the first leg of the winter session of the jefferson fellowship has officially ended. from sunday until today, we've been discussing various issues on south asia, particularly pakistan and india where we will be travelling to in the next few days. learned a lot from the discussions, especially from the fellows from india and pakistan. but the informal discussions/conversations in between sessions/tour stops were even more enlightening. i never knew there was a law in india that required people to get a certification that they were alcoholics so they would be able to purchase beer. the medical certificate indicated the number of beer bottles one could purchase in a day to "sustain the body's need for alcohol."
got to meet mr. freeman of the freeman foundation, one of the sponsors of the jefferson fellowship. i was quite surprised - and flattered - about a comment he made regarding an incident back in 2003 which i was involved in.
anyway, today's our last day in hawaii. tomorrow morning, we all travel to bangkok for a one-day stopover en route to pakistan and india.
i'll be celebrating my birthday this year in islamabad - the first birthday i'll celebrate in a foreign country, away from my family.
