"none of this makes sense"

I’m your captain and return me my luggage.

Arianna Airlines doesn’t fly to Kandahar on Thursdays.  We’ll send your luggage tomorrow.  Insha’allah. 

I’m getting closer to my home. 

The color of the month here in Afghanistan is marsala.    

How many times does Mark Farner sing ‘I’m getting closer to my home’?   

And again Razak asks why I haven’t changed into the traditional clothes and why I haven’t take a shower yet and really, I’m not taking anything off until my bag arrives.

There is goodness in a silk sleeping bag liner.  I think if I looked harder in Chicago I could have found silk underwear though the ones I got for Christmas did just fine in the windy city and in a chilly-wet Leuven though silk definitely packs much lighter.

“In the old city of Varanasi my spirit heard a distant bell and I got up and wound my way through narrow crowded alleys until it got louder and louder and then it stopped and I arrived to find a handsome man splashing red paint on the pillars and statues of Shiva in the outer temple and was he as happy as a well fed Freddy Mercury and ha ha I laughed his spirit is with you and he laughed and said thank you.” 2009

I do not miss electricity’s absence here and I will not miss it because what is there to miss when it hasn’t been here much to miss. 

1.15.16 

9:53am—Before everyone left last night it was understood the generator would be turned on for a few hours in the morning and that in turn would charge the big solar which would be available in the evening.  But today is Friday, Juma, and nothing is happening.  My bag is still in Kabul waiting forlornly to be reunited with its purchaser and for the third night I sleep in everything I wore when I left the Regal Plaza Hotel in Dubai, which fortunately has been comfortable so far.

11:22am—Hanukkah eats toast and sips green tea and listens to Kandahar talk radio. I found him sitting outside the gate listening to Anju Pant on his transistor and I understand why he doesn’t remember how to turn the generator on and it was impossible for me to follow him for twenty minutes until he got the right combination and electricity returns again.

The new coordinator whom I recommended for the job banned the four guards from smoking in the house, as well as chewing narwas, a finely snipped green snuff I have no interest in partaking,  most disconcerting of all was the removal of the tv.  Hanukkah lamented.  No more Jon Cena.  I feel bad, they are supposed to be more alert, there’s nothing to do and unless he was informed to tighten security they will be as bored as lifeguards at Mina A’Salim who were up at five thirty sitting in their chairs looking at nothing but a dark horizon. 

On talk radio a listener breaks out singing his poetry, the dj whispers ma’shallah during the oration and then they talk.  Who inspired you to produce this?  I’m guessing, but Pashto music is the same as Indian music, it’s about love and relationships. 

The final prerequisite for KU is a sample of writing.  I rummaged through my history in Troy and found the 18 page essay I wrote on the Shroud of Turin in high school.  I don’t think this is what they want.  I also saved a couple of assignments on Revelation.  Is there anything there that is remotely relevant with what I propose to do if I am accepted?  Not really.  And I didn’t study Paul in Bible College, only what he wrote.  So? 

4.43pm--The sun is good enough to stand in and stretch on the steps in the courtyard and soon we’ll need the solar to bring light into the cold house.  I have spent the day in the Said Wali’s new office which was once a place to eat as well as a room for women to pray.  The room warms up nicely from 10:30 to 2:00 and in direct sun I spent twenty minutes coloring a mandala. 

For lunch I ate two boiled eggs and pan fried in olive oil huge Afghan rotis in pieces and then Hanukkah came into the kitchen and sprinkled sugar on the pieces.  This could easily replace any kind of bread I need an electric toaster for. 

5.26pm--Fezel hooked up the flat screen sitting on the floor in the new office and where is Hanukkah?  It’s Jon Cena. Before I leave the room for something quieter and ok…what else is on, I ask Fezel to call the station manager a one Haji Jahir Popal on the status of my 22.6kg bag and he said I could go to the bazaar and pick it up at nine am tomorrow.  Ha ha.  I’ll put my local grubs on for this one.  Bring it on Cena!!

Before I cut his tie in half I told his girlfriend from Troy that French upholstery dealers sold Americans the idea that wearing a tie is fashionable.  Did you know there are at least a billion people in India who don’t wear a tie and they’re more content than we are. 

At Miller’s Pub I asked the bartender for scissors and he declined so I went into seated guests and a woman pulled out this eight inch kitchen knife.  Separate yourself from what isn’t you will be free because guess what, I stayed awake for new years’ eve.  Happy new year to Jacque from Windsor who was in town to surprise a girl who is presently attending a wedding.   I could give him no advice.

1/16/16  Fezel and I drove to the old city center and got my bag then we went to a carpet dealer and bought a beautiful new Herati carpet for about thirty bucks.  I could easily buy far too many.