4 Fall 1976

 4 Fall 1976

Mount Ararat

The Pakistan Air Force College (PAFCAE) is on the trimester system. We arrived late for the Fall trimester due to problems getting a visa. Rich dove in and started teaching almost immediately, and got his stride quickly, since the courses he was teaching at PAFCAE are the same as he taught at the Air Force Academy. 

We find that the pouch mail system through the US Consulate that brings letters and needed items from the States takes about 14 days to get to Pakistan. So, we need lots of planning, and waiting for items that we need. As for phoning home, it costs about $30 for a short call, so we write letters to give our loved ones the news. It’s isolating, as our friends and family don’t realize that we feel cut off from them.

And the phone system is not reliable anyway. We get several calls a day, and when we pick up, we hear “kuan bol hai?” which means “who is speaking?”. So, someone calls us and asks us who we are? Huh? In the Western world it’s the opposite. Then, because the phones often go dead, if there is any break in the conversation, the person says, “Allo allo allo” to make sure the connection is still lively.

The fall break is in late November. Happily, there is a CENTO exercise the whole month of November, so there are C-141’s flying back and forth to Incirlik (In jir lick) Air Base in Adana, Turkey, almost daily. We had not contemplated traveling to Turkey on this break, but with free travel, we hopped aboard. It’s about 2000 air miles to Adana, so it’s a 4 1/2-hour flight. We were invited into the C-141 cockpit, and we got to see Mount Ararat of biblical fame (the great flood and Noah’s ark) as we passed almost directly over it.

Turkey really surprised us, as it has modern roads and Mercedes buses! You probably remember that Germany and Turkey were allies in WW I and friends in WW II. Thus, the Mercedes buses. We had gotten used to driving or being driven in Karachi, where painted lines between lanes are mere suggestions. Pakistani cars are small Japanese models, so two can almost fit in one lane, and if traffic is heavy in one direction, cars spill over into oncoming traffic without a care. Not so in Turkey – drivers obey the lane markers completely.

After our C-141 flight arrived at Incirlik Air Base, we asked questions about traveling on the Turquoise Coast southwest of Adana. Everybody told us to stay on base where there’s a BX, a Commissary, an Officer’s Club, and it’s safe, implying that travel in rural Turkey is fraught with danger. Haha! So, we headed off base to the bus station and caught a bus to Adana and then another to Mersin. Adana is a bustling major city with traffic and noise, similar to Karachi but less chaotic. 

Mersin is a medium-size, pretty seaside city, about 30 miles from Adana, with beaches, beauty, Roman ruins, and friendly, unstressed people. Now we’re cooking! A day in Mersin and we headed down the coast, aiming for Tasucu (Tah soo koo) about 75 miles away.

We really enjoyed Turkey. You can safely eat the food and drink the water. There is a lot of yogurt in the cooking and plenty of fresh fish. The Turkish people are very friendly, just like the Pakistanis. They give us oranges and nuts as we sit near them on the buses. What makes Turkey so nice is the lack of grinding poverty. So, we hopped along the Turquoise Coast, getting off in any interesting place, and flagging down a bus to get moving again.

By Thanksgiving, we are in Tasucu. We are getting rest and refreshing our souls before we resume our daily battles with Karachi. Really, we are surviving pretty well in Pakistan, living a way of life that is so different from life in the US. I hope this doesn't become a recurring theme in our letters, but noise, poverty, and pollution are wearing on us. More on these themes in a later episode.