I finally finished correcting and updating the second edition of our first coffee table book, “Our Life & Adventures in Pakistan.” The software I used is Booksmart by Blurb.com. The first edition only had two printed copies, but it served more as draft and sample copy. I was impressed by the professional quality of the printing and binding, and so now I can proudly order additional copies for my family.

Maybe I should also order a paperback version to carry around wherever we travel. We’re tired of explaining to people why we live in Pakistan since 2005. Now they can see our answer in these beautiful pictures of our home, school, Islamabad, and parts of the country that we visited. This is the perfect souvenir for our son who was born here in 2007.

I’m not sure anymore what is normal in this town. We hoped, but knew it was not possible to return to normal after the unexpected two-week holiday. It can’t be normal if we can’t go to our favorite restaurants anymore, or if there are more roadblocks, checkpoints, and detours around the city. It can’t be normal when you have battle-hardened soldiers aiming their guns at motorists around government and diplomatic facilities. Yes, it’s been upsetting and depressing since the Marriott blast. All our assumptions about what is safe and secure have changed considerably.

But living under the cloud of more threats and heightened security has not dimmed the dazzling smile of our baby, who remains the sunshine and center of our universe. He will be a year old soon. While he’s still underweight, his development is on schedule and even advanced in some areas. He knows how to get down from a bed and couch. He can open his books to the right pages if you ask him to show you the duck, sheep, tiger, or puppy. And he can also pick out the duck from his toys. His hand-eye coordination is amazing. Minutes after getting a new toy he was already putting the circles through the pegs even though the holes were less than an inch in diameter. He can say Dada and Ayah, too. He will cover himself with his favorite sarong or clothes to play peekaboo. And he’ll wave hi and goodbye. He loves the water very much, and instinctively starts to swim or float even when he’s on his tub. Maybe he’ll be walking soon, but we’re not encouraging him. He’s already giving us a lot of work whenever he climbs stairs, which he loves to do every chance he gets. He understands the words no, stop, wait, dirty, and dangerous  … it doesn’t mean he will obey. He will in fact repeat what he’s doing — like pluck and eat leaves — to see my reaction, then do it again while giggling.

Here’s his latest video, taken this weekend:

So what’s going to happen next? We don’t know. We are currently looking up vacancies in other schools in other countries. But our decision to update our resumes took place months ago, and we sent expressions of interest to a handful of schools the week before the Marriott blast. Do we really want to leave Islamabad? Not entirely; but we knew vacancies for music and computer teachers don’t happen often, so we’re just being proactive. We love our students because we’ve had them for years and know them rather well. We’ve just gotten comfortable living in Islamabad with our baby, and we hate packing and starting all over again. And taking two online courses that make me review the standards, technology resources, and priorities of schools make me proud of mine. Compared to some of my classmates’ schools in the US, we’re doing very well with Smartboards, wireless Internet on campus, as well as regular workshops and stipends for professional development. This just makes it harder for us to find similar schools that will hire us as a teaching couple … A school in a city with minimal pollution, lots of parks, competent nanny, and good health care for James … which Islamabad is.

But, as we love to remind our family and dearest friends: just keep praying for us if you want to stop worrying about us living here.

That’s the euphemism for rolling blackouts in Islamabad where the shortage of power supply has deprived our household of electricity two-three times a day lasting 30-60 minutes each since December. It is annoying to say the least, especially when they scheduled it so early in the evening. At first it was from 8:00 – 9:00 pm. So we started having dinner at seven and retired at eight, which was okay because of the baby. Then it was changed from 8:00 – 8:30 pm, so that was great, but it was shortlived, and became 7:00 – 8:00 pm. That didn’t last long either, and it soon became 6:30 – 7:30 pm. We were left with little choice but to have “dinner by candle light” or flashlight or rechargeable lamp — whatever was working — for at least two weeks. To add insult to injury, some sections only have one during the day or none at all. The only good thing I can say about these power outages are that they are often on time.

Growing up in the Philippines I am used to these rolling blackouts and intermittent brownouts, but not my husband. After reading the news reports that load shedding may continue until the hot summer months he started looking up the price of power generators, only to find out how expensive these are. But the good news is, the school can provide some kind of UPS, enough to provide electricity for lights and fans. So we decided to use our housing allowance for this.

It looks like the Snugli baby carrier is going to be our latest favorite baby item, after we brought James to the Daman-e-koh within the Margalla Hills National Park this past Sunday. The weather was sunny but cool in the morning. We saw monkeys, geese, peacocks, and other birds although James preferred to sleep again. We attracted some attention from locals who were amused at the sight of Brian with a baby strapped to his chest.

The park is a favorite hangout of locals, who go there to have picnics with their families under the trees. Expats, on the other hand, prefer to hike on the various trails within the park. There are also restaurants by the viewpoint areas, where one can admire the city of Islamabad even if the haze gets in the way most of the time. It’s a pity we didn’t have enough cash on us to sample the barbecue, but we’re sure we’ll be visiting this area again so James can get some fresh air.