DAY 2-PAKISTAN-TRAVEL TO DIL (DEVELOPMENT IN LITERACY) SCHOOLS
Hello friends and family,
Thank you for the amazing responses! Keep them coming! Makes writing these entries way more fun!
Again, forgive any run-on sentences and grammatical errors…I’m a little wiped 
So we made it back safe and sound from Khairpur where we spent the day.
To get to the schools in the farming district we were visiting, we had to fly from Karachi to Khairpur (courtesy of Ali’s incredible company jet he generously provided with red carpet at the entrance and everything–along with a motorcade of police and bodyguards in case–we kind of felt sheepish given that we were going to document the impoverished communities who came together and built these schools on a shoestring budget…but we certainly felt safe the entire time! Ali is an incredible friend to say the least…
(as a side note, as we were waiting at the private airport terminal on the tarmac, there was a military size grey gigantic cargo plane loading baggages etc….all of a sudden about ten black SUV’s pull up and a group of Saudis get out in their full regalia and make their way to the cargo plane…I thought to myself, “this is incredible, they travel large with that huge cargo plane and all their luggage.” as I was commenting aloud, the pilot looks over and says, “that’s not their plane that they travel on, that’s just the cargo plane that carries their luggage, their plane is landing now and is just pulling in”…I turn around, and the most magnificent private plane (HUGE) lands and pulls up right next to our plane….I just couldn’t believe how large some Saudis travelled while the rest of their country starved…
Anyway, we meet with Zeba at the airport who is the liason between the DIL program (Development in Literacy) in Pakistan and the US. She heads up the program here and is an amazing woman, a 47 year old mother to a 23 year old law student who she left behind in the US. She lived in Los Angeles for most of her adult life and decided she was going to move back to Karachi to head up this program after reading the papers day in and day out about the strife in the middle east and wanted to effect change from the ground up.
After we land from the 2 hour flight, we leave the terminal and a van is waiting for us with police escorts sandwiching the van…We are greeted by a 78 year old man named Larik Sab who is the director of the DIL in the Khairpur region. He reminds me of a mix of my grandfather with his lean body and spritely gait, and my uncle Jyoti who says things like, “you people”, instead of “you”…so he would say “You people are nice”…which I thought was very cute. Anyway, he’s an amazing guy, spent 32 years as a government employee in education before retiring and deciding to work on building these schools. He said to us, “Teach a man to read and he is only one man educated but teach a woman to read and her entire family will be educated.” I thought that was a beautiful sentiment coming from a 78 year man born and raised in a male dominated society.
We also met the mayor of Khairpur who is leading the charge on building the schools with DIL and raising the money to do it. In addition to the school program he built, his farm made the rice, fish, carrot dessert, and potato side dish that we had for lunch. These people are incredible. Dedicated, hard working and really effecting change from the ground level. He spoke about how all the illiterate mothers now sending their children to school were now wanting to learn to read too and that they were setting up an adult-education program at night….he said his goal in educating these kids to read and write would ultimately teach them about tolerence and to think twice before they would do something wrong….the schools were so bright and colorful and the teachers spent the time to make it as happy of an atmosphere as possible. It was contagious. The energy and vibe in those schools could not be more positive and hopeful. To think the teachers earn 3800 rupees per month (50 dollars) which is the equivalent of less than 2 dollars per day. And not one bummed out looking teacher there. All happy and smiling. Amazing.
The children were really the story of today though. Zach, Andrew and I were literally amazed at how incredibly well behaved and truly excited and understood how lucky they were to be in those classrooms. I’ve never seen so many adorable big brown curious eyes staring at me, so ready and eager to smile if I made eye contact with them. They all had maroon uniforms and head dresses and chalkboard slates to write on (since they couldn’t afford notebooks yet) and had poems practiced to recite to us when we visited their classroom. We literally went to what must have been a dozen different classrooms, each one more excited than the next to meet us and sing us their practiced song. It was so moving.
At the end of the day, after the delicious lunch they prepared for us, the mayor presented us with a beautiful scarf as a sign of friendship.
The people here are some of the most gentle, selfless, loving and generous people I’ve ever met. The perception the rest of the world holds about Pakistanis via the media is so wrong. I can’t wait to show you photos and for you to see the film once it’s done…
Anyway, this is getting long, and I’m exhausted…In addition to producing this film, given the difficulty to travel with a larger crew, I’m also acting as as a second camerawoman with our DP so we have more coverage. My entire body aches from holding the camera all day. I’m going to take a long bath…
Please write me if you get a chance! I SO look forward to your emails!
Love, Rads
