Pakistan - April 11-15, 2006
I wish I had more and better pictures of Pakistan. We had an amazing visit there. We were very well cared for and met so many wonderful people. Unfortunately we landed in Karachi 3 hours after a bomb exploded in a mosque there. We didn't know about that until we heard about it from family through e-mail the next day. We flew to Quetta the next morning. Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, the largest province in Pakistan. I stayed with Jim during his visit to the University and never got to walk around the town, though we did visit it by car later. So these pictures are mostly taken in our hotel and at the university.
The Serena hotel was a wonderful 5-star hotel, probably the nicest we stayed in on the trip. This is the courtyard..
...the circular driveway...
We saw many, many busses in Karachi; all decorated like this. I'm not really sure what this truck is doing here. It is on a road on the Campus of the university (BUITMS). Maybe it was used to transport workers to the site. There was a lot of construction going on here. I believe the truck is privately owned and the owner has chosen to decorate it.
Here's a blow-up of the front.
This is a session of a scientific meeting that was going on this week.
The chancellor talking with some women during a poster session. I was in awe of all the beautiful clothes the women wore. I asked about the headdress and was told it was a matter of personal choice. These women are faculty and graduate students from this university and others. Some were here for the meeting.
Lunch. We enjoyed the Pakistani food. Some of it was quite spicy.
After lunch we were given a tour of the facilities. Dust particles, here got picked up by the flash. The university is converting an old textile facility into a modern university. You see one section completed, here and some more still under construction. The transformation was amazing.
They planned to have this building completed and ready to use for graduation exercises on April 28, 2006. I told them to send me pictures.
We were invited to dinner with "a few friends." I guess in Pakistan 27 is "a few." There were 27 men and I. It was a delicious dinner, in a private room in the hotel. Pakistan is a "dry" country. We were served water and fresh-squeezed juices.
Before we left, they took us to see this park. The area reminded me of Nevada.
There is a lake in the park with a small island in the middle.
These were two of our hosts here. The embroidered shawl I'm wearing was a gift from the chancellor. I had already packed my suitcase, so I decided to wear it. I was glad I did because it was quite cool here near the lake.
This was our driver for the three days we were here.
We spent about 24 hours in Karachi after leaving Quetta. This is the courtyard of the guest house where we stayed. The dining hall is across the court on the second level where the large windows are. We had 3 meals here-all very good.
This is a pretty section of Karachi University.
This man and his wife were kind enough to invite us into their home for a drink and to show us around the University here.
This little girl and her family sat across from us in the airport, waiting for our flight to Dubai. The girl behind her (sister? aunt?) kept encouraging her to come talk to me. She was shy, but finally came over to see her picture in my camera.
