From East to West and from Outside In

From the window of the plane, we could see Istanbul, the only city in the world that occupies two continents. 

If a seven hour layover is inevitable, the best place you can be is at the airport in Istanbul. From the vantage point of my computer, I watched western travelers moving east and eastern travelers moving west. A woman with high heeled, zebra-patterned boots pushed a stroller down the hallway as a group of seven women, each cloaked in black fabric with only their eyes showing, passed her in the opposite direction. Packs of businessmen--some with black beards and some without--traveled in both directions as did the women with the long, flowing, brightly colored scarves. It seemed as if I was witnessing a cross-section of the human race as I sipped tea and worked on my presentation, "Art, Conflict, and Transformation: Projects that Visualize Hope".

The Arrival and Departure screens described in more detail the movement of the people at the airport. There were as many flights to Paris and Munich as there were to Kabul and Baghdad. The most disorienting part of searching for our boarding gate was the number of cities--the majority of those listed on the screen--that I had never heard of. At first, I thought that I might be reading the screens in a foreign language (the languages cycled), but no. The world is just bigger and I am less familiar with it than I thought.

I am going to try to keep these posts in sequential order, but it is so tempting to skip ahead and write about where we are and what we are doing now! Patience...patience. I will say now that every aspect of our trip has exceeded all expectations (though I must say we weren't quite sure what to expect). The people we have met, without exception, have been unbelievably hospitable in more ways that you can imagine. We have learned so much--about the food, the music, the educational interests of faculty and students, the language (Urdu), the customs, the politics, the landscape, the history, the climate, the art, and about people in general--all thanks to our hosts. We have been made to not only felt like guests of Anila and Maqsood's, but guests of the whole country. If our new Pakistani friends are reading this, thank you!!!