Susan LaffertyCrowds. Criss-crossing street intersections. Train stations. Shopping malls.
In multiple directions.
Pressing up escalators. Hiking staircases. Moving ever forward into trains. Onto sidewalks. Through subways.
Crowds. In your face. Up close. Yet often silent. Solitary.
Eyes on their phones.
Looking down. Or away. Staring off into the distance.
Light falls. Through the archway. Across timeworn stones.
We sit in cool shade. Island breeze, soft. The old city, silent.
Footsteps echo in narrow passageways. Against ancient walls. In Malta.
Climbing uneven steps, we look out across a valley. Small villages scattered here and there. White houses. Flat roofs.
These stretch out to a defined edge. On the Mediterranean Sea.
During our second month in Pakistan, our family of three traveled north to Murree. For a month of intensive language learning and cross-cultural adjustment.
We stayed in one of several flats (apartments) that made up an old house on the side of the mountain.
And began learning new patterns for living.
Language study. Shopping for groceries. Cooking with new ingredients. Boiling our drinking water. Washing clothes and hanging them on the line.
Breathing fresh mountain air eased the adjustments. New friends helped us find our way.
