Dave’s Blog

When I pick up the strings they are in bags of 144 by color. I have a room in my home with large bags of each of the 11 colors in Regular strings set up. I then count out so I have assortments of 10, 25, 50, 110 and 1,000. Of course each of the smaller bags has an extra in for good measure and the 1,000’s have 10 extras.

Guess what I have been doing? Yep! Counting out strings. When I am traveling, of course, I can’t do it and when I have bookings I just seem to be to busy to do it. I have been filling the bags of each color and then doing the assortments. I then take these down to Lynna at the office for storage until they are sold. It is amazing how fast we go through a quantity of them.

The Long strings I keep in another room…a closet full ready to be assorted. The Neon strings are in my freezer in the garage. No the freezer does not work so it is good storage for them. Yes there are extra ones waiting to be sorted in the garage and in the room with the Longs.

Once in a while Goodwill Industries, Inc. get the Long and Regulars mixed up and that creates quite a problem. I have found that it is best to check each bag to see that it is what it is supposed to be. They really do a good job but do get mixed up sometimes.

I have to keep on top of what quantities of each color that I have. I will tell Goodwill to make more red or yellow or I may have to order more from the factory. They are shipped directly to Goodwill for them to process. I also have to keep track of bags, labels and cards to put in the bags. This is to say that all my free time is not free. I am working when it is not on the calendar.

Dave

I have realized that I am somewhat limited on what I see when I travel. When you have been to a few third world countries you start to get used to the things the way they are. I have lost the wonder of the experience. Let me see if I can recapture some of it.

I was in a village of 2,000 people. Everything that they owned not including their furniture and livestock could fit in my 4 bedroom home. I mean everything for the whole village. All 5 motorcycles, all 15 refrigerators, all 20 televisions, all their clothes…which usually included two changes…one for good and one for work. They could have stacked all their dishes in my kitchen and fit their one pair of shoes and one pair of flip-flops in any bedroom.

Almost every kitchen was out in a corner of the courtyard with a lean-to roof over it. A round piece of cement to hold a pan or sheet of metal for a griddle and a place to put in the straw or branches that they burned. It takes time just to collect branches to use to cook. No silverware except for a soup spoon.

I live alone and have for 30 years. They could not understand how I could do that. “Who cooks”. “Who does your laundry.” It takes a long time to do this when you don’t have a stove, microwave and washer.

There are a couple of corner shops that sell the very basics in soap, salt, rice and candy. Maybe candles and some spices but no fresh produce. That is bought from a wagon coming through town. Your milk is from your water buffalo or goats. Meat is bought fresh daily, if you have meat that day. Flat bread is cooked daily and breakfast is the leftovers from the evening meal.

I had more clothes in my suitcase than most of them had in their home. What does that say about the things still at my home? They had to buy a foam mattress and bedding when I came because they did not have any extra. How much extra bedding do you have in your house? Look at your towels and sheets.

My medicine chest and cupboard have more medicines than their clinic that is in the near town. They have soap and water and a tooth brush and tooth paste for health care. That is it. Maybe some rags to wrap up an infected toe. Did I tell you that the donkey and horse carts have a piece of burlap suspended underneath to put the animal waste in? Partly to save for fertilizer and partly because of the immense problem of tetanus infections.

I saw many children with lazy eye or crossed eye. That is a problem that is solved in the US when a child is very young with just a patch, or sometimes surgery. Not there. Sugar diabetes is a major problem there. Lack of medications and ways to keep track of the problem mean loss of limbs and paralysis. Simple heart problems that here are taken care of with a stint or bypass are life threatening. If you live through birth you have a life expectancy of 63 years. One of the brothers had a baby die after living only 10 hours. Who knows what a neo-natal ward could have done.

The village I was in had 700 children and no school. To send a child to school in the town costs $2 a month for tuition and more for uniforms and books and $16 a month for transportation on a rickshaw (motorcycle on the front and box on the back for people.) When the average family makes $200 a month you only have enough to send the brightest boys and hope that it is passed on.

