goodbye november

The bank manager said he hadn’t received my ATM card from Kabul yet so I called the Finance Dept and they said they’d call the Kabul branch and later the Dept called and said I had to email the bank and authorize the delivery of my card to Kandahar.   I have been trying to get this card since they told me I would receive it 40 days after I applied for it, which is now three months later.  Everything is new I’m told, be patient and besides the most people here don’t have any need for an ATM card, what’s the hurry?  It would be nice to have it when I travel.  It may not work, that is a real possible, but I’d like to have it in case whatever happens.  I left money in the account simply to demonstrate in some small naïve way my trust in them.  Of course the bank people may be thinking why doesn’t he transfer all his out like all the rest?  Right.

How many hotel reservations do I have to make?  How many train tickets do I need?  A four hour and 39 minute taxi from Pittsburgh to Detroit costs around $940 and change, ha ha.  Paying $230 for a 4 hour taxi from Muscat to Buraimi sounds cheap indeed. 

When I most need it the Internet fails to work.  Quick, tesol Arabia, march 2016  ‘on the spot curriculum development’  I can give a paper, eh, on how I took nothing and made a syllabus though I still have tonight to go and five more so I won’t contact them, gee, thanks for being slow you _____ connection.

The most frustrating thing about having dial up connection quality is when I want to log out of facebook and I can’t and people see the little green light next to my name and they think he’s on line but he isn’t!  He’s in class now, talking about body language.  How many things can your eyes say? 

11.30.15

7:43pm—On the last day of the month a huge chunk of the cracked tooth in the upper left region came out quietly during breakfast with Razzaq and Hanukkah who has about 14 teeth.  As long as it doesn’t hurt they say, and it’s a bonus if I can still eat on that side.  Well say no to dried apricots, dal is ok, bread is ok so far and toasted pound cake is ok but for how long, I don’t even want to see how unfortunate it looks.

And a day of coughing and spitting and feeling generally blah I was invited to dinner with some important people but I turned off my phone and told one of the kids from an important family in class who is also sick to tell his father forget it I feel like crap. 

I finished the four thirty class today with an easy test and Ezra asked me what he was going to do until I returned almost six weeks later.  The 20 year old who likes boxing says he doesn’t have a computer and if he did he wouldn’t have the internet in his home to access tens of thousands of websites for learning English.  I have two more classes with the seven am men and I hope they want to take a break.  I don’t want to continue, nothing personal, but I’m closing down and getting ready with the dates I have, putting this class behind me as well and to extend simply for five more lessons before I leave is just lame.

That would be cool if my insurance covered dental. 

So, if you weren’t feeling yucky would you be excited about this voyage, it’s certainly that, isn’t it, it’s absurd and all I think about is having something to make me really relax on these planes.  Lord, flying into New York six days before Christmas, let’s test your desert disposition and get to your connecting flight in JFK.  On painkillers.  or Sleeping pills, or 26 hours of no sleep. 

In any case, for the next 17 days I have to complete a number of things and to remember these things a list will have to be made, perhaps we’ll do it tomorrow.  Tonight, for the next few minutes just listen to Mozart, lean into the space heater, cough one last time, and go to bed.