Alonda and the rest of the Middle School teachers took all the students out to the beach in February. The weather here is NOT like February in Seattle. This is a bridge going out towards the port.
This is how you can tell you are near a beach. It has all the normal "beach" stuff: beach balls, sand buckets, ice cream, etc. Everything is from China, of course.
As usual, you have to share the road with the donkey carts. We think they are the only vehicle in Pakistan that knows and follows the rules of the road!
Here's the beach! As we said, the weather is NOT like Seattle. Everyone wears shorts and T-shirts; no one wears a bathing suit.
Another fact of life is the guards. They took three carloads of guards. They had people on the perimeter the whole time. This does NOT mean it is unsafe. It is more to prevent kidnapping and beggars. The houses in the background are beach houses for the rich people. The house the school used belongs to relatives of one of the local teachers.
No beggars, but the camel-ride guy came around! The kids loved it.
A couple of weeks after the beach trip, Alonda & Jim and another couple went out to visit the World Wildlife Fund's Center in Karachi. Very close to Hawks Bay Beach where the students went. (wwf Karachi Pakistan as search terms on Google Earth will find it!)
Alonda and Johanne got muddy planting mangroves! You have to walk barefoot or lose your shoes in the mud. They are adding a second species to the one that is already there.
The local people harvest mangrove for building materials and fuel. They seem perfectly willing to help with re-planting since they can see they are taking out more than is growing. They have no alternative fuel for heat and cooking. They can't afford to shift over to bottle gas and they have no electricity.
These two reef herons posed for us we were getting ready to leave.
On the way back, we stopped and took pictures at the salt pans. They let in the ocean (salt water) and evaporate it until they get salt. It takes a lot of time and a lot of water.
This is a view of Karachi from one of the "flyovers" (overpass). The pile of yellow stuff is sulphur. This IS a port city. We don't know why the sulphur is piled in the open! It is dry enough that they routinely stack cement in the open, too. The area is actually a desert.
We don't just share with donkeys; camels get out on the road, too! Look closely and you will see busses, a camel, motorbikes, pedestrians, trucks, bicycles and (closest to the camera) our guard car! The billboard is part of the constant politicking.
Here is the camel close-up. The guys on the billboard behind him are all politicians.This video was shot 14 March while we were out shopping. Adam, a teacher from school, was sitting in the front seat and borrowed our camera so he could take some pictures. Try to imagine driving here!
