Last night turned out to be my Islamabad scene debut. I joined TR at a high school friend of his's house in E-7, the richest sector, for a pre-party drink. The woman's mother is a big-time politician -- the girl had a picture of herself as a ~12-year-old with Musharraf in her room. It's a strange picture, he's holding one of his hands in front of her neck at an odd angle. We played music and danced a bit with the small group that was there, mostly this high school crew but also two people from the Russian embassy who I'd met on Thursday night.
As we were getting ready to leave I got my first real glimpse of Pakistani domestic master-servant relationships. Quite unlike anything I've ever seen in the States, or pretty much anywhere I've been, in the raw and open inequality of it. A servant, also a young woman, came to put our host's sweater on, and host accepted it without acknowledgement. Then host pretended to ash her cigarette on the servant and pantomimed slapping her, all while laughing. The servant laughed, too, and I tried very hard not to project my assumption about what was going through her mind onto her. Everyone else stood there half-watching and finishing their drinks, and then we left. The staff at the Serena are solicitous, sometimes extremely so, compared to a place like Dushanbe or Kabul, and I've always chalked that up to the colonial/feudal legacy of this society. But I never lose the sense that they're employees and I'm a guest; there's no intimacy. This interaction was weirdly intimate.
Anyway off we went to a rooftop party in F-6, the sector where I'm likeliest to live. They'd gone full-out with the decorations: skeletons, cobwebs, lights, the works. And pretty much everyone was dressed up. There were two other people who'd done the same Google search as me and had variants of the Error 404 costume. I got my picture taken with one of them, a nice guy who works for a company that manufactures MMA equipment. Several people told me throughout the night that I'd met most of the Islamabad party scene there, hence the comment with which I started this post. It was a mix of Pakistanis and expats, including only 3-4 Americans. A couple of people insisted to me that I could not be American because I don't have an American accent, including a woman from California who's even fresher off the boat than I am. Pretty much everyone reacted positively when I say I work for AKF, which is a nice discovery. They expect me to be a diplomat. Anyway there was music and dancing and then the cops came (to the gate downstairs, they would never enter) to tell everyone to be quiet. Very college.
We trickled out and went to the next party, where I met a few more people and watched various little dramas play out from a vantage point on the arm of a couch, next to my new friend Jennifer, from Iowa by way of DC. She knew or knew of NR's mom, naturally. It is a small world. Spent some time talking to a Pakistani guy who'd been a US marine and is now walking the length of Pakistan to raise money for disaster risk reduction supplies for communities in the north, and to raise awareness of an ecotourism company he's started to bring people up there.
Eventually the group that I've been inducted into (at TR's invitation, including MM the morning-TV host and a couple of others) decided it was time for very early breakfast at a 24-hour place nearby. We ate paratha (flat bread that's somewhere between naan and a soft taco) with spicy chickpeas and slow-cooked beef. It was all greasy and delicious, although I got hiccups from the spiciness. And it was nice to sit on this little patio in the small hours of the morning and chill out after the loud parties.
All in all, a long but fun evening. Agreeing to speak on that panel in September is looking like one of the best decisions I've made all year because it's where I met GM, who introduced me to TR, who has been an incredibly friendly and generous host. I thanked him for inviting me out last night, and he said that after the time it took him to get access to the scene after being away (he's Pakistani-Dutch and lived in Europe and the States for a time after growing up in Islamabad), he was glad to help me out. Always easier to have someone make introductions than to try to force one's way in.
Woke late today with a bit of GI trouble, I suspect from the 24-hour breakfast. Debated whether or not to go to ultimate but decided it would be wiser to stay near a bathroom than to run around. RF came by the hotel a couple of hours ago and we hung out for a bit in the cafe. He's also very friendly and someone I'm glad to have met so quickly.
I've got a bit of work to do now, and then I may see if my Canadian colleague CK is interested in dinner somewhere other than the buffet restaurant. Or I may just get room service and watch a movie.
Tomorrow it's back to the office, and, if Adeel can manage it, a few more potential-home visits. I started the process of opening a local bank account on Friday, apparently it takes a few days. If we ever do hire another expat while I'm here, my experience will be a useful reference point for making sure their onboarding is a bit smoother and better-organized than mine has been.
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