Pakistani TV

There are three 24-7 cricket channels. I don't understand all the rules, but I'm getting a taste for the game. I think of it as baseball if Charlie Sheen replaced Bud Selig. It is baseball on crack...if you can manage it socially. Plus, there are dancing goddesses (they are one part cheerleader, one part pole dancer). Great sport. Cricket, I mean.

Also there is a sort of Central Asian MTV (back when MTV had music videos, that is). It is confusing and disorienting, however, to see fully covered, modestly dressed women thrusting about in Madonna/Gaga/Aguilera dance moves with a twist of Bollywood.

Ever Vigilant

So we're supposed be, like, all alert and stuff. You know, always watching for things that seem out of place or sudden changes in the pattern. OK, first of all, I'm in Pakistan. Everything seems totally out of place, for example, me. This vigilance is of particular concern while we're driving.

Hold on. You want me to watch for changing traffic patterns? Is random chaos a pattern from which there can be recognizable deviation? Furthermore, the only way I can avoid constant and utter panic while riding in the embassy vehicles is to pay as little attention as possible to traffic. We are always and ever on the verge of plowing or being plowed.

Pedestrians have a particular cavalier approach to streets, which they treat as side walks. And the kids, six-year-olds, weaving through traffic (not at the stop lights, mind you) trying to sell coloring books to motorists. Hey, kid. I admire the spunk. But even if they weren't going 60 mph, they're not going to buy a coloring book. The Pakistanis have a lot going for them, but the business acumen of the six-year-old crowd leaves room for improvement.

Anyway, I simply have no stomach for the sequenced games of "chicken" they call driving. Lanes? How quaint. So, watch for things that are out of the ordinary? Sorry, I'll just read thank you. If a bomber can find his way through all this traffic, more power to him.

My gratitude and admiration is to the well-trained, under-paid drivers who drive 6-foot wide vehicles through 7-foot moving targets at speed while I pray into my Kindle.

Yeah, but it's a dry heat

What does it mean that it was only 100 degrees today and I felt flat out refreshed?

Madam Secretary

Thanks Faith

Of all the "poets" I thought would impact my life, Faith Hill was low on the list. But "if my heart had wings, I would fly to you, and lie beside you as you dream."

Don't Worry Little Luxury

My ascetic tendencies first came under attack when I discovered the Brooks Brothers non-iron slim fit dress shirt in 2004. The latest addition to my list of former luxuries is smart wool socks. I bought them at the suggestion of the REI shoe salesman in anticipation of Pakistan monsoon season. I will never again wear any other sock for any occasion.

Smart wool socks. Put them on your Christmas list.

On the Bright Side

Stomach settled. Food delicious. I am getting in the best shape I've been in since high school. I just ran a comfortable 27 minute 5k today. Urdu is really hard to pronounce correctly, but I am picking up a lot of vocabulary. Chmgadar on the porch this morning.

I have all kinds of time on the weekends for reading so I have been studying the history and culture of Pakistan. Fascinating, by the way. An epicenter of a lot of international realpolitik; more so than I think most people realize.

I miss Katie and the kids terribly. Everyone says I will get used to being away, but that sounds even worse than missing them.

New Normal

Welcome to Pakistan! Would you like some chicken with your salmonella? Also, A/C broke and it was literally 100 degrees in my bedroom last night. On the bright side, as I think I have mentioned before, there is staff to wait on my every whim. Alas, what good is a whim-waiting staff when you have no one to whim with? Sigh.

A bomber targeted a US consulate vehicle in Peshawar today. I am fine and not in any immediate danger. Peshawar is about 100 miles west of Islamabad.

I'm looking forward to 112 degrees next week. I've never experienced anything over 108 (every day this week has matched that personal record, by the way).

Day 4

I have been assigned to an energy infrastructure audit, which is the topic in which I am most interested. Here's to small victories!

Also, remember way back two days ago when I said it was weird having household staff. Yeah, I'm used to it. I ordered an unbelievably delicious Pakistani potato crepe with yogurt and mango juice for breakfast. Then came home to a clean room and washed, folded, pressed laundry. "Sir, I will take a Diet Coke in my bedroom." One minute later, a Diet Coke in my bedroom, served like a vintner's treasure.

Day 2 (only 363 to go)

The power goes out every four hours and I presently have no running water. Also, getting accustomed to having staff is harder than you might think.

Islamabad

Twelve-foot walls topped with barbed wire. Armed guard in the security tower. Five-person household staff. Rides to and from work in an armored car, leaving at a different time and taking a different route every day. This is my new life. It is strange.