How to tell this story without it sounding ridiculous?
Saturday morning started off as many do: wake up by 5:30
(thanks, Anastasia!), pancakes and then Khalil arrives to take us
somewhere. Today it was going to be the
Lahore Zoo as part of the festivities for Talula’s third birthday.
The first surprise of the day was that our driver’s quote
for the zoo fee of 15 PKR was what we paid as well. I had expected a “foreigner’s fee” but all
four of us got in for less than 40 cents.
Adults were 15 PKR each; the girls cost a mere 5 PKR. I guess they don’t get enough foreigners to
make it worth their effort.
The visit started well.
Anastasia raced from one exhibit to another, there was a brief jumping-off-the-bench
competition by the giraffes and Talula managed to touch a baby gazelle on the
nose. All the animals had plenty of
space and appeared well-fed. We saw
hippos, rhinos, an elephant, various birds and ungulates, chimpanzees drinking
tea, a camel, zebras, lions with cubs and the snake house. It was as we went for a closer view of the lions,
tiger, puma and other cats that we got in trouble.
The large cat-viewing space climbed up hill with a series of
waves to make it easier to see the animals.
Anastasia and Talula immediately saw its potential and began running
down it. I warned them to be safe and
they were being somewhat cautious. Anastasia was wearing a zebra dress and Talula
had a snake shirt on. The bobcat
actually started stalking Anastasia as she ran up and down the hill. On one of the trips up, she looked to the
side to see if he was following her and she fell flat on her face.
By the time I got to her, she had an egg-sized knot on her
head. We immediately started in the
direction of the concessions to find some ice.
In place of words, I lifted up her hair to show the nearly golf
ball-sized protrusion to vendors until I found one with ice. I grabbed a pair of spare underwear from my
purse (the girls’ underwear, not mine) and began holding the ice on her
head. I suggested to Randy that he should
take this time to go to the restroom as the crisis was under control. He hadn’t been feeling well in the morning
and needed a break.
A few moments later, I see a commotion that draws my
attention from the girls. White man
down: canteen workers and zoo guests race to try to catch Randy as he collapses
on the ground. I show Anastasia how to
hold her own ice and go see Randy. He
looks like he’s about to barf so I get a trash can and dump water on his
head. Three men are massaging his
shoulders, another finds him a juice and 20-30 others stand and gawk.
I return to Anastasia and Talula. One man tells me I should be holding a warm
compress not a cold one and another is suggesting 1122 (the
911-equivalent). I say no to the first,
but yes to the second. I borrow Randy’s
phone to call Khalil, our driver, to come and collect us. We had sent him home thinking we would be at the
zoo most of the day. I buy the girls
some ice creams to distract them from all the drama and to show some
appreciation to the guy that gave us the ice in the first place. Upon my return from that, I see that expression
on Randy’s that I saw on the plane ride from Morocco: he’s about to go down
again. I yell this to the men still
rubbing him, they don’t understand, but manage to catch him anyways.
It’s about this time that the ambulance arrives. Anastasia sees the uniforms and dives under
the table, strongly refusing any assistance.
While I’m trying to drag her out, Randy disappears. A stranger says “BP” which I translate to “the
paramedics took Randy to the ambulance to check his blood pressure.”
While waiting outside an entrance to the zoo, I buy more
junk to entertain the girls, repeatedly try to contact Khalil as we are now at
a different gate than we were dropped and endure the ogles of a bus full of
school boys. I also assure the zoo
administrator that we do not want to make any complaints; this fiasco was all
our own doing.
I hadn’t told Khalil about what was going down at the zoo
because I thought he would have trouble understanding and/or try to drive too
quickly to save us. Thus when a kind
by-stander gave him a synopsis he was visibly upset. Once in the car he told us that “I am responsible
for you” and that in the future he will not leave us unattended in public
places.
The afternoon was much less eventful. Khalil presented Talula with a creepy, winged
doll that had glowing eyes and sang the same Carpenter verse over and over:
“When I was young
I'd listen to the radio
Waitin' for my favorite songs
When they played I'd sing along
It made me smile.
Those were such happy times”
I'd listen to the radio
Waitin' for my favorite songs
When they played I'd sing along
It made me smile.
Those were such happy times”
[Yesterday Once More (Reprise)]
Midafternoon we had Talula’s birthday cake and presents on
one of the roof’s balconies. While there
we viewed a hoopoe (a favorite bird we recognized from Abu Dhabi), sneaked peaks at the
Eid goats in our neighbor’s yard before they are slaughtered, colored with new
markers, dressed and re-dressed a new Moxie doll and tried to sneak photos of
Anastasia’s shocking forehead.
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| Anastasia and Talula carefully placed all their "friends" on the steps multiple times a few nights ago. They said it was like how their teachers get them to sit at school. |
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| "new" swing from Ramona and Ric. It's in a nice shady spot to observe birds, squirrels, cats and plants. The girls use it as a piece of playground equipment. |
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