an auspicious bowl of fruit

9.12am—The sun is delicious.  Close your eyes and just feel it hum through you heating you up and let your thoughts disappear in the silence of an organic orb.

Saboor is one of the part time teachers here and while I sat on the steps getting slowly lost in the sun he came to teach his class.  He said it would be good if I shaved, he called me Johnakkuah and he didn’t feel right saying it, no, not because I’m 52?  I told him I don’t mind the gray beard and that is true for the most part. 

And yesterday the young man told me he was born a refugee.  He returned to Kandahar a year ago with a Pakistani undergraduate degree and his family.  He has no passport and getting one may be tricky but not impossible.  Well, good luck to you, son.    

1:54pm—For lunch there was a plate of dal and to eat it there was this morning’s baked twist off, open, pinch bread, and a serving bowl of shlum-bay, the odd yogurt drink with green bits of vegetables.  I always sit in the same place when a meal is served in the classroom slash women’s prayer room next to Saffi’s room.  Today to my right was Rezak, who enjoyed yesterday evening’s pizza, then Saboor followed by Hanukkah sitting across from me, a white-looking Afghani friend of Said Wali sat to Hanukkah’s right, and then there was Said Wali, who yesterday became a father for the first time.  Mabrook and goodbye to sleep for a while.

In the meantime Saffi left this morning to Kabul for four days and Fezel has a temp job in construction.  Is it feeling more monastic than usual around here?  I can go outside into the courtyard and run around and bark and no one will hear me.   woof.

All my lessons are ready for the two classes in two and half hours and for tomorrow’s morning men. 

I have a burnt hole on the front of my blue kameez.  How am I going to explain that, ya smoking is bad for everyone and thing.

8.15pm—The highlight today and maybe for the month occurred this afternoon, eating a bowl of pomegranate seeds and finishing To Kill a Mockingbird under the shady trees of the courtyard.  And then it was time to teach. 

And teach I did. 

And now I sit in the dark with only a solar stick light giving enough to see around, but not enough to read a book, not that I read books at night.  I don’t. 

I was standing under the airplane trees on the courtyard’s rectangular field of grass smoking a Korean cigarette and the weather was beautiful, the birds were chirping politely and I couldn’t for the life of me convince myself to crash on the mat and relax under the soft shade and I felt bored for the first time in a very long time and that really bummed me out.   

So I finished the cigarette and when I opened the front screen door Rezek met and handed me a bowl of pomegranate seeds.  Suddenly  I had this reason to crash on the mat under the shady trees so I ran into the blue room and brought Harper Lee back out again and didn’t we enjoy a relaxing moment outside. 

Who do I thank for an auspicious mood swing that gave me reason to chill and enjoy a great novel.  I’m afraid this is really looking like another coincidence.  I didn’t have a reason to sit on the grass and relax and what a spin right outside it was, back on the grass, lounging on the mat with fruit and a book.

Gee, I’m getting chills with this one.  It felt kind of close.