IN A WORLD CALLED PAKISTAN (3)

Hey guys!

And sorry for the late update. I kind of got sick again. So I was in bed for the last two days. Also, my computer stopped working for a day. But all is well now. 

1. Work is going okay. I've finished up seven folktales, and I'm planning to get three done today (for lost sick time). Sometimes it gets really frustrating trying to get the stories because the person I'm asking doesn't completely understand what I mean. When the interviewees aren't really into the questions, they give me vague answers or generalize everything in five words. It takes a lot of effort to weed out the good stories from the rotten ones. 

2. Travel is still a pain--the train rides are making me more and more claustrophobic

3. I went to a wedding the other day. Funny story, I went to a beauty parlor on the day of the wedding, and ran into the bride. She was literally caked with makeup-I'll have the picture of her posted in the photobook.

ALSO - so whenever someone says "let's go to the beauty parlor" or "let's go to a fancy restaurant", I always imagine those places in an American way. And then I go there and see that it's nothing like what I expected. So yeah. 

 The days are getting hotter, and it's getting harder and harder to believe that I'm leaving in two weeks. I really don't want to go. But time never falters. I've made so many friends here, and I've boned with family. It's an experience I don't want to stop experiencing. 

So this is a pretty short update.
k see you on my next post. 

SHAY MURID HANI

Salaam Y'all,

Over the pass two weeks, I've been working, busy like a bee trying to get some folktales. There are five main provinces of Pakistan that I have to collect folktales from: Punjab, Sindh, KP, Baluchistan, & Gilgit.

Recently I've been focusing on one particular region of Pakistan called Baluchistan that is extremely rich with a culture known little to even other parts of the country. Interviewing Balochi people is especially interesting, because I get to see and hear of their experience first hand and I get it all with a certain Balochi pride and enthusiasm. A lot of my interviewees have thanked me for looking into their culture, and some have even given me gifts. I feel blessed to have met and talked to them all, and I truly hope this project does their culture justice. 

I decided to put up a folktale from the Baluchistan region not only to show the beauty I feel from getting these stories, but also to give you an idea of how I'm collecting these stories and what my book may look like in the future. 

I have put together some background information of Baluchistan that you may find entertaining or interesting or unique (or boring). It'll help you understand and appreciate the folktale (which I'll have linked below) a little better when reading.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. The language, Balochi, is more similar to Persian than it is to Urdu. 

2. In marriage, where it's typical for the fiancees family to pay the man's family, in Baluchistan it is the other way around. This is because of the extremely high regard and respect for women in Baluchistan.

3. Also a little marriage fact: unlike other arts of Pakistan, where the woman is required to leave with the man right after the wedding, in Baluchistan, the women can wait up to however long (typically 3 days) before she decides to leave. 

4. Here are some cool myths from the region:

a. Adding rocks to cooking makes it taste better

b. When a kid plays with fire, he'll pee his pants at night

c. When sweeping the floor, don't come in front of the broom or otherwise you'll grow up a thief. 

5. A type of dance: the Balochi Chop

6. If you stay in a Balochi house, the owner would protect the guest even if his life depended on it.

7. There is the "Balochi word'; a sort of honor code. With this code, whatever a Balochi promises will be followed through.

So now,

without further ado:

SHAY MURID HANI

(Shay-moorrid Haani)

Photobook

UPDATE: YOUTUBE AND PANDORA DO NOT WORK IN PAKISTAN.

phew that's done

This post is about pictures. I already posted my official weekly report post, so if you'd like to read and comment on that, just scroll down a bit to my last post. 

I feel like I should upload some pictures on here, just to fully display Pakistan. So here's this short little photo book. For the full experience, I recommend going to YouTube (Oh how I miss you) and typing in 'La Noyee' by Yann Tiersen before you go through the photos. 

k

got the music

cool

Overhead of Dubai at night

Overhead of Pakistan at night 

This family lives in a one room mud house with no windows.
They own a chicken with chicks and a goat. 

These children come into my grandmother's farmhouse just to stand by the door.
They look at us from afar and all I can do is smile back at them
 and hope they're all doing fine. 

All the children from the village gather around my grandmother to get a share of the rice my aunt made for lunch.

Taken 4

There's just something about the alley ways here.
 Gutter-like things run on each side and motorcycles parked every which way
and doors that are always open for neighbors
 and literally anybody.

Look at how cool view is from the roof

And me.

More pictures next time!