The children are bright and eager to learn but many are busy taking care of the animals and running errands for the family. I saw lots of kids playing in the dusty pathways but no toys. The ones that I saw in Sunday School were very well kept and I wondered how they could look so neat in those dusty conditions.

The family unit is extremely strong there. The compound I was in had the two older parents, three sons and their wives and 6 children and a niece. Each family had one room for parents and children. There were two toilets, two wash stands, a kitchen and a washing area. Everything is at ground level and you squat for everything, even in the toilet.

I was able to get into many homes in the evening. At dusk the family had usually taken the bed, (4 legs with ropes for a mattress.) into the house and were sitting on their respective beds talking or getting ready to sleep. When I came they cleared off the two nice chairs or overstuffed couch and invited me to come in. I removed my shoes and sat in the seat of honor. Tea was usually offered along with some snack or tidbit to eat. They were so happy to have the American visit.

At every school I was given the seat of honor in the principal’s office and given tea or a soda to drink with some cookies that the English call biscuits. Everyone wanted to shake my hand. (I found myself washing them whenever I had a chance.).Two schools and a church had a rose lei for me to wear and threw rose petals…no small expense for them. I was so well received. I could not carry my jacket or backpack…someone was always there to do it.

I saw one other Westerner from the time I left the airport until I returned and that was a nun that had been there for many years. It was a very isolated area with things like they were for centuries…except for a few cars and motorcycles and lots of cell phones. Cell phones have opened up people’s ability to communicate. My driver was on the phone more than he was off it. People in a compound with the water buffalo and goats…and a cell phone.

I did not see I-Pods or the like. Except for in the car, I did not hear radios. I did hear the Muslim call to worship 5 times a day coming at me from a number of different directions. Things did not seem to stop for prayer as I have seen in some places. Most activity seemed to go on anyway.

My last two days there I saw a lot of activity with the goats. They were painted with a red die splashed on their sides and being taken to town. In each town on the way to the airport there was an area where the goats were being offered for sale. It was for the Day of Atonement and they would be sacrificed and the meat given to the poor. Since Pakistan is 96% Muslim and the 6th most populous country in the world, there were lots of goats. I don’t know if other things were also offered, but I did see lots of goats.

I also saw camel carts. Other places I have seen camels loaded with things or ridden but not pulling a cart like there. They were fewer than the many donkey and oxen pulling carts. I did see a couple of people pulling carts but that is not the norm. They tie the donkey colt next to its mother so it learns how to work. They have a joke that even a donkey can train its child.

Every household had a fire, many business had fires for the men to stand around, brick kilns were burning and many fields or trash heaps. This along with the dust and motor exhaust made for a lot of pollution. I had some problems breathing and had to use my inhaler. I guess my ancestors from not too long ago squatted over a fire to cook and breathed in all that smoke.

Safety standards are not what they are here. You don’t step on a manhole cover because it might give way. Steps are of different heights and floors are not necessarily level. You learn to walk loosely, ready for a different footing. At night in the village I did use a flashlight. I also kept it where I knew I could find it because the electricity went out every day for a short…or longer time and it was handy to have it nearby.

Well, that is just a few of my thoughts on life in another culture. Not bad, just different.

Dave

If you go to www.StringMinistries.org and open Ministry Outreach then open Pakistan you will find a very nice write up on my trip to Pakistan as seen from the eyes of Pastor Rauf Swan. There are also a few pictures. We will have more up later.

Thanks for reading.

Dave

The school made reservations for me to spend the night in McAlester and then went to Haileyville school today. It is a small rural school and I did string workshops with Nursery through 8th grades. We had a good time and all the kids are doing strings now. Lynne Benedict, the librarian and music teacher and more had everything ready for me to work in the library with the kids. It was teacher appreciation day so there were snacks to graze on all day. Not a rose petal reception but close.

Dave

It was a long trip home. With time changes and all I left Pakistan the equivilant of Sunday morning and just got home at 9:00 Monday evening. The longest flight was 16:50. I am very tired and after checking my e-mail and the snail mail I am going to bed.

