2:30 am - Lahore

I just hopped on after the most recent (late night) load shedding here in Pakistan to write a small blog.

Dubai was pretty awesome. Although I’m not really into the typical Dubai experience (tons of shopping), I did go to one mall and walked around some neat places, even though it was pretty hot. One thing I *had* to do was buy a new Hanayen abaya, to join (replace?) my 3-year-old abaya from them. The store clerks there are so nice and helpful and the abayas are perfect. (black on black!)

It’s extraordinarily hot here in Lahore during the day, (over 100 F / 38 C) and quite bearable but muggy at night. The city seems exactly the same as last time. Lively, interesting, a bit sad.

Today I (with some family) went to a local movie theatre here to see “Shutter” (English movie! with popcorn!) which was neat. My 6-year-old niece went with us and sat on my lap while I covered her eyes during the scary parts and tried to stop her from throwing popcorn on people . She whispered to me during the movie “Some people will think you’re my mom” hehe… She doesn’t know how funny that is. She also “tests” my Urdu… She’s softening my heart a bit toward children but still reinforcing my decision NOT to have any.

We also had ice cream at a very neat shop (pics coming soon). Nice to see all the Westernized youngsters hanging out, being cool in their jeans

This place is really … different bordering on strange. Last time I only caught glimpses of stuff and I reminded myself to pay closer attention this time, which may have been a bad idea. Within my first hour being here, I saw some pretty sad and heartbreaking things (I won’t go into details). The state of animal and human welfare here (and on this planet in general) is so poor and inexcusable. Seeing things like that out in the open just shocks me. I don’t understand it.

Visit the Flickr album for this trip, where I’ll add all my shots as time goes by when I can grab some internet time in between electricity outages.

Saara recently asked how I manage to stay vegetarian while in Pakistan. I find it’s quite easy! Thankfully, my husband’s family is very understanding and always makes sure there is some vegetarian dish available for us. I don’t budge on it and they don’t push. Maybe they are unusually accommodating for a Pakistani family (I have no other experience to draw from)? They just know I am vegetarian and there is no problem. Thank God for that… (It seems there is usually chanay or daal around, I hope all you veggie ladies married to Pakistanis don’t have too hard of a time :/)

More later…

I forgot to post anything for Earth Day, lots of people across the blogosphere have contributed great stuff.

My contribution will be a suggestion (plea?) for you to go vegetarian! It’s really tasty, environmentally-friendly and generally just a good thing to do.

See also:
Meat and the Environment
GoVeg.com
Environmental Effects of Meat Production
TreeHugger

I feel like a bit of a hypocrite, talking about Earth Day while planning a big international flight. My consistent reducing, reusing and recycling kind of falls away then.

EDIT: My dear commenters mentioned reducing meat consumption and buying locally-grown food, both of which are excellent things to do. I made up a little scale/list:

Less Meat = Good
Vegetarian = Great
Local Vegetarian = Better
Local Organic Vegetarian = Best
Your own organic, sustainable vegan garden = Glorious!

Doing your best is always best.

Oof… I stayed up way too long, ignoring my to-do list to make two new themes. It’s comforting to code… It takes my mind off of packing (bleh!) and worrying (meh!).

There’s a new ThemeSwitcher area on the sidebar to set your preference. I couldn’t make up my mind. Feedback is appreciated.

This new stuff wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the very fun and FREE compilation of “avant-pop” from adult swim and Ghostly International (whose site inspired the new themes): Ghostly Swim!

I have a new camera to take on my Pakistan trip, the Canon Powershot G9. I posted some test shots at Flickr recently. It’s a great little camera.

Hopefully, I’ll live long enough to write another blog and share more of my silly adventures. I love you, my dear readers!

Just uploaded a bunch of stuff to Flickr. I also added some VIDEOS. Flickr is afire with anti-video sentiment, but I think it’s a neat feature.

I’m going back to Pakistan in about two weeks. It’s been three years… eep!

It was good; could have been better; hopefully will be better next time. It’s good to meet other “Quranies” in the world and know what’s going on. Humans are always let-downs, though, which is sad. And I’m horribly anti-social. But anyway…

I had a little tiff about the food. For the Saturday dinner, there was no vegetarian food available (well, rice, but… come on, we paid for this stuff.) For a group of concerned and justice-minded folks to not serve at least a vegetarian option was upsetting to me. I made my disapproval known, of course.

Trips are always interesting for people-watchers like myself.

For instance, the mini-experiment at the “full trashcan” at the airport — 99.9% of the people who approached it and found it full simply placed their trash on top of it, instead of turning around where there was another can. Or any of the likely dozens in the area. Human nature annoys me…

Also, I saw a dude on the train carrying his little daughter on his shoulders as he exited. He looked like a total goofball and I knew what was going to happen. As soon as he came to the lower ceiling near the exit — bap — his daughter’s head smacks into the metal. It was only a scrape, she didn’t cry or anything but thankfully ducked down in time to miss the next ceiling, because the dumbass didn’t stop. Like the evil person I am, I laughed. I can’t believe what kind of doofuses have children. Ugh, what a shame.

Atlanta was quite nice (what little I saw from the train and the people.) It was nice to be in a place where my slight Southern accent is almost Northern.

My friend Farouk has a new post, “Do Muslims know the Quran well?” His whole blog is a must-read, this excerpt shows the kind of astute observations and reflections he always has:

Over the years, I have tried to acquire information about the Quran. I have asked about meanings of words, grammatical studies, the study of the Quran from various perspectives. The Muslims I speak to tend to focus on the history of the Prophet and find the Quran largely irrelevant to their own lives, because they consider the Quran to be the Prophet’s miracle (mujiza), as opposed to the source of his teachings. Therefore, to study the Quran to such a degree may be pointless to them. The Quran is also considered to be inaccessible, requiring 20 years of study before one can access its teachings.

I finally had a chance to catch up on Speaking of Faith today. The ones I heard today:

Reflections of a British Muslim Extremist
A New Voice for Islam
Whale Songs and Elephant Loves

They’re all EXCELLENT. Ingrid Mattson (from New Voice…) is admirable and gentle and lovely.

Katy Payne (from Whale Songs…) is an inspiration to me. She helped identify elephant infrasound communication because, according to her, “I never really grew up” … how beautiful! I don’t want to grow up either. This one reminded me of the SOF episode “Brother Thây: A Radio Pilgrimage with Thich Nhat Hanh“, where he speaks of mindfulness. Usually “growing up” means losing a lot of your wonder and awareness, we gradually work it out of ourselves to concentrate on other, more “important” things. Being mindful and aware can be very powerful.

She also talks about conservation and our responsibilities in the developed world for what’s happening in the developing world. It’s an absolutely magical podcast. I’m hoping to get her book from the library next week.