… I dont know if I am unnerved by it or just curious… but I dont seem to be able to continue whatever I was doing once I hear them! :S It might be in part because MD told me how old the aircraft are here – Mirages from the 60s with dwindling supplies of spare parts… perhaps I am waiting for sounds of them falling out of the sky!!!
I met some of ‘The Boys’ yesterday – Randy from Canada, Mark from the UK and Dave from the US. They seem like a great bunch of blokes and together with MD they are bonded in the futile struggle of attempting to over come ineptitude and ignorance they encounter here. The stories are great and I love their irreverant attitudes towards the locals – I am sure it is a coping mechanism of some sort but it’s fun to listen to them mimic and take the piss. We all toddled off to the local tailor where the guys are all availing themselves of the cheap cheap prices to have tailor made suits. It was funny to watch Mark trying to explain the importance for Saville Row style tailored cuffs to a small Pakistani with limited English.
I had my first unpleasant encounter with one of the locals at the tailors…. All the men stared at me in the street… there was not a single woman to be seen in town. The women dont shop here – that would involve giving them money so they spend their days in the home. IN the store, one of the tailor’s assistants came over and stood right beside me and touched my thigh with his hand. I moved away from him and he moved closer and did it again. I moved even further away and gave him the filthiest look I could muster. For some reason I was unwilling to make a fuss… just out of my element I guess. Touching a woman’s thigh like that on a bus at home is probably not a big deal – but in this country – I know it was an entirely deliberate, absolutely inappropriate and even strangely sexually implicit act. He would never have taken such liberty with a local woman the ramifications are positively dire for all involved if even the suspicion of sexual relations outside of marriage are raised… honour killings and the such are still common here. Skeezy little fucker. Grrr.
Apparently the only frame of reference people have here for the blonde westerner is Baywatch. They play reruns over and over here for some strange reason?!?! I am at a bit of a disadvantage having never watched a single episode of Baywatch, but from what I can gather …if you are a blonde westerner then you are basically regarded as a Pamela Anderson life guard type chickie who is immodest, fatuous and… of course…. promiscous. Which goes a long way to explaining the vacant stares I constantly get….. 😐 Another jet!
After visiting the tailor we popped in to see Smahel the carpet seller briefly where US Dave and UK Mark were buying more rugs. I will have to go back when I have my wallet 🙂 and then a little bit of grocery shopping. Where MD’s housekeeper pushed the trolley, collected the groceries, put them in the car and then bought them all into the house and MD’s involvement was wander around and then to pay for the purchases. My involvement in same was to provide a spectacle for the locals… yet again. 🙂
Last night ‘The Boys’ came over for movie night and a few quiet drinks… we watched Hot Fuzz and the guys seemed to think the main character’s dilemma had similarities with the problems they are encountering in Pakistan 🙂 I love the American Embassy Islamabad stubbie coolers! The absurdity of it tickled me enormously….. I was going to take a photo of it to post here – but I was too slow – it’s been cleaned away to who knows where! And the idea of battling the language barrier to find it so I can take a photo sounds like way too much effort! So movie night with ‘The Boys’ was fun but I thought US Dave would never leave – he seems to be rather loquacious when you get him going! Sigh… MD and I finally turned in around 2330…. :S
I need more sleep! :S Hang on… never mind ‘more’ … just ‘some’ sleep would be good!
Update:
Turns out the language barrier wasnt as insurmountable as I thought!
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