Another move!

Most of you know but there are some that do not. Shobi was permanently denied from coming into the states. So there will be no coming back for us. I will be coming back for visits. We decided we can not stay in Karachi. Some of my posts so us out and about but what you saw is what I am seen. Most of the time I am staying home, cleaning, cooking, playing on the internet and hoping the kids will come visit. More outside violence has started up in some area and we feel it is best not to venture out much. With the violence comes people staying home too so there goes the economy! With the economy going there goes Shobi's work. So we decided it is best to move on. I know we had talked about Australia but right now we don't have the money to pursue it and we don't want to wait that long. So we are off to Dubai. I had a job offer over the phone so I will be going over the first part of November and meet with her and see how things are. It is tricky renting a place since in order to rent you have to have a residency visa and you don't get that until you are hired and your employer gets it for you. So we are looking to stay in a short term rental like a vacation place since the hotels would add up to much until we can find a place and get our residency visa. Shobi has been applying daily to different jobs but has not heard back as of yet. He has friends over there that have said they will help him. So hopefully he will soon have something. So here soon it will be a farewell to Pakistan and a hello to Dubai. I am looking forward to doing my own grocery shopping and just walking around. We are going over at a good time as it is cooling down over there. I heard the summer are miserably hot. Hopefully being here without A/C will help me adjust! I will still plan on blogging but just be warned it will be farther in between as my work week will be 6 days a week, 9 hour shifts. Hopefully we both will have the same day off. Shobi has agreed to help out with the housework and some cooking. I will be getting a slow cooker over there since this is going to be the easiest way to make meals. We are looking forward to our new adventure. I will keep you posted.
I will post a few pictures of this I have taken lately. Some have seen these but just bare with the others that haven't.

Well I guess there is just one...... I wonder if she needed a nap or maybe a shower? One way to entertain and keep your child out of trouble.

My Sweet Husband!

I have to give a shout out to my wonderful Husband! He was so sweet to me Thursday. He stayed home with me and helped me clean the house. We got cable hooked up. I had taken a nap that afternoon and when I woke up I found my husband in the kitchen fixing us dinner. He wouldn't let me help him. He made me sit at the table and keep him company instead. He even did the dishes. I thought I better document this moment. Never know when it will happen again! :)

fixing dinner

          

   He got silly when he noticed the camera. It was so sweet of him to make me dinner and clean up. He made us chicken sandwiches. They were quite tasty! One other shout out! Sunday we had his family over for dinner. I made spicy chicken wings and ginger garlic coconut rice. The kitchen was a mess but I left it until Shobi took his family home. I started cleaning the kitchen and doing dishes. We have had problems with the draining from the kitchen sink. So I was using one pan to clean and another to rinse so not to much water was running down the drain. Well I guess that wasn't enough. I was almost done when water came pouring out of the cabinet below. It was disgusting. We don't have a disposal so I scrap everything into the garbage. Well I don't think the people before us did. The smell was so bad. I had no way of cleaning it up because I couldn't get it to unclog. I shut the kitchen door hoping that in time it would drain slowly then I could mop things up and clean. I went into the bathroom to change my pants and clean my shoes. I had had it by that time. It was around 11pm when Shobi got back. I told him what had happened and he said leave it and we will deal with it in the morning. I was dreading waking up! I woke up to my husband cleaning it all up. He had gotten up before me and cleaned out the drain and under the sink and was mopping the floor when I came in. I was so happy to have a man that would do this for me. I have been blessed! The kitchen was sparkling clean when he was done! I love this man!

My daily vistors.

 It took a week before the kids were comfortable with me to come down and hang out. Shani and Tariq had asked me if I would help them with their studies and English. They said they would give me some pocket money for doing it. Since I was spending a lot of time alone while Shobi was working I agreed to it. That next more Hadi, 7yrs old, couldn't wait to come down. Shani said he was bugging her at 7am to come down. He brought his study books and we worked on math and English. He has forgotten a lot of his English but is picking it up fast and he is teaching me a few words in Urdu. He even corrects me. He spends a lot of time with me. The next day Mahi came down. He is 6yrs old. He is a character. Hadi is very polite and helpful, Mahi is crazy and the jokster. Ariba has started coming too. She is 2years old. She doesn't stay long. She is back and forth between our place and hers. She doesn't speak any English. We have fun trying to communicate with each other. Last week at the bazaar I got some colored pencils, markers and paper. They enjoyed that. A few days ago I made play dough for them. They had never played with it before. They have been having a blast with it. So the last few days they have spent hours a pond hours here playing with it. Today I sent it home with them. I was tired of cleaning up play dough! :) I have had a lot of fun with them. There is 2 other boys..... Hamza 13yrs old and Bia 12 years old. Just don't have pictures of them yet. 

Hadi

Mahi mustache

Hadi snowman

Mahi

Mahi and Ariba coloring

Ariba

Shobi watching the boys play with play dough.

Hadi my buddy!

My first month in Karachi!

