Here are a couple more photos of my life in Pakistan. The house is a campus home for faculty and staff - and you can see the little bit of American culture over the fence, i.e., a basketball hoop!

The photo of the Prometric Testing Center sign shows where I have been working with the USEFP. The "Metric" is the national standardized test that all students take to attend univeristy, similar to our SAT/ACT. This is where students come to take the test (as well as the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, etc. if they want to study in the United States).

Campus Clean Up

This is one of the amazingly friendly and hard-working staff members on the grounds crew at FC College. He was clearing brush in 115-degree heat and using a cart to haul it away. This is work ethic....

Typical Pakistani Home

This is a fairly typical Pakistani home, with some kids playing chess outside. Since it rained heavily this morning (which threw the city into a mess), the kids were sitting enjoying the cooler, rain-cleaned air. My lungs were enjoing it, too.

Security Revisited - June 16

Today I had my official security briefing - on day 16 in Pakistan. It was delivered to me (with a campus tour) by Lieutenant Colonel Khaqan Mahmood Rana, the current head of security for FC College.

Colonel Khaqan is a pretty amazing man with a unique history - one of a kind in Pakistan, actually. He is a 27-year retired veteran of the Pakistani Army and has lived all over this country (rare for Pakistanis to move that much). He is the only Christian officer to have been permitted to attend Military Intelligence School (based on merit and hard work) and is the only Christian to have been allowed to serve as an ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence) officer.

He noted that there are three reasons why FC College is a target for extremist and terrorist organizations, because: (1) it is a Christian college, (2) it allows co-education (boys mingling with girls), and (3) there are foreigners on campus. He clarified that by "foreigners" he means Americans. Lovely.

20 Pounds Minimum

I have learned that Pakistanis love to eat - and their food is amazing. I've been asked several times if I prefer that American food be prepared for me and I have strenuously objected because the local cuisine is amazing. It's neither Indian nor Asian, but a wonderful hybrid. Today, Sirrah made the the lunch shown in this photo. Everytime I have explained that I do not eat a large lunch or many large meals (rather preferring to "graze" all day long), the next meal will be even larger. If I do not return with an extra 20 pounds around my waiste, I have no idea why....

Tribalism

Today I had the chance to sit and talk to the Provost of FC College (also known as the Vice Rector or chief academic officer), Dr. Marcia Grant. She is an American who has lived all over the world and has her main home in France.

Among other things, we discussed "tribalism" in Pakistan. People often think of tribalism as a term only applicable to indigenous people, but it applies more broadly to all types of social structures (as opposed to individuals) based on religious, cultural, ethnic or other identity factors. It's all about having feelings of identity for your "tribe" in society - like the concept of fraternities and sororities in American higher education.

Pakistan has "tribes" in many ways. Clearly there is the religious context and working at a Christian college the tribalism on campus is felt strongly. There is a sense of peace and calm on campus among those who are Christian - they are with like minded people and have fewer challenges in the workplace. As I've learned, there are also many "sects" in Islam and they tend to affiliate, too. And, there is great ethnic tribalism here among people from various regions across the five provinces in this country. The northerners (in the mountains between India and Afghanistan are very different from the southerners in Karachi - which is not so different from those from Boston and Savannah. In many ways, our countries (and their various tribes) are not that different....

Today in Islamabad

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's intelligence agency arrested "a few" informants who gave information to the CIA before the raid that left Osama bin Laden dead, a Pakistani intelligence official said Wednesday.

The arrests were addressed during the Friday meeting between CIA Director Leon Panetta, Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, Pakistan's head of military intelligence.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said he did not know the exact number of informants arrested or what date it happened.