IN A WORLD CALLED PAKISTAN (2)

Week 2 and
I've seen a lot of things
I've heard a lot of things
I've tasted a lot of things

So first I'll start with the nitty gritty workload. I have a lot of it. Everyday at 11, I go on a thirty minute drive that goes something like this:

That's right. I'm sitting on a motorcycle. Did you know that in Pakistan (and other countries like Pakistan, I'm sure), most of the women that sit behind the motorcycle driver actually sit side saddle format, like this:

It's super fun riding like this at 80mph. 

So getting to work is a charm. I'm not being sarcastic. It's literally so much fun. The roads are all jagged and bumpy that it feels like a Six-Flags roller-coaster.

But doing the work is a bit hectic. My adviser gathers two of his students every day, three or four times a week, both of whom come from different regions of Pakistan, and I am given the faculty room for a one-on-one. It takes about an hour for each interview, and usually I end up with usable and satisfactory information. I'll tell you the truth, it is extremely difficult to get exactly what you want from the interviewee. It gets tough to convey what you want answered, and how. The first day, all my interviews beat around the bush and never directly answered my question. I suppose it was on me to have asked better questions; but all is well now.

Then I got sick. Like horribly, badly, maliciously sick. And I still am now. It's an adjustment thing, ya know? America is a lot cleaner than Pakistan is, so my body was bound to succumb. But this adjustment sickness is really eating at me. Sometimes I can't move or even speak because every part of my body hurts so bad. I get a fluctuating fever and stomach aches and headaches and I really just want it to stop.

Oh I should let you know that I travel a lot (effective transition). The university I'm gathering my research in is in Lahore, and every weekend I travel either by train or one very dreadful, claustrophobic van to Narowal (where all my aunts and uncles and cousins live). So it's a constant trip every week.

I just want to stress the pain I felt yesterday. This is what four hours in a claustrophobic van looks like:

So anywho, I'm going back to bed because my stomach is beginning to hurt again. OH I forgot, I wrote my first short folktale story a few days ago!! I'm so excited because everything is starting to take shape (or at least, kind of).

Till next time

(PS, if the videos don't show, please let me know)

IN A WORLD CALLED PAKISTAN

From Pakistan (1)

This week, I’ve been travelling. For a good three days, I have been in and out of airplanes, trains, and cars, trying to get to my final destination: a small Punjabi town near the border of India called Narowal. Just so you know, I’ve gotten only five hours’ worth of sleep in these past three days, so you are allowed to imagine me as a red, droopy-eyed, sleep deprived maniac sitting in front of a laptop, internally banging her head over the crap internet connection.

Anyways, I’m here now. In Narowal, I mean. So let me explain a little bit of everything that’s going on:

       

     1. Mosquitos. I don’t think anyone has experienced the wrath of mosquitos more than I have today. Mind you, I sprayed my Mosquito repellent a good three times all over my body, I have repellent stuck on every electrical socket in my room, I am covered head to freaking toe in clothing…

                              …and I’m still getting bit.

      2. Roads. Imagine an ongoing road, and oncoming road, and a sidewalk all mixed together to form one road that isn’t even a road because it’s just dirt with rocks. Also, the driving here is a little more than atrocious. Seriously though, I have undergone what I call are “faux car showdowns”--when there’s a car coming towards us, and it almost feels as if we’re challenging each other to crash head on, but then an inch before the cars touch, both turn quickly and avoid a potential disaster.

      3. Dogs. So the CDC recommended rabies shots before travelling to Pakistan. Of course, before I came here I thought “Meh, rabies. I mean, how many rabid dogs can there really be over there?” (that was my reasoning to avoid paying $900)

32

I saw 32 rapid dogs on my way from Lahore (the city I landed in) to Narowal.

3freaking2

They were limping all over the place. I saw a few dead ones in towns I passed by and internally screamed. The funny thing was, nobody even noticed them. One particular dog that I saw had a mangled front leg. It was panting and limping and its distorted leg had these red warts on it. It was walking across the street we were driving on, and I don’t think one person, out of all the people walking around, noticed its presence.

This freaked me out to say the least. Every time I counted another dog, my heart fluttered in anguish a little more. I honestly did not expect to see wild dogs just walking around populated villages. 

I should have gotten those shots.

Ohmygod I can’t believe I saw 32

      4.  Dirt. It’s everywhere. Even the air has dirt in it. On top of that, it’s humid, so it feels like wet dirt is sticking to my skin constantly.

So here are some of the not’s so good things I faced (excluding the flimsy electricity that goes out every two hours; and the internet—that sucks too). But now that I have those off my chest, I want to mention all the good things I encountered.

      1.  The food. I always knew food was going to be a problem for me. It’s just too dang good. My aunts make killer kabobs and biryani and saalan. They have juicers to make delicious juices from the fresh fruit they get from the marketplaces. I’ll take pictures next time.

