You shouldn’t play catch with children who play cricket.

They throw funny….and hard….and they laugh when you take the nasty, dirt-covered ball in the mouth. Just like I would have when I was 8. It was pretty funny even to me. We were in a vegetable market shooting…attracting a rather impressive crowd too, when I saw a child playing with a rubber ball, about the size of a baseball. I would have said it was blue but that would have been about a year ago so I will say it was dirt colored. He was following us, bouncing the ball off the street into the air and catching it. Naturally I stole it when he bounced it too close to me. And the game of catch began…it took a moment for him to get my game but he did understand and we were bouncing it and throwing it back and forth. Suddenly a slightly older kid (maybe 12) slid in and caught the ball I just threw to the little one. I threw it back towards the little one and the older kids stretched out to catch it again. SO being a younger brother I decided to work around him a bit. Well, he wasn’t giving me much room so I started to throw high, low, to the sides anything he wasn’t catching them all but the little guy wasn’t getting any of them either so, I was going to quit. Unfortunately I forgot to tell the kid I was done. I am looking at the little guy when I see the other kid moving towards me, I see him just in time for the release and realize that this is going to hurt. I was right. I got my hand up in time to deflect that filthy projectile right into my lip.

Honestly the crowd went silent, the erupted into laughter.

So for those that remember my last trip here, I have found another universal laughing point. Pain. So far its poop and pain, keep that in mind folks.

No blood no foul, the kid looked terrified that I was going to hurt him. So I punched the little bastard in the face.

Just kidding.

I laughed it off, gave him the ball and wiped any number of foul things off my face left over from the ball.

 

Today I spent the day chasing the beginnings of my self-assignments, so far I shot a few shots that I like but it was definitely slower than I hoped today would go.

I did however meet randomly two different New Yorkers (who are Pakistani but definitely New Yorkers) in two seriously random places. I met Rashid in a gun store, as he was getting ready to test a new shotgun he was going to buy for duck hunting. In this store you test it by going into the other room and shooting the weapon into the mound of dirt in the closet. Yes it’s damn loud but its pretty damn cool too.

The next guy I met while shooting portraits at a tire shop and body shop. Both guys thought it was hilarious that I was here and we met under these circumstances. We talked about New York and Pakistan and that was pretty much it.

You can go anywhere you want but you will meet someone from Brooklyn, this much I am sure.

 

I bought a portable lighting set up just before I came to Pakistan so I could shoot lit portraits on the streets or inside…anywhere really. Today was the first day I would actually try using it. When it works, its pretty cool. Its not as graceful as it could be, it was run over today which didn’t help out its grace or good looks but it still works which I count as a plus really. What I did get are a few really good shots that I could not have shot any other way.

Which means two things: David Johnson was right and I am really that good.

It’s not bragging if it’s true.

 

I am going to eat dinner now.

Aren’t you all glad I am keeping you up to date on my meals?