Last sunday, my flight from Charlotte, NC was 4 hours late. So, after getting to DC, I ended up taking a taxi from Dulles to Baltimore to avoid late night travel. A south asian looking man, late 40s, picked me up in his taxi. I noticed that his cab driver's license had the name, Farid Wazir, prominently displayed, so he either had to be Pakistani or Afghan. I decided to initiate a conversation, instead of my typical bored expression. This led to one of the most fascinating taxi ride. Here's the basic 4-1-1 on my driver. I'm gonna just share my notes.1. Farid is from Waziristan, which is a tribal semi-autonomous land on the NWFP of Pakistan. Hence, his last name.
2. He came to the US 26 years ago
3. He has not met a single other person from Waziristan in the US. He attributes it to people being very content in his homeland (despite the economic problem)
4. He has "only 7" children, the eldest 24, the youngest, 2. His elder two children goes to law school and school for dentistry.
5. He doesn't identify himself as Pakistani much, and bragged about the rebel that he is. People from Waziristan has free electricity in their land, and airfare from Peshawar to their main city (I forget the name now) is free, since most of their travellers are military, and they take civilians on their plane as insurance that they won't be fired at. He got into trouble with homeland security because he brought pictures of guns and ammos that he owns back home.
6. He invested in real estate in Virginia, but lost 26 years of savings due to market downturn. He has to sell a house that he bought at $625K four years ago, now the market price is $400K. But he has no choice, otherwise, the three other investments in real estate will be foreclosed by the bank.
7. Notice his license plate in the picture, which is WZRSTAN.
8. Pakistanis are the majority of cab drivers around Dulles airport. They are followed by Afghans, Bangladeshis and Indians. I was gonna ask about Ethiopians, but decided not to press on.
I will remember this man for a long time.
