Things I'll miss and the question of the hour

Hey hey, its my last day in Peshawar and I'm sad!!
This is Waqar and I. He's the HR manager and my office mate. In the morning I come in and we get tea and toast at our desks, and he sends people out for peaches and apricots for me (even though you are not supposed to eat fruit with tea, or even until after lunch.) He's the best. Getting married to his cousin, as many Pakistani's do. His english is great, as are his personality and sense of humor.

I will also miss the sweets shops, like this one. I love to go in and get a sampling of the local deserts and pastries. I have to say that after an admittedly non-representative sampling of sweet shops, Pakistan does not rank high on my list of places with delicious desserts. Baghdad beats it by a mile, mainly because they had some nice Turkish-influenced sweets. Amanda and I used to drop into those shops in B-dad all the time, banking on the unfailing hospitality in order to get free tastings of whatever we ooh'ed and aah'ed at. Some places even let us go in back and see the sweets on the conveyor belts. Far from hygienic, I know, but maybe some people enjoyed finding long blond hairs in their candies....

I'll also miss the bicycles everywhere and the entertaining juxtapostions they support--fat men on small bikes, old men on new bikes, little kids on large bikes, and small groups trying to get places on broken bikes. Oh, and have I mentioned the trucks? Incredible detailed artwork and painting on them. You can kind of see it on that lovely red truck. The busses are fun too--always colorful with flags and garlands flying from them, and horns that blare obnoxious melodies.

Fruit stands and nut stalls I've mentioned are up there on my list. Plant nurseries are also fun to drop in on, as sort of a micro-cosm of a culture. You can see what the local plants and fruit trees are, what plants/trees they import and from where, what's considered exotic, etc. Plus, no matter how unsafe the country is, there's something soothing and reassuring that you can usually find a beautiful green respite place with people who care about potted plants and flowers.

What else? Just checking out people hanging out and doing their own thing--like these kids by the road side a few hours outside of Peshawar.

Its kind of a bummer that, because of security, I can't just hang out places like in markets or puruse shops and stalls. There is always so much going on. But, lots of sectarian violence in Pakistan these days, don't know if you've read about it. Going into Malakand with a truckload of armed policemen sent to "protect" me, a guy asked me, "Are you Sunni or Shia?" I think he meant which one to I side with, just to know. So, I said, "Neither, I'm Christian." He said, "Ok, but are you Sunni Christian or Shia Christian?" Brilliant. He wins. I was stumped.
I gotta go eat lunch and meet with some staff before I head out for Islamabad. I don't want to go!!!
But, I do look forward to seeing everyone again. 7 weeks is a long time to go without seeing any of you guys.
Besos, talk to you soon.