More questions from the audience

Keep 'em coming!

How well do the people there speak English? Is everyone educated in our language? As I mentioned briefly in an earlier post, English comprehension is what defines the class divide here in Pakistan. I would say all (not most) educated people speak both English and Urdu fluently -- in many cases, better than your average American. I asked my cousin Eman yesterday which of those two languages he would consider primary, and he said that he's equally comfortable in both (this may be a bit of an anomaly since his parents lived in the US for quite sometime and his siblings are all citizens, but it gives you an idea). In fact, lots of people here speak a combination of both English and Urdu in daily life, combining words from both languages. Government business is often conducted in English -- in addition to its overall prevalence, this is probably a holdover from British colonial days.

However, it's another story when you go out and about and comingle with people of different social classes. The servants at my Dad's house have varying degrees of English comprehension -- some no more than a few words, and some with basic understanding. When I lived here with my mom and sister, I'd say that our house staff understood more English than average out of necessity. Yesterday, at Sunday Bazaar, most of the vendors knew some English words but we'd have been out of luck without Rafia Phoophoo. It's good to know Urdu if you're planning to make a life here.

The home that your Dad and his family currently live in...is that the home that you were in during your Karachi time? No, it's not. I lived in two different houses here, and we've driven past both of them during the trip. My Dad's house is the most modest one we've seen (he occupies the bottom half of a duplex), although Nick and I did take a tour of the place the Niazi family is moving to in early 2009, and that's on par with many of the nicer homes we've seen. We have a short film tour saved on our videocamera that we'll try to post from Dubai.

You mentioned you avoided veggies and fruits that were unpeeled. Why? Unusual bacteria and viruses for travellers? Or something worse, like typhoid and cholera? All of the above! I'm actually not sure about cholera, but I do know that my mother contracted typhoid from drinking unpurified water in carpet shops and had to spend ten days in the hospital as a result. Mostly, though, people were concerned about a lack of built-in immunity on our part leading to Montezuma's Revenge -- which can obviously translate into other things, like dehydration, etc. I don't want to get too graphic on the blog but let's just say that our experience with paan left both my husband and I with a taste of good ol' Montezuma. I blame the leaf the paan was wrapped in.

One of the things that Nick and I have marveled at on this trip is the amazing hospitality we've been shown, and the fact that it's even extended to our upset tummies! When we were both sick (a span of about two to two and a half days) we'd be visiting with relatives and the state of our stomachs was [seemingly] a point of national concern. Literally EVERYONE was asking "How are you feeling? What are you taking? How's your digestion?" It was hilarious (and yet also so nice). I can't imagine having a serious discussion back home in the US with family and/or close friends about the current state of my bathroom habits but hey, there you go.