Utility Prices on the Up and Up
Yikes! I just got my gas and water bills and was shocked at how much prices have gone up in the last year. In the 2007-2008 academic year, our gas bill was always around 300 rupees a month. At the time, that was equal to $5. Our water bill was about the same price.
We don’t use gas heaters so our usage of gas and water doesn’t really change much through the seasons. The gas bill for February 2009 is 1175 rupees ($14) and the water bill is 650 rupees ($8). In local currency, the water bill has doubled and the gas bill has almost quadrupled. Electricity prices have also been raised significantly in the past year. Our weekly food budget has just about doubled with the price of foodstuffs going up and the rupee losing value.
If you’re reading from the US, you may think these prices are low. The cost of living in Pakistan is low compared to many other countries, but the pay scales are a lot lower as well.
Women’s Book Club Starting in Lahore
For any ladies in Lahore, I’ve just heard about a book club starting up on Saturdays.
The book club will be run by an American friend of mine living in Cantonment. She loves to read and is looking forward to meeting some other ladies in Lahore who like to read.
The group will meet Saturdays in the afternoon or early evening, depending on when members are available. If you’re interested to practice your English and meet some new friends, contact billboardsam@gmail.com.
The Maid’s New Trick
My maid pretends to be ignorant of many things, but she’s quite smart when it comes to shirking her duties! Today I wondered how she got done with her work so fast. I was busy with work so I just let her go and didn’t check to see if she’d done everything she was supposed to. Just a few minutes later, I went outside to check on the clothes, and I realized that the majority of the clothes hanging on the line were completely dry. She left them up so that she didn’t have to wash that many clothes, due to lack of space of course. In doing so, she successfully avoiding all the ironing and putting away the clothes. She must really dislike washing clothes, because one of her other favorite tricks is to leave soaking wet clothes on the line so that they don’t dry for two or three days. Because they take so long to dry, she claims she can’t wash the other clothes because there’s no space. Leaving dry clothes to fill the space is a new technique.
Here’s a pic of our maid, although her eyes are closed cause she was staring into the sun and a bit confused about how the camera worked. It makes her look blind in the picture, which my husband sometimes thinks is true when he sees how she washes dishes and cleans, but she’s not. I couldn’t get a bigger picture because she was a bit embarrassed to have it taken. It’s too bad, because even though she drives me crazy she does have a friendly smile!
Why do I have so many posts about the maid? Most Pakistani ladies spend hours complaining about their domestic help. I guess I need to vent somehow!
Wonder What Bride Price He Paid…
What was Mr. Taylor doing in Waziristan? His story is that he had four wives, and that they all died, so he was on his way to Wana to marry a tribal woman. At least, this is what he shared with the local police at Tank station.
Quite honestly, that story strikes me as a bit odd, but it would be ever stranger if he made up a story like that as a cover. It’s not like foreigners marry tribal women on the Afghan border every day, and I’ve never met another foreigner who converted to Islam and had four wives to prove it. This way of living used to be quite popular in the days of the British Raj, but foreign men and their harems were based mainly in cities in the Punjab, not remote areas like Waziristan. With the rise of evangelical Christian missions in the subcontinent and the end of the Mughal reign, these culturally assimilated men became hard to find. Besides that, for a foreigner, traveling or living in Waziristan nowadays stops just short of suicidal.
Continue reading article here:
New Zealand Man Arrested in South Waziristan is Suspected of Links to Al-Qaeda
Simplicity of Village Life
Customs at Karachi Port – A 5 Day Process!
Guest Free
After three weeks of not sleeping properly due to this drama, we’re ready for a break. It seems we’ve been running on empty since before I went to Bangkok. May there be a miracle at the port so that van can get sea borne, Sergio can get air borne, and we can all rest in peace!
The City Folk Go to the Village
What NOT to Drive in Pakistan
The only place you have a chance of selling it is where you can sell it ilegally without customs duties, such as in the Northern Areas or to some tribesmen who are a law unto themselves. If you meet them, they’d be more likely to relieve you of your vehicle, and possibly your life, without giving you any money.
Please, if you are considering driving across Pakistan, now is not the time. Quetta and its environs are not safe for independent travelers. Even well-traveled Pakistanis are avoiding going there nowadays. If you do need to drive through Pakistan, choose a less conspicuous and more practical vehicle.
Guess What This Boy Was Doing…
Any guesses why a pink-shirted boy with an electric rotary saw was doing at our house? It certainly wasn’t a fashion shoot, although you might wonder with the choice of clothing and shades.
Well, first he plugged the saw into the socket in the typical Pakistani fashion as shown above. You must picture that this extension cord is sitting on wet ground that he maid has just hosed down. Then he proceeded to cut the giant metal tool box off of Sergio, the stranded Italian’s, camper van so that the van could be loaded into a Bedford carrier truck. Sergio’s van broken down three weeks ago on the way over the border from Attari to Lahore, and he’s been stuck since trying to figure out how to get back. The truck was fixed, but when he started to really think about driving from Quetta to Iran and talking to the local authorities about it he realized it would be akin to a suicide wish. Balochi separatists and Tabelban back from Afghanistan are ruling the roads these days, and just two days ago an American UN worker was kidnapped in Quetta. A very white Italian man in a camper van coming down the road is like saying, “Here I am! Kidnap me for some ransom!” It’s much safer to go by public transport in Balochistan these days than by private transport where you’re alone and more vulnerable. Anyway, there goes the tool box. Now, they’re trying to load his van on a Bedford carrier that will drive it to the port in Karachi. Bedfords are slow moving, so it will take about three days to reach there.
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