Dave

The lights have been out all night and all morning.

Had a good time with the Sunday School children and then went in to the Worship Service. I gave a sermon on anger and from the faces of people they understood what I was saying. Thanks were given for my visit and I gave my good by’s.

I have just finished packing by flashlight and ambient light and was checking in on-line when the lights came on. We will have a meal together and about 5:00 will head to Lahore to finish us some things and get to the airport with plenty of time for my 3 am flight.

Dave

I started the day riding on the back of Rauf’s motorcycle. It seemed like motocross trail but was just a path around numerous fish ponds to there the town pump is. It is a diesel pump that is pumping water to the 2,000 residents of Christian Jinnah Colony. The project was started by Rauf and some of the funds came from America. He is very proud that all the people have good water right into their homes.

We went home and Usman came to drive for the rest of the day. Rauf and I went into Sorkot with him to look for a table cloth for me. We stopped in the market area and were accosted by a man wanting to honor me by polishing my shoes. He had a pair of sandals for me to wear while he did it. We tried some great candy being made at one vendor. Sugar paste is squeezed in long lines into hot oil and the outside crystallizes while the inside turns to honey. Very sweet.

Looked at some other shops and then walked down to a semi department store. A fabric wonderland of shawls, robes, fabric of all kinds by the yard and more. We were shown some beautiful things and I settled on one to take home as a souvenir. We then drove back to the house and got ready to go to a couple of villages.

Our first village was to the uncle of Rauf who is over 100 years old. He lived in a small village, Chak #307. The floor of his patio was plastered with a surface made of rice chaff, sand and buffalo dung. It seemed very serviceable. We visited and then went to the Government Primary Boys’ School. It was held in a field under some trees. A chalk board and chair for the teacher were all they had. The 125 boys were very excited to have this foreigner visit and we started drawing others around us. We had a good time with the mixed audience.

After we were finished we went back the Uncles’ house and they were setting up for a Sunday School time. Michael goes every week to this village to have a service. They sang and prayed then I did the lesson with strings. They were not as good at it as some of the groups have been. There are 5 families there and Sunday School is for the whole family. I did not see much difference between that and a church service. We then ate rice and chicken there and visited for a little longer.

We dropped by home, about 45 minutes away to pick up more strings and for a quick break and took off again in the other direction. We drove along the canal for a long time to a very rural village. It has been a village for a long time and a Christian village since before Pakistan became a country. I saw the first brick and wattle oven there. The patio there was also plastered, walls and floor with the rice husk, sand and dung mixture. We visited while they were gathering people for a service. Michael also serves there but on Friday, so this was a special event.

The electricity went out and it was dark outside. One small kerosene lantern lit the area. Well, no string teaching under those conditions so we went to plan B. I gave a sermon that I had been working on but not finished. Didn’t have any of the notes for it so I just went with it. Had a good feeling about it. Many people wanted prayers after the service and as we were doing that, the lights came on. So we did some strings with them. They were very good with them.

On the drive home we stopped in Sorkot at an outdoor restaurant and had chicken on a spit and shish-kabobs. The food was very good and a nice change from my normal diet here. It is now 10:15 and I am writing the blog. Tomorrow is my last day here.

Dave

I started the day at about 2 in the morning when Michael knocked on my door and needed the phone. There was some commotion in the compound and I went out to find out that his wife, Shakeele had started labor. They took her to the hospital to have the baby and brought her back later in the day. A beautiful baby girl. Their second girl. Mother and baby are fine.

Drove into Toba Tek Singh through the construction in the morning and picked up Rauf at a corner of the highway in town and then drove about one hour to Primahal City. We went through twists and turns and dusty alleys to a very nice home. Location does not seem to be the most important thing here. It was the home of Usman’s brother. We had tea and cookies and waited for a while. At some point someone got a call on their cell and it was time to go.