 Well I made it safe and sound. It was a very long flight but I had good company sitting by me. The longest flight was from Chicago to Abu Dhabi. This flight was 15 hours. It was very crowded and I didn't sleep much. I was sitting by a guy from India that was now living in Abu Dhabi and a girl from the states that was going to Abu Dhabi to teach in jr/high school. On my flight from Abu Dhabi to Karachi I was sitting by a character. Sad thing is I don't remember his name but he is from Karachi but been living in New York for many years. We had some good conversation, laughing and discussing his theory on woman!! Funny to hear it from a man view point..
Shobi was there waiting for me when I came out of the airport. All my luggage made it this time!!!! I was so happy. One of my bags had the lock removed. I am missing a few things but not sure if they were stolen or with all the moving around things in my bags to make weight I forgot them. I guess we will find out when I get back.
This is my new neighborhood. We are in a very safe area. I haven't ventured out to much but will soon. I have been cleaning house, lets just say that when you rent an apartment here it is not cleaned before moving in, trying to get settled in in my new life. The landlords live upstairs from us. They have 5 kids, 4 boys and 1 girl. The kids were all born in America. They have been living in California for the last 15 years or so. They came back to Pakistan 2 years ago for Islamic school for their 2 oldest boys. It is nice because they speak English and are really nice people. In fact the kids spend a lot of time here. I will be posting pictures of them too. Shani and Tariq want me to help them out with there English. Since they were young and have forgotten a lot of it. It has been fun having little kids around. They keep me busy and entertained while Shobi is away.
Shobi had set up the apartment with all the basic things. Bedroom set, dining table and chairs, refrigerator, couch and curtains in our bedroom. We still have a lot to get to make it a home but we are slowly picking things up in the Sunday Bazaar. The pictures below are of the apartment. It wasn't super clean when I took these. And just know we are still getting curtains.                                                                                             

 This is the living room. Very little in here but the couch. Never buy a black leather couch in Karachi. It is always dusty and sticky. Plus he didn't pick out one you want to curl up in and read. :)

 Here is the dining room and entry room. The balcony is off this room.

 Here is my kitchen. Notice only a 2 burner stove top. NO oven!! I was sad. We will look into getting at least a toaster oven if not just an oven. Been a big change to just cook on the stove top. But doing pretty good so far. Learning a few new dishes.

 Here is our bedroom. It is all ornate furniture to Pakistan.

 dressing table.

 The on suite bathroom. The blue bucket is kept full of water just in case we run out of water. It is also my shower. I use the little bucket to dump the water over my head. As you can see there is no shower curtain. It is not a good set up. After a shower you have to squeegee the whole bathroom down the drain that is behind the big blue bucket. I will say I miss my long hot showers. Most of the time the hot water is gone and I have a cold shower. Well if you can that a shower! HAHA

 Just another view of the bathroom. The faucet on the wall by the toilet is their version of a bidet. They Don't use toilet paper like we do.

 This is our second bedroom. The beds are the landlords. It is also shobi's closet/ laundry room. As you can see by the window that is our washing machine. I move it into the bathroom. Which is the door on the right of it. I fill the left side of the washer  up with water, put the clothes and detergent in and plug it in. After the wash I drain it and fill it up again to do the rinse. The right side is the spinner. Then I hang dry then on the line on the balcony. It is a light unit. I had to have him show me how to use it. :)

 This is Shobi's bathroom. I told him he could use the one off the bedroom but he likes his own. He has a smaller bucket to shower with but more room to shower. Just wait for the next picture...

 This is known as a squat toilet. You find them all over Asia. I am glad mine has a regular toilet.

 Here is a water truck that comes and delivers water to the big tank under the apartment. We have to have it filled about every 4th day. Not all areas of Karachi have it this way but how they developed the Defence area this is what you have to do. They have a lot of water problems here. As I am writing this the power has gone out. I am hoping it comes on soon since I am in the middle and don't want to loose it all and I am also updating my iphone too. My laptop doesn't stay charged very long. It might be very interesting.

Here we are....... the happy couple!! To finally have a life together! It has been a challenge and learning experience for me. I am so use to making all the decisions and doing things my way and so is he. We are doing good and working through it all. I am happy being his wife! He is happy with me.... at least this is what he says!! :) He has been really helpful with everything. He helps me clean. He does laundry and he scrubs the bathroom floors. He isn't a normal Pakistani man who usually doesn't do any of this!!! It's the woman's job. Actually the woman don't clean here. They all have maids. I was cleaning as Tariq came by with a friend. He said what are you doing??? I said cleaning. Oh yeah it's the American way to clean your own house. I can imagine what I would do if I had a maid to clean my home. I would probably clean it before they came. It gives me something to do. I can't just sit in a house all day long and twiddle my thumbs. We just got cable yesterday but of course most of it is in Urdu. I think there is 3 or 4 channels in English but sometime the movies they show are dubbed in Urdu. It has been interesting. Lots of changes and a lot to learn in my new life. For the most part everyone is very friendly and helpful. If my husband goes to the store it is much cheaper then if I go. The price goes up 3 or 4 times the amount for me then for him. The only problem is he doesn't always know what I mean when I tell him things so he gets what he thinks it is. He is sweet to run all the errands for us though. He is a good man and I am happy with my husband. I miss family and friends dearly and I really miss Target! The quality of things here are like the dollar store. You can find better quality but it is really expensive!! Other then I lucked out at the Sunday Bazaar last week. I picked up some William Somona bowls for really cheap. They had the price tag on them for $38.00 and I got them for 800.00 rupees which is $7.60 for the 3 bowls. I was a happy camper. Looking forward to going tomorrow to see what I can find. I am having some Sharwal suits made for me. This is the traditional Pakistani clothes for woman. I figured I would blend in more. Once I get them back I will post pictures. So far live in Karachi is going good. I will keep you all posted.