Ready to go

No, no - that doesn't mean I'm ready to leave Pakistan. It's actually been really interesting here. What that means is tomorrow we leave for the villages - wahoo! It should be a really cool experience. Since these rural areas are the more dangerous places to be traveling, I'll probably keep my time there at a minimum, but I'm really excited to go (and this is where I'll be bringing my water purification tablets and anti-bacterial hand wipes). Sanghar district is one of the safer areas for us to travel anyway, and we'll apparently be part of some huge police convoy or something, so that means big trucks filled with lots of big men with lots of big guns. I'd be lying if I said that didn't make me nervous, but that's the way we have to do things, I suppose. Not that a couple of white women in a car wouldn't draw attention anyway.

We finally got to take our cloth to a tailor yesterday, and I will be able to pick up one custom-made salwar kameez, including the tunic, scarf, and pants tonight. For $3.30. And I'm sure I can find cheaper places to buy fabric than the place where we got what we have. The woman who took us there, Havovi, said she also knows where the best tailors and fabric stores are, so I'm going to have them copy a couple of pairs of pants, a dress I really like, and make me a new winter coat. Not that I'm feeling all "Miss Money Bags", but it's just so much less expensive here, I'd be an idiot not to take advantage of it. The tailor we went to last night is supposed to be good, but basically he's good at churning out salwar kameez and stuff like that. SO for the more elaborate stuff, there are other places to go. I feel a little shallow getting all excited about new clothes, but...well, maybe I am shallow. I think I'll be okay with that for the moment.

Sana, my new friend at the office, said she'd also take me shopping any time, so that's fun.

One thing that I'm adjusting to is the power outages that are a part of life around here. We had four of them yesterday - the longest one was last night, lasting about an hour or so. I'm sure they could have been much worse, but it's still just not something I'm used to, what with coming from a place with a stable electrical grid. But there are worse things, no?

I'm off to go do my morning workout, since I'm being all healthy and stuff here. Heh. But it's good, I'm getting into a routine of sorts. I also don't think I've been in better shape, so that's...unexpected. Hurrah for having nothing else to do! Everything has its advantages, really.