the Adventures of *AND*

Salam everyone! Yesterday, the family that we're staying with and I visited a Ghown (small village) close to Shiekhupurah - about a 3 hour drive from Lahore. It was quite interesting. The village was very small - only about 30-50 families living there. The roads were only made of dirt and - get this - bull manure. There were almost no cars, and people drove in thongas (horse-drawn carriages). Cows and donkeys were everywher, so you can guess what it smelled like. Also, most of the houses were on farm land so we were able to tour the vegetable crops. It was great fun. I posted some pictures; enjoy!
- Naiema

Water pump and Lotas 

Masjid 

Pakistan - where you can grow marijuana in your own back yard! 

Railway Station/Ticket counter 

Railroad tracks leading to Sheikupurah (the nearest city) 

A vegetable man's sleeping quarter 

A Tohnga - horse-drawn cart 

Greetings beloved blog readers! We haven't been able to update the blog for one reason and one reason only: we are in Dera. Enough said. Hopefully, within the upcoming five years the unfortunate Derawalis will be introduced to the twenthieth-century innovation known as cable speed internet! No, actually Dera isn't THAT bad...

So, as I've said we're in Dera right now and we are having a blast. Eid just finished and now we are in the midst of wedding perparations for our dear cousin Sunni. At the moment I am sitting on a sofa (writing this in a spare notebook so I can transfer this work onto the online blog when I get teh chance... which could take days, so this information will be pretty old once it's published [editor's note: it's true, I am typing this up exactly 6 days it happened]). I am sitting between Saad and Daniah. Daniah is making some contraption with a peice of paper, and Naiema and Rabia are devising some evil plan to... I don't even know anymore, they're always upto no good. Yesterday they wanted to perform a dance/skit at Sunni's mehndi but that fell through because the music part was too controversial for some people. Rehma is terrorizing Ahmad (as usual) and my dad, Sunni's dad, and Mubashir are watching the news. Uncle Siptu has fallen asleep on the armchair... I wonder which boring thoughts moved him into such slumber. It's so much fun here at Uncle Siptu's house! There are always people going in and out-- Oh my God! Rabia is playing with Uncle Siptu's glasses as he's sleeping! She is SOO funny. She's a real joker. But she's really smart and insighful when she wants to be, too. Here are some tiny bio's on my cousins (let's see if I can get through all of them):
Rabia (aka Rabi): a joker and really fun to be around.
Humera Sana (aka Sunni): really sweet and quiet.
Samra: very congenial and sweet as well. Is a total girly girl.. loves make up and dressing up.
Saad: very nice and freindly. He's always willing to help out, so he's a real sweetheart.
Mubashir: pretty funny guy. He sings a lot. He's aspiring to be a contestant on "Wannabes," the Paki version of "American Idol."
Mudasir: very laid back and chill. He's from LAHORE (Read: La Whore. hehehehe), the POSH city, so he's really, uh, "cultured."
Talha: pretty cool kid. he's really smart and openminded, so he's a great conversationalist.
Maaz: He's really cool and very mature for his age.
Hamna: Hamna is... Hamna. Lol. She's really crazy.
Honey: She's a mom now, so she's got her hands full. She's nice. Her kid, Sameer is really cute.
Shaheer: he's really funny and cute. When gets a bit older, he'll make the girls swoon with his good looks and charisma.
Anas: no comment.
Amar: he's got one of those motorcyles you'd see on that show "Pimp My Ride."
Hamza: cool kid. He's my pal, he teaches me Seraiki.
Lutfulla: he's not a cousin, he's the neighbor across the... gali! (get it? gali means street in Seraiki!). He's a nice kid.

All this writing has made me tired! I hate writing with pencils because the led keeps getting shorter and shorter... grr...

Auntie Sohaila is in Dera right now, so that's fun. It was so amazing to see Taha and Hussain's faces right when they got here. They seemed so tired and bewilderd. They had this look that said, "Where the hell are we?!" All they could do was gaze around speechlessly. It was interesting to see them go through this culture shock because that was us two years ago!

Dera's even worse than before, I don't know why. Perhaps because, when we came in 2002, Dera was all we saw of Pakistan and assumed the whole country was like Dera... dirty and ghetto. But coming from Lahore, where they do have some infrastructural (sp?) order and a functioning sweage system, I can see the depth of how awful Dera really is. This is not to say that Dera does not have its good aspects, either! What I love most about this place, and all of Pakistan for that matter, is how loving and compassionate the people are here. They make Americans seem like selfish, impersonal snobs. Everyone is willing to give help when it's needed. It really gives you a good feeling.

OK, I gotta go now. Will keep y'all posted. Hope your Eid, Thanksgiving, and Christmases go well.

Love,
Alina

wow, it is 1:00 AM here and I am not even tired... just felt like posting something in this blog to show you all that we're still alive. :)
Naiema

Driving here is crazy! It's suicidal! Oh, by the way, this is Daniah. Drivers here are just evil. They don't care about the safety of others, sometimes even themselves, as long as they get to their destination as fast as possible. Going at 50 mph here is normal. And the policemen are worse! They just strut around in their oh so fancy uniforms, not saying anything when there are 10 people crammed into one car. I literally saw a baby sitting in the lap of the driver cuz there wasn't enough room for anybody else to hold her. And so many people are honking their horns, you don't even know who is honking and why. But the worst is when people drive and park right into the parking space you are about to park into. For once I am glad I don't have a liscence, cuz this way I have a reason not to drive. (but then again, no one would stop me from driving if I drove without one)

Naiema's getting married! No, she was just trying on a wedding dress.

Ahmed, he looks kind of funny, but so cute!  

I'm in shock. I have lost almost all faith in the American people. 4-more-years...
-Naiema

Man! I cannot belive how close the presidential election is in America - just like the last one! Even here in Pakistan people are talking about it. It's all over the news. We went to buy shaadi (wedding) clothes yesterday from a small store in the market place, and the store clerk was asking us who we were favoring! Crazy! I guess it is true that this is the "world's election." But, either way, the US Foreign policy will stay the same. Like Arandhati Roy said, "If George Bush wins, the Bush agenda will stay in office, and if John Kerry wins, the Bush agenda willl stay in office." And as everyone says here, "duno Musalmaan ke dushman hein." I guess I just want Kerry to win to see Bush lose - haahaa.
Well enough about my political beliefs and the election, ya'll are probably hearing enough about it back home, let's see what else is new...
Day before yesterday we went to McDonalds, it's just like back home. It was the first time I tasted a Big Mac, and I can't believe how gross it is! How could people eat something so fatty, proccessed, and unhealthy? It's not even meat! Oh, and also, they have KFC here, and a bunch of other similiar resteraunts; such as MFC (Makkah Fried Chicken), JFC (Juicy Fried Chicken), and of course PFC (Pak Fried Chicken). Haahaa. We went to MFC; it was just like KFC back home. Wow, all this talk about food is making me hungry... one hour till iftaar here....
We're going out for Chinese today, lets see how Chinese it really is - I've heard they put masaala in their Chinese food. Gotta go get ready, until then, salam! :)
Naiema Din