Winter Worries

Cold season is now reaching its peak here in Pakistan. This is my first time to experience winter and I am surely having some difficulties adjusting to it. Last week, I had trouble with my stomach because of 'too much cold' (which also explains my short absence) and up to now I am still trying to adapt to this weather. Hopefully before winter ends I would already be fully adjusted.

But yesterday, despite the cold and 'fear' (real or imagined) of getting sick again, I decided to go out and resume my usual walk around our community. I also visited Mr. Sarfraz and his family who have been inviting me, for several times already since Christmas, for a cup of tea (that's how they usually invite you here to their homes). But instead of staying in their house for the cup of chai (tea with milk and sugar) and mitthai (sweets), we had it in a basti--a farming community some 20km away from our place, where the the family of Mr. Sarfraz--headed by his father Babu Sabir, is now constructing a school for the Christian children in the area. I was able to return here in Don Bosco just in time for vespers. That's almost 7pm. The invitation for a 'cup of tea' lasted for almost the entire afternoon. Yet I was happy I decided to go--the cold did not bother me that much as well, but more importantly I guess was my encounter with the wonderful family of Mr. Sarfraz and Babu Sabir and with some of the people of the basti we visited. I remember them surely in my prayers. Their heart-felt hospitality and sincere friendship definitely warm the heart even in the peak of Pakistan's harsh winter season.