let there be energy

Six glasses of green tea later I don’t feel so tired.  The AUAF’s Kandahar branch is called PDI, Professional Development Institute.  On the third floor are four simple classrooms.  On the second floor is my dusty bedroom with no bed sheets and an eastern toilet.  I told you, do squats and you’ll lose the gut.  On the first floor, or the cellar, or the basement, which is what it feels like, are the offices of the staff who are more than happy to be working here.  I imagine, I hope, one day, I will feel this emotion, but right now, I am waiting for the coordinator to take me shopping.  I have a long list and it includes bed linen, an iron and ironing board and coffee etcetera and so on. 

Then there is the issue with electricity.  Saffiq, the coordinator explained the three tiered system of energy and showed me a room full of car batteries.  Unfortunately, the a/c in the dusty bedroom takes a lot of juice, is that right, it was only 102 today, do fans work, they cut the heat’s edge but to sleep I complained, and the juice for the air conditioners comes on at night.  I think I’ll need to dress like a local, anything to be cool. 

And then there’s the kitchen.  Mother of Jesus.  How am I going to eat three meals a day here I don’t know.  I can do breakfast alright but the grease-bombed oven needs an overhaul.  No electricity in the morning means no electric kettle for coffee, the oven works with matches and a turn of the gas.  There are no knobs on the thing either.  For the love of God.  No one will use the kitchen I’m told if I use it, and I feel bad about that decision but the place is a dive and needs a serious scrubbing.

The pool, ha, if it is cleaned up it might be nice.  It certainly looks very alluring.  I have met the staff and they are all good fellas.  There is one woman, a part time teacher, good for her, and I forgot her name.  Remembering the names of everyone will be tricky, but I have gotten to know Wali, the secretary who spent three plus years in a university in Banglore.  The last teacher was, is, greatly missed. 

And then there are the guards, Fazal Ahmed, and a real cheery fella Khan Mohammed  who cut the grass in the front courtyard with a tiny electric lawnmower that he plugged in a huge generator plopped next to the entrance of the guesthouse/institute.  I didn’t stick around to see him finish the job.

So, living at work, 24/7.  This could cause burnout.  I see a lot of time to prep, I’ll need it especially if or when I teach TOEFL which I’ve never taught. 

Am I missing Kabul?  Not really.  The weather at night was deelish.  I had to walk 700 meters out of the Kandahar airport to meet my ride.  In the airport grounds are two really big ostriches in a pen.

checking in at the domestic airport in Kabul:

man 1:  sorry sir but you are 10kg overweight.  You will pay.

me:  fine, whatever, how much?

man 2:  Excuse me, are you a teacher?: 

me:  Yes I am.

man 2:  ok, no extra charge.

(an argument ensues between man one and two.)

8.3.15

It’s too hot here to live without electricity.  The man who interviewed me outright lied.  It’s six in the morning and the bedroom  is a cauldron.  The food I bought last night with Saffiq and Wali is going bad in the small fridge.  In addition the broken mattress left my back hurting.  How much sleep did I get, four or five hours and now no power, this is unacceptable.  I don’t know how I can stay here.  How much complaining should there be, well, get sick and they will see this is no place to live.  Not even a breeze, I drink liter after liter to no good.  I thought this was meant to be, coming here, too suffer?  Through no fault of my own. 

And when there is no power there is no internet. 

I went to the cellar to fill up water bottles from a dispensary and Khan, who they call Hanukkah is sleeping on the cool floor.  He doesn’t complain.  He’s better off because he doesn’t know any better.  This is how it is he says, we live in the 19^th century.  Just a breeze Lord, help me get through this, help me adapt.  I think I can handle the isolation, one year here seems like ten years now. 

Meditate and feel no heat. 

Take a cold shower.

At 2:30pm yesterday I ate with the staff.  It was good.  Then at ten pm I went to the Arena Sports Club for kebabs and it was good.  I don’t know how to adjust to their way of life, but I’ll have to, won’t I, if I want to stay a year.  Imagine I thought I’d stay two, not in the desert like this.

8:53am.  The power comes on.  I should try and sleep.