Sylvia and Haynes Gearhart don't believe Pakistan has any more fanatics than anywhere else in the world.
The missionary couple first left for Pakistan in 1994. They stayed two years and recently returned to work there until church officials requested that they leave after the events of Sept. 11. They have since gone to work in Sri Lanka.
Sylvia Gearhart said in an e-mail to Othello friend Lillie Gilbert that she and her husband were besieged with expressions of condolence, not just from friends, but from the general masses of people they encountered. She said the anti-American reactions depicted on television are blown out of proportion to what the vast majority of Pakistanis feel.
"It was as though it had happened to their own loved ones, which in many cases it did, for there were many Pakistanis in the (World Trade Center)," she wrote.
The Gearharts lived in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, on the Arabian Sea coast at the southern tip of the country; Faisalabad, which is close to the middle of the country; and Lahore, which is almost on the Indian border. Additionally, they have traveled to every province in the country and have been to many of the cities now featured in the news: Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Jalalabad.
In an e-mail interview with the Tri-City Herald, Gearhart said it was not difficult to adjust to the Pakistani culture. She said their customs often are similar to those of older Mexican Americans. For example, she said several generations often live together under one roof, the oldest grandchild often is raised by grandparents, families are the center of society, marriages usually are arranged and in general the people appear to love bright colors and festivals.
"They are not overly greedy for worldly goods," she wrote. "Pretty much they want to live and let live. This is the normal Joe Blow on the street and in your neighborhood. The media has shown another culture which has been accepted as the real culture, when it really is not."
She said that often the Pakistanis who Americans see protesting on television belong to radical groups with relatively few members.
Haynes Gearhart wrote that they always have been treated with respect and kindness not only by the citizenry, but by police and government authorities. They've never felt threatened but do avoid dangerous areas just as they would in the United States.
The burkas, a type of outer clothing covering the entire body which Western countries view as a sign of female oppression, generally are only worn by women in rural areas or by women who belong to specific Islamic factions, he said. Women are seldom seen wearing burkas in cities such as Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad.
"Other than bonded indentured servitude in northern Sindh province, the only oppression we saw was that exerted by the Muslim mullahs on their Muslim members," he wrote. He noted that Muslims are not allowed to be taught anything about Christianity, and any Muslim who converts is thrown in prison for two years -- a death sentence, for they've been told none come out alive.
"In some households there is oppression and friction, but probably no more than one would find in any place where there are as many as 40 or 50 family members under one roof and never enough money, food or goods to go around," Haynes Gearhart said.
During the Sept. 11 attacks, the Gearharts were working with teachers in a small Catholic school in a poverty-stricken area of Lahore, a city of 4 million, instructing the teachers about English-teaching methods to use with their students.
Most of those teachers only get paid about $15 a month, "working under impossible conditions of heat, dirt, with little or no supplies." There were no desks or chairs, only steel-framed wooden benches, until the night of Sept. 10 when 120 desks, 120 chairs and 2,100 school kits arrived from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Charities Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake City. The charity also sent $7,900 to build more chairs and desks.
Haynes Gearhart said the vast majority of those they work with are not Mormons -- the church not being particularly concerned about religious, political or ethnic consideration -- and the main purpose of their welfare work is to help those who need help to help themselves.
Sylvia Gearhart shared several amusing stories. She described a day when she and her husband were trying to park their little Suzuki but couldn't get it to fit in the parking spot. A group of men standing around on the street watching came and lifted the car up, with the Gearharts inside, and with laughter and good fellowship, placed it into the parking spot.
The Gearharts, now in Sri Lanka, describe the country as having been torn by civil war, terrorism, drought and corrupt officials for more than 20 years. Their projects include helping lepers and their families. Leprosy still is around, Sylvia Gearhart wrote, as is the attitude that lepers must shunned and reviled.