Today starts with our second Pakistan lab install, fourth overall this trip. Aside from the video drivers not working on their preexisting machines that we upgrade and the sound cards not working on all but one of the computers we bring, it goes flawlessly after a minor power outage. The teachers seem really pumped for the lab, so it’ll hopefully be used lots.
Dr. Gangulee has a debate with the principal that I’ve got mixed feelings about. From what I overheard, it was a good idea to challenge the principal’s beliefs about the importance of Islamic education and the state of the “Muslim world,” but both walked a fine line between challenging and offending. Whatever: ideological clashes won’t keep them from using the computer lab.
After wrapping up the last install, Amna’s family takes us to the “farm house” her dad just had built. Complete with a huge yard, tons of plants, and a stream bed, it’s nicer than most houses I’ve been to in the U.S. I “learn” cricket, or at least Amna’s little brother tries to teach me and pretends I’m catching on. Dinner’s biryani and some other tasty, spicy Indian food I can’t name but nonetheless gorge myself upon.
Back at Amna’s main house, I help Sameer practice the tradition of “trashing” people on their birthday. He gets her with the hose, but my handoff of the flower goes awry: Amna grabs it and Sameer ends up substantially messier than her.
Leaving Amna’s, her family gives Sameer and I each a shalarkamy (I’ll bet you that’s not spelled even nearly correctly), a traditional Indian outfit with huge-ass pants and a long top, for putting up with staying in their beautiful house. We give a Penn engineering pocket clock in return for all their hostpitality, making it not exactly an even exchange. After more than 2 enjoyable weeks with them, Sameer and I say goodbye to Amna and Dr. Gangulee. I’ll miss them; I had a fun, sometimes hardworking time.
The bus we take to Islamabad, on the other hand, I will most definitely not miss. Not that there was anything wrong with the Daewoo Express per se: it even had a hostess and air conditioning. It’s just that I wasn’t wise enough to realize that eating a ton of some food I’ve never tried before a few hours prior to taking a 5-hour bus trip might not be the best of ideas. In fact, I should have realized that it just might make my gastrointestinal system so screwy that I beg the hostess into having the bus pulled over so I can use a hole in the ground of a toilet. Not that that fixes my stomach: it’s feeling a bad kind of wacky all the way to Sameer’s uncle’s in Islamabad. Laying in bed, trying to fall asleep as my stomach fights itself, I feel suddenly ready to be somewhere where I can drink the tap water:)