      2. The people. Every person I have met thus far has been so inhumanly kind and endearing that it kind of left me in awe. I had always been told that people in Pakistan were nice, but experiencing their generosity and affection first hand is quite another thing. Everyone is so connected to each other. All my cousins and aunts and uncles and neighbors, they have such a close relationship to each other.

Everyone is always laughing and smiling and joking around. The house is never quiet. The small kids play on the roofs of our little mud-brick houses, the ladies gather in the kitchen to make some chai and laugh and discipline the children, the men either help the women, or go out to their shops to gather some dough. It’s always busy, and I love it.

All my cousins gave me these flower bracelets as a welcoming gift.
They also threw rose petals at me when I first walked in through the door.

It’s worth everything to meet people like the ones I have been meeting.

Updates:

Collecting stories. I’ll be starting that this week.

Adviser- I’ll be meeting my adviser in Lahore (hopefully) this Monday. This Monday is actually a sort of Pakistan Independence Day, so all the kids will be out of school and there will be parties on the streets.

Video- I’ll be posting a video of this weeks adventures, hopefully by tomorrow. It really all depends whether or not the Wifi will be kind to me or not. It’s kind of difficult documenting everything, simply because people stare at me while I’m doing it, and also because things get so hectic that I can’t do it simultaneously. I am trying my best though. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading. Have a nice day! or night. it's night for me

so

SURVEY TIME

Hey guys!

I created a little survey for my project. I was wondering if you could help a gal out and answer some questions? There are only five and it'll take five minutes tops! Just comment below your answers (they don't have to be full sentences or long paragraphs or complex graphs or mathematical equations)

1.      1. QUICK What’s the first thing that comes into your head when you hear or read the word “Pakistan”?

2.      2. What do you know about the country Pakistan (facts, rumors, things you heard on the news, ect.)

3.      3. What do you know about the Pakistani culture?

4.      4. What is your opinion of Pakistan and its culture?

5.      5. Would you want to visit Pakistan? Why or why not?

1.      6. Do you know any stereotypes of the Pakistani culture? If so, please share.

Thanks for your time! I'll be posting a vlog later this week--omgso exciting!

Grandmama and Updates

 I thought I'd update you on mi grandmadre.

My grandmother from good ol' Pakistan was staying with us for ten days this February. Fortunately, that gave me the greatest opportunity to learn about and prepare for my trip some more.

Look at that adorable smile.

She's so cute!

My grandma is seriously the cutest person ever. She came into my room one night just to say that the WHOLE ENTIRE TOWN is backing me up on this project. That just comes to show how small this town really is, and how super kind the people are there. I mean, I haven't even gotten there yet and I'm already getting so much support. 

Oh did I tell you? My grandmother is a mother of ten children. 

Ten.

Which means I have nine (excluding my own mother) aunts and uncles. 

Which means I have a bazillion cousins just hangin' around. 

Shyeah I know. Anywho...

My grandmadre told me about this beauty parlor one her sons' wife has. I don't think I can explain to you the excitement I felt when I heard that. Also, she promised parties every single day when I'm there. 

Guys Guys Guys. I hope you're ready for desi parties. 

Because pictures will be bombarded. 

Now as much fun as she said Pakistan would be, she also stressed some key issues that no one can really overlook. I am mentioning them now because they are major factors that need to weighed into my project, and into this trip in general:

1. Things can get really dangerous there, especially for a female. Both my parents and my grandmother stressed how important it was for me to be with someone at all times. Because I find myself more American than Pakistani, I know it won't be hard for people to realize that I am out of the country. I mix my Urdu with English, I sometimes get an accent, and my apparent air emanates American-ness. I know that last bit sounds weird, but my grandma told me that people, from just looking at the way I move or stand, will know that I am not native to their region.

2. "We don't have all this pasta-shasta, enchilada stuff there." also "You don't have to be gluten free over there, right?"

3. So hey Charlotte. Electricity! ...It tends to go out in Pakistan 

(Help?)

4. No electricity means no air conditioning. Which sucks because Pakistan is just another form of Arizona. 

4. So apparently riots are a thing. 

5. Also, according to my grandmami, I'm extremely gullible and naive to a point of where I am unable to realize when someone (more specifically, a guy) is going to seduce me for my money. That talk happened...again. 

ANYWHO I am super excited because now there's only a week and half left. I'll be posting up the structure of my little anthology later this week, as well as updating you guys on all the cool travel gear I get. I'm also headed to LA this Monday to get my VISA. Fun stuff. We'll be driving all night just to get there on time in the morning. So next week will not be a spring break for me, unfortunately. Hope you can still tune in though!