Brad and Lily in Dubai-India-Pakistan: 07/26/15

I woke up at about 7 and padded downstairs. Sister Javed (I think I'm gonna call her Nosheen from now on) was asleep on the couch. I just sat quietly down there, and she woke up before long. We started with some breakfast that Nosheen had arranged. She got American stuff for us—a little box of corn flakes and something similar to cocoa puffs, and bread and fruit. It was reasonably good, though the milk here tastes weird. I felt a little guilty that she’d gone to such expense for this kind of food, and I asked her if she’d ever even eaten cereal before. She said yes, her missionary companions liked it. Had she ever eaten it in Pakistan? Nope. I know that kind of stuff is pricey here, and that the Javeds don’t have money for such things, so I asked her how much a box of corn flakes costs in Pakistan. She looked at me gently in a way that told me that was a rude question. I suppose it was. Little did I know just how much she and her family were going to be sacrificing for us during our Pakistan stay.

Today was our day to see Lahore. We had two cars. I rode with President Waleed, a member of the district presidency. He has a job and his own side business and a Corolla that’s eight or ten years old, which makes him a pretty rich guy here. We got a late start, and I could tell Nosheen was struggling with it. I perceived that she’s dependent on others for a couple reasons: first, she doesn’t have a lot of money (meaning no transportation), and second, she’s a woman (meaning she couldn’t travel alone if she wanted to). I can tell she’s been saving money for a long time for this trip, but she was still dependent on others to drive us around. One of those was her cousin Samran (the driver who had picked us up at the border in his little hatchback), and he wasn’t in any big hurry to do anything. The other was President Waleed, who’s a great guy but must have had other stuff going on. And we needed both to them to get started, so we waited. We didn’t leave the house until after 11.

Our first stop was shopping to find a Pakistani dress for Lily. Things started kinda crummy. Not only did we get a late start, but Pres. Waleed kept talking about bomb blasts and terrorists in Pakistan. Lily was very uncomfortable with that. Then we heard a big “chunk” behind the car. A motorcycle driver has been craning his neck at me, and he ran into our tire and tore a chunk out of it. Miraculously, he didn’t crash, but he did drive off as quickly as he could. We stopped to change the tire, but I think Lily still had thoughts of the terrorist talk. She and Nosheen sat on a bench and waited while the men (other than me—as the guest of honor I wasn’t allowed) changed the tire.

When we got to the shopping area, which was conveniently bedecked with a sign that said “Lily Luxury,” we shopped around and found some dresses that would work. At the first place we decided on a few we could live with, but the guy wouldn’t come down on his prices. Even though his signs said “Fixed Price,” Nosheen said that he was just being stubborn because we were foreigners. So she walked out and we followed her. We found another place where they had fancier dresses that Lily liked. The prices were higher so Nosheen helped us talk them down. On the final dress we were looking at, the price was 2,000 and Nosheen could get the guy to go to 1,700 but no lower, so I said in Urdu “my new friend, 1,500 rupees!” He was shocked and everyone laughed. He gave it to us for 1,500 rupees and I took a selfie with my new friend. That phrase “my new friend” is coming in pretty handy.

Then we were off to the Lahore Fort and the Badshahi Mosque. I have to say that they were pretty cool, but not as good as the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal. The fort was big and imposing and poorly maintained. The mosque and its courtyard were also really big. The mosque had been badly damaged decades before in war, and was restored by 1960, but frankly didn’t look like it had been very well taken care of since then.

Our hosts were annoyed because they rip off foreigners on the entrance fee. It’s 20 rupees for Pakistanis but 500 rupees for foreigners. The sign says the higher price was for “FORNAR.” There were a bunch of people crowded around the ticket window so I decided to go in Pakistani style. I pushed up to the front, shoved my money in the window, and said “DOH FORNAR” (two “fornars”). I got my tickets lickety split and the group (Lily excluded, of course) thought that was hilarious.

We were ogled nonstop at the Fort and pretty frequently at the mosque. People were really curious. We took a lot of selfies, agreed to pose for a lot of photos, and waved and smiled at a lot of people.

I mentioned President Waleed, who drove us around all day. He’s a really personable guy, and his boss had given him the day off so he could help us. So Nosheen said we ought to drop by and thank the boss. I said sure, why not. Turns out the boss is a really cool guy. We met with him for maybe five minutes. He had suggestions about where to eat and asked if we’d come to his house (a LOT of people ask that). He recommended Hardee’s over McDonald’s, where we’d told him we intended to eat lunch. And he let Lily pick a couple guavas off the tree there on the office grounds. This was my first introduction to the fact that it’s considered very helpful to a Pakistani’s career to have foreigner friends. Just for us to show our faces was a big deal for him.

We drove by several places in Lahore that President Waleed thought were worth seeing. We took a couple pictures at the polo grounds, drove by the big train station built by the English during colonial days, and looked quickly at a Christian College that had been occupied by radical Muslims before being returned to the Christian owners by the Pakistan courts. Truthfully, none of it was really much to look at.

For our late lunch we went to McDonald’s, where had told everyone that I’d spring for burgers. (Don't hate me, we ate Pakistani food the rest of the time.) We ate on the second floor, which the sign said was restricted to women and families only. Our table looked down onto a busy Lahore intersection. Spending $40 on hamburgers for seven people in Pakistan is a lot bigger deal than it is in America, and so we were in the high-rent district with a view. In the evening I spent some time chatting with the guys and just relaxing.