Moving house

So, I started my big house move today. I have lost count of all of the times I have moved the past 10 years. Not as much as some, but, more than most. I should always remember that things take longer here than at home, but I seem to always forget. Actually things that may take an hour or so at home take days and days here.

So, I went tot he house today with the realtor (yes, they exist here, usually referred to the "paraperty dealer"). I wanted to do a once over to make sure everything worked before signing the contract. I don't know what happened on the last couple of days of the previous tenant's contract, but it seems that every foreign restaurant in town threw up on the floor. I have never seen such nastiness. I nearly cried. I had to quickly change all the days plans to clean. I mean it took hours just to sweep all of the trash out. Then we began to clean!

It took me, a teammate, and a local housekeeper all day just to clean the flat I am moving into. (There are two other flats in the building that we will start on tomorrow.) WE hired a truck and they made two trips and will make another tomorrow. SO most of our stuff is actually in the building but I think ti will take days before the house is really livable.

Oh, and someone left the basement window open and the screen is torn, so since the place is so nasty, guess what came in for a visit? Oh yeah... cock roaches. I nearly lost my mind. But I really believe that this time it is not a house structural issue. I think it is simply a nastiness issue that can be resolved with a few roach motels, boric acid, and bleach! I love bleach! What a great invention! What is that called? Something hypochloride or was it an hypochlorate I get the ides and ates confused? Oh well, chemistry was over 20 years ago. I guess I am allowed to forget a bit.

I am so thankful for my teammate, K, who helped me. If she hadn't been there I think I would have lost my mind. And, the availability of Dettol products (the British version of Lysol) is one of the huge blessings of life here. I go to the foreign shop and I stand in the cleaning products isle and bask in the glow of antiseptic/antibacterial products! Now, i am not a germa-phobe... perhaps I should be as much as I get sick here. But I love to clean! And, I think there is enough antibacterial products available here that if we poured them all into the sewer, perhaps children would stop getting so sick from their drinking water! But I digress...

Back to the house. It really is a nice place and there are very few repairs that need to be made, thankfully. But the amount of cleaning that needs to be done pretty much negates the time saved by few repairs. I am not sure that easy should even be in the vocab here.

So, tomorrow we go to buy carpets. I think I shall put linoleum in my room so that... yes, it will be easier to clean. So much dust here. If we could package the dust and sell it for something, the financial woes of this country would fade into the sunset. But again, I digress. I am really tired and have a hard time staying on task when I am this tired.

I don't need a big fancy place, but I need to have some beauty. I need a place that is "mine" where I can retreat to and rest. When I sit with a dying child, I need to go home and let down. I am excited about this house. I think it has the potential to be beautiful and homey. I just need to unpack and get settled in... Oh and the great thing? The contract is for two years! If we actually make it that long, it will be the longest I have been anywhere in recent memory! :)

Who am I?

I have been told that I am too dramatic about my life here, that I am attention seeking.

Hmm...I have a friend here who says she really struggles because of the stories that women tell her. The stories they tell... they really are horrific... I don't hear the stories. Why? Because I live them...

I don't hear about the woman whose brother beat her for talking to a man on the phone. I treat her wounds from the beating.

I don't hear about the woman whose baby is starving to death, and whose husband won't let her seek treatment for it. I hold it and pray over it that it may die quickly so it doesn't suffer.

I don't hear about the woman who wants or tries to commit suicide. I hold her down as she is screaming and trying to escape to get the gas can and the matches.

I don't hear about the sixteen year old girl who is newly engaged and just beginning her life, but dying because she had no access to healthcare. I fight for her and and watch as she turns from a beautiful young woman to scarcely a waif and fades off into eternity. I hold her sisters hand. I keep her mother standing as she wants to throw herself onto the floor. I sit at the funeral numb wishing I could have done, wondering if I could have done... more.

I don't hear about the twin babies who are starving to death. I sit with their mom as she cries because they are refugees and have hardly enough money to eat every day.

I don't hear about the pain. I live it.

A random thought

I was just thinking today about how people comment on things they know nothing about. I read news stories about Afghanistan (usually full of very incorrect and exaggerated information) and then I read comments from the readers. I am quite shocked when I read things like, "the US should just carpet bomb the whole place and get out of there!" First of all, I think what people clearly don't understand is that we are NOT at war with Afghanistan or the Afghans. We are at war with the Taliban and terrorists. Most of the bad guys who are here are insurgents. That means they are Foreign to Afghanistan! Would you carpet bomb innocent women and children because THEY are being invaded? Just a thought...