They had told me to wear my suit and tie. We drove up to a large tent made of very large sheets of cloth that looked like Persian rugs. They ushered me to the entrance and it was another rose petal entrance. Rose Leis were placed on my neck and we were ushered to three seats facing the front. In front was a large banner saying “Welcome to our special guests” to Parents Day from the Primahal Education Society and Quad-e-Azam Public School. Behind us were chairs set up with a divider, one side chairs for men and one side for women. To the side were small chairs for about 75 children.

The district mayor came in and also got a rose lei and sat with us. Then the program began. Singing, poetry recital, readings and a couple of skits were put on by the children. If you have ever been through elementary school, you know exactly what it was like. Then I was ask to speak. I gave thanks to everyone by category and brought greetings from the US. Rauf had said that they especially ask for the Lazy Jack story. I told the story and we had a lot of fun with it.

We gave out strings to everyone and gave a little talk on the importance of reading and math but also the importance of art and music. Everyone likes to create and dream. The answers to tomorrows problems will come from the dreams of today’s kids. Then we started with the strings. Some simple things because the kids were primary age. They were also simple things so that they could be seen in the back and made by everyone. It is so much fun to see a grown man or woman in the back standing up to show me that they could do it. This went on for about 45 minutes and then came the awards and gifts. I presented some of the awards and there was picture taking at each one.

They gave me a nice picture to remember Pakistan and many praises. We broke up and the dignitaries went into the school next door for refreshments. Some really good things. I had some sweet pastry balls that are cooked in sugar or honey water from India. Very good. Then back to the hall for more pictures, hand shaking and autographs. I hope everyone is taking note of how I am to be treated when I come to visit. Oh well, it only happens once and a while. Out to the car for the ride home. We took a shortcut and it only took 45 minutes total to get home.

It is about 2 in the afternoon and I understand there is more work to do.

Just returned from the second part of the day. Rehman ask if I would like to go to a small gathering of people. I always jump at a new experience. He then ask if I would speak a few words, just 5 or 10 minutes. When I ask what about he suggested gratitude. When we arrived at a home in Sorkot there were about 65 people seated in the patio on woven rugs that had been placed over the bricks and dirt. There were the traditional chairs for Rehman and I. We sat down and they were in the middle of a praise service with singing and prayer.

This was one family being thankful for all they have and wanting to share it with their church friends. I gave a talk on Acceptance and gratitude and ended with the serenity prayer. A couple more songs and a prayer then they started to get the food out. They had rented plates as well as rugs. Ramon and I were taken in the house with the host to eat there. They had a very colorful sweet rice dish and a good fried rice type of dish. I took seconds on the sweet dish.

After a while we walked down the alley/street to another house. There were 5 girls and 2 boys who just wanted to have me visit. Walking down there a number of kids were following and yelling in a friendly way. Rehman said I was the first white man they had ever seen so they were excited. The family was just as excited to have me visit. Tea and cookies and questions about America. Many of them were hard to answer.

After a while we walked down to the first house and waited for Usman to bring the car. He was washing it and would be there in 5 minutes. Back home the electricity was out and they connected the computer to the car battery affair so I could write the blog. The electricity came on so I was able to come to my room to finish.

What a good day. One to be grateful about.

Started the day with the car being late. When I got in to go to Sorkot, Usman was driving very slow and carefully. Something was wrong. When he hit the brakes the car bounced along and screeched to a stop. We were not to far away from the house so he phoned and they came and got me with the motorcycle and he took it to town to get it looked at. After a while he called and said it was brake disks and so Rauf drove me to town on the motorcycle.

We arrived in Sorkot at the Inam Public High School. It was an upper school and our first group was about 125 young adults. What fun to catch them off guard with a couple of tricks. They were hooked. We were off and running with figures flying. A couple of students showed me they knew some things already. Cousins taught them from another school. After about one hour we changed groups…well tried to. The older ones did not want to go.

We got the middle school kids up to the roof where we were meeting and started with them. Some of the older ones filtered back in. It kept getting more and more crowded but no one seemed to mind. Do I count the 125 middle school kids as 125 and the older ones again? Anyway, it was a very busy morning. We rode the motorcycle back to the house and a little later Usman came with the car.

