Life in Pakistan

September 3, 2010

I’ve been trying to do itikaf (seclusion) for the last ten days of Ramadan. It’s a modified version. Basically I stay inside during the day and read Quran, make extra salat, etc. At night I go to the verandah or the roof to catch a breeze or two. It is exceedingly hot here. People warned me, but you don’t know until you experience it yourself. I am learning the real meaning of fasting this year by experiencing the heat and other limitations.

Asad has rented a beautiful home here. It has seven rooms, a verandah and a flat roof, which comes in very handy in this kind of weather. There is an abundance of marble in Pakistan, so all the floors and even the kitchen countertop are made of marble. So is the verandah, which has a nice pattern of tiles. Our kitchen came with a six burner gas stove. We purchased a used refrigerator and that allowed us to move out the military cantonment and into our home. There are ceiling fans in every room. We have not purchased an air conditioner due to the expense. With the doors open for circulation, the fans do a decent job, especially if you don’t move much! Of course, one can count on at least two power outages for load shifting and any number of other ones during the day or night. That’s when you really feel the heat. I expect I’m losing several pounds due to sweat. I put salt in my water at suhoor time to help prevent dehydration. I am much more interested in water than in food when I break my fast. We have fruit chat (salad) and pakoras most of the time. We may or may not eat dinner later. Sometimes we just save that for suhoor, which comes at about 3:15 AM. Prayer is at 4:15, so we are fasting from 4:15 to about 6:45, fourteen hours a day.

I’ve met a few people, Asad’s close friends and associates. Tahera is one of his nieces. She’s about 28 years old. She lives with us and is doing her itikaf here also. However, her itikaf is ten times more serious and structured than mine. She is basically sequestered in the room for ten days, reading Quran, doing her prayers and tasbih, dua, darud,(various types of devotion). She will finish the Quran several times this way. We leave her food at the door for iftar and suhoor. She will see or talk to nobody during this time, except Allah (SWT).

Tahera has been a God-send to me. She is the only other woman around, for one thing, and she has tried to make things easy for me. She purchased cloth to make me two silwar chamises,(Pakistani clothing) took my samples to the tailor and had the whole thing, including my Eid clothes done in a few days. She also provided bed sheets and bought a quilt when we didn’t have one.

Asad is Tahera’s guardian. Her father, a well known imam, passed away a few years ago. They had been very close and she was grief stricken. She had been married twice but both marriages ended badly, and she lost her only child and her sister as well. She has two brothers who are busy with lives of their own and have no room in their households
She had been working as a maid and living with her employer, but now she lives with us and takes care of the cooking, cleaning and laundry. Asad is trying to help her get an I.D. card, something essential in Pakistan to having any rights at all. However, many people, especially the poor, don’t have these cards. During Ramadan, the agency that prints the cards has been on strike because the government hasn’t paid them, so the cards of thousands of people are on hold. Once Tahera gets her card, she will probably get a job at the airport as a cleaner or a porter. That would be a big step up for her.

God was so kind to have blessed me with a fourth daughter here in Pakistan, same name and age as my Tahera back home!

This is a new home in an established village called Chatta Baktower. But the name is being changed to Park View town, probably to attract a certain crowd. It is a very nice location because it is not in the city, neither Rawalpindi, nor Islamabad, but is a suburb of both. There is a wonderful farm house behind us, where an extended family lives. Their buildings are painted a cheerful red and white checkerboard design. They have a beautiful green lawn and many thriving plants, including grove of orange trees. The other houses around are not as nice, kind of ramshackle. However, real estate developers are buying the land in this area and building wonderful homes for those who can afford them. Just one block over, on Greens Avenue, all the homes are new and elegant. They are owned by doctors and professors, as stated on the name plates. Many of these people have new cars as well.

One thing I like very much about these homes, and the one we are renting as well, is the gated entrances. Each home has a large gate that opens on to the driveway and a smaller one to walk through. These gates are made of metal and are beautifully designed with grillwork, flowers and other motifs. The gates and walls in front of the homes allow for privacy when sitting outside in the evenings. We do that almost every night, eating our meals, drinking tea and entertaining guests.

The flat roof is also a very nice feature. In August and early September, that was the coolest spot to be in the evening. It also affords a nice view of the village and the surrounding towns. On the horizon are the Margalla Hills. They enclose Islamabad to the northeast. The stars and moon, sitare and chand in Urdu are also more beautiful from the roof.

Life can be very comfortable in Pakistan for those with money. There is a great divide between rich and poor, with a slowly growing tiny middle class. Unemployment is very high and most people live hand to mouth, not knowing where their next meal is coming from. It takes 500 rupees to buy a few days’ food for one person, about $4.00.