#14 - “EID MUBARAK” 10/14

It is EID, the day Ramadan ends, a big holiday, similar to Christmas. People send cards, give gifts, spend the day visiting friends – and eating. It actually lasts 3 days, but the first seems to be most celebrated. The greeting “Eid Mubarak” (literally “blessed festival”) seems functionally like “Merry Christmas.) Brad goes to fly, and Freddy & I go to Inayat’s. They said come at 10. We get there at 10:20 and are late. A big meal is set out on the porch outside the mosque. Many more people than inside during Ramadan. People are seriously eating. There’s no room for us. No problem.

Farooq, a nephew of Inayat we haven't met before, leads us through a gate and into a courtyard. Previously we had gone into a guest house across from the mosque, but we haven't been here before. It's on the other side of one of the hundreds (thousands) of walls in the area. There is a guest house here, too. Maybe this one just has sleeping rooms. Once in the courtyard we can see nothing beyond the walls but trees and sky – which, btw, are lovely. A word is crudely painted on the wall near the gate: "Welcome." We have seen the same thing on most (or maybe all) of the guest houses or adjoining walls. [In the pix, Farooq is 2nd from left; that's me next (wearing the capul given me by Mir Safdar Khan), then Farid's father. Farid is far right.)

We sit in chairs on the lawn, and soon food is brought in. Farid, another of Inayat’s nephews, joins us. Farooq (22) is studying comparative religion and politics at International Islamic Univ. in Islamabad, which has. over 10,000 students, many being women, from Pakistan and many other countries. Farid (30), has a background in law, but is working now with an NGO to develop a written version of Khowar (the primary language of the region) that can be certified for use on the internet. Over the next 2 hours Farooq and Farid are almost always there, but quite a few other men come and go.

Once again we enjoy fine food and interesting conversation. One of the things we talked about was marriage, and the religious and cultural influences and dictates. Much of the conversation has faded, and some things seems conflicting, but the one thing I clearly remember is that the bride's father could require a gift/dowry/payment in return for his daughter. A prized gift/payment is....a high quality Italian shotgun. That info came from more than one source. I'm looking forward to going back and continuing the conversation.