Day 3
> Today was taken up with a meeting of all the collaborators of the project at the Faisalabad Universide. Abad means a populous place/a place where many people live and the Faisal part is named after a king. A lot of discussion on what has been achieved so far and what else needs to be achieved. They are planning a small conference next April that will include growers, packers, exporters, chemical companies and researchers. Just like in Australia it is hard to get the growers to turn up to these events. We also visited their nursery where they are using disease free material from Australia to propagate trees to give out to growers. Their potting media is not much chop - it has very small particle size and lots of silt so it sets hard as a rock, so they are looking for local ingredients to replicate potting medias used in Australia.
> > The good part of the day is that we visited the bazzar. There is a central roundabout with a tall clock tower built by the british in 1903. There are eight strees running off the central roundabout so the design is reminiscent of the union jack. This was packed with people, cars, bikes etc and was utter chaos, as expected they did not let me out of the car to explore as they said this is where the common people shop and the quality is not good. However, they did take me shopping elsewhere to some upmarket good quality stores, so I indulged myself with some traditional pakistani clothes. Tomorrow they are also taking me to a shop so I can buy a traditional carpet - not sure how I'm getting this home but will manage somehow.
> > I even bought some curly toed slippers (see attached photo) which I have wanted ever since I saw them on sinbad the sailor when I was very young. They tell me that these slippers are traditionally worn by men in their wedding - I caused much hilarity in the shop when they realised I was buying them for myself. Their service is the shops is amazing, they were running around showing me many thing they though would look good on me - I'm sure this is because I'm western so am probably perceived as rich. The sales assistant even carried the bags to the car. One of the guys here thanked me for supporting single handedly half of the Faisalabad population - some pakistani humour on the amount of money I spent shopping - mind you in was only about $250 Aussie dollar. Faisalabad is renowned for its fabrics (lots of cotton is grown in this area) and I bought a king size doona cover for under $40 - really good quality. > > Again I can't stress how delicious the food is and how warm and generous the people are. I get the feeling most of the security is to satisfy what we westerners perceive as an unsafe place. The architecture is also amazing with fabulous tiling on the outside of many buildings. Most of the villages have locally made brick structures rendered in mud to keep them cool. > > Have to sign off now as I'm going out to dinner with the director of the University. The restaurant is in a ancient building that was once an upmarket british club.
> > The good part of the day is that we visited the bazzar. There is a central roundabout with a tall clock tower built by the british in 1903. There are eight strees running off the central roundabout so the design is reminiscent of the union jack. This was packed with people, cars, bikes etc and was utter chaos, as expected they did not let me out of the car to explore as they said this is where the common people shop and the quality is not good. However, they did take me shopping elsewhere to some upmarket good quality stores, so I indulged myself with some traditional pakistani clothes. Tomorrow they are also taking me to a shop so I can buy a traditional carpet - not sure how I'm getting this home but will manage somehow.
> > I even bought some curly toed slippers (see attached photo) which I have wanted ever since I saw them on sinbad the sailor when I was very young. They tell me that these slippers are traditionally worn by men in their wedding - I caused much hilarity in the shop when they realised I was buying them for myself. Their service is the shops is amazing, they were running around showing me many thing they though would look good on me - I'm sure this is because I'm western so am probably perceived as rich. The sales assistant even carried the bags to the car. One of the guys here thanked me for supporting single handedly half of the Faisalabad population - some pakistani humour on the amount of money I spent shopping - mind you in was only about $250 Aussie dollar. Faisalabad is renowned for its fabrics (lots of cotton is grown in this area) and I bought a king size doona cover for under $40 - really good quality. > > Again I can't stress how delicious the food is and how warm and generous the people are. I get the feeling most of the security is to satisfy what we westerners perceive as an unsafe place. The architecture is also amazing with fabulous tiling on the outside of many buildings. Most of the villages have locally made brick structures rendered in mud to keep them cool. > > Have to sign off now as I'm going out to dinner with the director of the University. The restaurant is in a ancient building that was once an upmarket british club.
