Crabbing aka Crab EATING
Thanks to Andrew for photos. I so need to get my own camera soon as I get my salary.
Anyway, a couple of days ago the whole AIESEC bunch went for CRABBING, courtesy of Emad who organised it. Thanks dude! We had a great time, great seafood, good crabs. (Though I felt the after-effects the next day while sitting on the toilet)
We went to the port where the navy was based nearby. Keamari Harbour? . Travelled in a truck that felt like a jail cell. Really windy ride, was afraid my contact lenses would get blown off my eyes!
Left to right: Ben (Germany), Wangari (Kenya), Sohaib (MC Pakistan)
It was a bit of a tight squeeze, like 13-15 of us in one truck. But it was great fun still!
Unfortunately, because the harbour was near the naval base, we couldn't take any photos, unless we want to risk getting into trouble.
I guess a lucky thing we went in the night where we couldn't see the state of the water. Goodness knows how it looks like after having smelled its odour. But it is a harbour port, some distance away a ship graveyard, and also a navy base. Can't expect nice clean sea blue water with all that.
The crabs and seafood was already caught (from somewhere else, thankfully, well, at least I HOPE IT WAS FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE) and then cooked on the boat, after sailing out far into the sea. It was great atmosphere as we could see the lights of the ships at the port, and on the way back passed by the naval ships with big guns,
And an oil tanker with the biggest "NO SMOKING" sign I've ever seen :)
Looking forward to experiencing more of Pakistan!
First Day of Ramadhan
First day, slept at 12, woke up at 2.30 am before the alarm went off, and then again woke up at 3, snoozed for half hour and finally fell out of bed!
Made nasi lemak with eggs. Very light stuff, nothing too rich. Commenced fast at 5 am, slept at 6, woke up at 6.30.
I've only slepts for a good 3 hours and I'm dyiinng here...! I'm nodding to sleep, slipping out of consciousness once in a while.... it's ridiculous and I can't do anything about it cos as we're fasting we can't consume anything in the day from sun-up to sunset. Oh God help me.
New furniture in the office!
New furniture! Excellent!
Andrew's here, although not much has been happening for him, cos he's not been given much work yet. And I've finished all the work I was supposed to do and now we're both going nuts in the office.
You might argue that we should be proactive, but we tried that and it kinda backfired cos it gave an unintentional bad impression on our bosses. Oops!
At least today we had a good lunch, and new furniture! we now have 2 tables, but only one PC connected to the internet. Oh I hate it when things happen in small steps and you never complete on time.
[It's a little bit cramped, but it makes do]
[Someone's learning Errdu]
I keep telling Andrew to replace the "u"s with "oo" and yet it still comes out Errdu. Good luck man!
Karachi Induction - Time of many "FIRST"s
2 weeks into Karachi, and I'm feeling the cultural differences. It's definitely a time filled with many first experiences, some good, some bad, some that just don't make sense. Finally I now know what culture SHOCK means. Described below the more superficial aspects of my experience so far. will expand and delve deeper as time passes...
The cool stuffs that's happened:
1) Arrival
- I loved it! It was soo memorable, it took awhile to finally emerge from the airport, waiting on the luggage, and then get such a warm welcome from the AIESECers & interns. Garlands of flowers, sweets, loads of flashing cameras! Truly, that moment will always replay in my mind, with a smile on my face [Singapore, hint hint, we need to liven up our airport pick-ups!]
2) Food
- ouf... Laden with spice! The intensity is something to get used to, and it's not hot like chilli hot, just spicy. Chicken Briyani, Naan with Kerahi... Paratha with Tikka. Yum yum!
3) Housemates
- You can't ask for more in a surrogate family, guys! I love you all! It feels much like home now. [Especially after you've helped scrub the floors! ;)]
4) Work
- Loving that too! Although now in the beginning I need to push my supervisors to give me work after having completed first draft of my first assignment. But things have been hectic in the office cos of the annual reports deadline. By now I think they get that I'm a workaholic and I need things to DO in order to learn!
5) Family in Pakistan
- Traversed Karachi to get to Steel Town, which is in the outskirts of Karachi. It was a lovely place, full of trees, reminded me sooo much of Singapore! Met my uncles and my aunt for the first time! It was a bit odd cos of the language barrier... Like we're bursting to say something, yet not able to express it. But that will soon be overcome as I learn more Urdu :)
6) Karachi HEALTH induction
- The food is good, but can be deceiving and deadly sometimes! I ate something contaminated last week or the week before. And for many days I've just been crapping water. Any food goes in then out like an express train. So finally yesterday went to the hospital for treatment. Joined the IV-Drip Club [we had another intern who got the same treatment for dehydration] Spent over 2500 Rs. [ouch!] Doc diagnosed it as gastro-intestinal infection.
Personally I blame Singapore for having super clean water. Not just clean water but filtered and oxygenated water in my home in addition to that. Ah, I've been way too pampered. And now I'm paying for it! Hello new bacteria, welcome to my intestines! Make yourselves at home! :D
So all in all, it's been crazy! Took awhile to come up with the good word that describes it all, but the best fit was just CRAZY. I guess I'm settling in, getting used to the way of life here... And of course will blog more soon.
