Conference, Pakistan border event

I posted pictures of the conference, but haven't really talked about the substance. I'm still processing and will talk about it soon. I was extremely impressed at the number of very articulare (particularly) women speakers who are working on many projects to improve the lives of people in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The stats are horrendous - 300 million, the equivalent of the US, are in severe poverty. But people are working to improve things. As I say, more when I've digested everything a little more.


We took the train to Amritsar today - we're going to see the Golden Temple for real tomorrow. But today we took a taxi to the Pakistan/India border to see the evening flag lowering at the Wagah border ceremony. On both sides of the border, bleachers fill up with maybe 2000-3000 people on each side.
The crowd is cheering the Indian side here



This shows the gate between India and Pakistan. This is a friendly, football game rally like event. Cheers, high stepping soldiers, music. Too bad this sort of positive interaction between India and Pakistan isn't all over CNN to remind the world that 'enemies' can have fun with and respect each other. One fun part is about five or six people from the crowd get to run with the Indian flag down to the gate, wave it, and run back. Pictures coming soon to illustrate, I hope.


Here we can see the Pakistani flag being lowered way off across the border.

This computer is taking way too long to download the pics and someone is waiting, so more later.