Rauf and I got in the car and we were off again, who knows where. It is easier on me to just sit back and enjoy the scenery and wait to see what happens. We drove about 2 hours through Shorkot City to the Chanaab river. There is a very large dam there for flood control and to control the irrigation canals. Rauf had been talking about taking me to eat fish. This was it. He had not been here since he was in 10th grade.

There were a number of fish stands along the river. You just picked out your fish and they cleaned it and cooked it there while you waited. We had fish and bread. They brought a sauce of yogurt spices with some other things in it. I was afraid it might not settle so I did use any. It was good and bony and dipped in Pakistani spices. Quite a treat for those who come from the desert region with only irrigation canals for water.

They raise a lot of sugar cane around there and the trucks, oxcarts, buffalo carts, tractors, donkey carts, camel carts and bikes were all carrying cane to be loaded on the big wagons to take to the sugar mill. It is amazing how much they can load on. Wide load takes on a whole new meaning. Got a picture of a tractor trying to pull one wagon full. It kept going onto its two back wheels and standing up. I have a picture of me in front of it while it is standing up. Probably not too smart of me. The other day we saw a tractor with one rear wheel off and hung on the other side for balance going down the road on one rear wheel and two little front wheels to get the other tire fixed.

Have I told you that most of the men here wear light weight cotton trousers or long wrap arounds with shirts that come to their knees to match. Some wear western clothing and in the schools the boys usually wear shirt and tie with trousers and jacket or sweater. The girls all wear cotton or silk trousers or skirts and long dresses over them with a long scarf over the front and over the head. I have seen one white woman here and no western clothes for women at all. None, not one. Well, there are a few sweaters but the scarf is usually worn also.

Well, back home and the electricity is off. I will do some quiet meditation until the computer is ready for me to write. Glad it has a good battery.

Dave

Usman and the car came to pick me up about 8:45. He had a friend with him. We drove through Sorkot and he was on the phone. A mile out of town or so he started to pass a bus and slowed down then pulled in front of it and stopped. It stopped and someone got off and got in with us. We pick up people at the stangest places. We took them with us and dropped one off in town before we went to a little shop where Rauf was waiting. Then off to the school.

Have I told you that we have added construction this week to our daily treck? Stone is dropped in piles by trucks and it seems that most of the rest of the work is done by hand. Women are squatting and placing the stones, one by one, on the surface. There are men with hammers breaking up the stone. A truck spreads tar but men carry baskets of fine stone on their heads to spread over the tar. All this is going on while the regular traffic is in the other lane.

I worked the morning with the pre-school and primary children. 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds. 300 of them in all. When I say I worked, I worked. There were 2 children in the first two groups that were crying because they had not seen a white man and I frightened them so they were removed. A few others were very shy but they overcame that when we started working.

They all know Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the Eensy, Wensy Spider. I did a diamond star and also did the spider for that story. We did some gross motor skills of each making a circle on the floor and stepping in, out, on, off, etc. They enjoyed that a lot.

All the while I was carrying on a conversation with the teachers. They were going to keep the strings as a class set in their rooms. I was showing them things they could do back in the room. I tried to do different things in each group so the teachers could share with each other. I gave a pretty good inservice workshops for the teachers simotaniously with working with the kids.

We did the Jumping Flea, Sewing Machine, Drum, and scissors with some of the teachers and also with the oldest class. They will be teahcing the others. We also did a giant star and some giant letters as cooperative exercises.

After noon i worked with a group of 180 7th and 8th graders at one time. It was really hard for them to be quiet. They had already learned some things from younger siblings and were really pumped. We had a rousing time. They wanted more and more and did not want to leave when school was over. Sister Miriam, the principal, was very pleased with what we had done and gave me another gift of money for the trip.

We went to Rauf’s home for a chicken dinner. Fried chicken, a little different than I do mine, rice with chicken and curried chicken and some home made yougert. After I had eaten some, Rauf saw and suggested that I not eat more. It was not pasturized. That’s ok because some of the other that I have had is not either. Neither is any of the milk that is in my tea and coffee.

Dave