Smell's Like Teen Spirit...

...Well, not exactly.
I've been in Pakistan for just over a week now and i've noticed a distinct change in my body odour. Possibly, it is the change in our diet. We eat curry for lunch, dinner and on the odd occasion, breakfast as well. Add to that our increased percentage of Chai consumption (about 4 to 6 cups a day roughly) and decreased drinking of water and of course it would seem likely that my body is starting to smell spicy. No, really. I'm beginning to smell something like a dahl or biriyani.
It's sort of funny. Yes. Ha Ha. Laugh it up. But it's not so humorous when there is no hot water for showers and you can't bathe away the savory smell of last night's dinner from your skin. Also, it's not all that romantic.

No one but myself or Matt (who finds it hilarious) seems to notice, so i'm fine for now. I've pledged to start downing at least 2 liters of water a day. Matt wants to run an expirement on me where I don't eat anything curried for a few days and see if that helps. That would of course mean my demise as there is little else to eat here other than dried appricots, almonds and apples. Actually, that's a lie, but i'm enjoying the food too much to start fasting the local delecacies. If it gets out of hand, I promise to take more drastic measures.

Speaking of drastic measures, it seems that we are actually in Pakistan during a State of Emergency. I say, 'it seems' because one can hardly tell that the country is under house arrest along with their former president, Benazir Bhutto. Where we are, up in the Northern Areas, little has been affected. The people are very strongly opinionated about all that is happening in the capital of Islamabad, but other than that nothing in their daily routines have changed here the Hunza Valley.

However safe we do feel though, we are keeping aware of those things that are unsettled in the rest of the country; that most private television and radio stations have been shut down; that judiciary officials have been sacked; that lives have been threatened and taken by terrorist bombings; that Swat Valley has been thrown into turmoil by extremists on a bent for power; and that the current president is losing international popularity with his current political action of emergency rule. All in all it is an interesting time to be here. The land is beautiful, the politics ugly, but I think both have been true of this nation since even before the boundaries were drawn.

M.