Four years ago I swore to travel less and yet since I
got a new passport in 2012 I have 13 pages left in it. That’s out of fifty two pages. I will have to get a new one before it
expires. How has this happened, that I
am actually moving more. Shit.
I looked at ten places to kill 8-18 days next
month. I don’t ask for pity, I know you
think I am so lucky to have such a conundrum, poor boy. In the meantime my hands are cold, my nose is
running, my stomach has gas issues still and I’m out of cigarettes but I don’t
feel like walking and I don’t feel like asking someone to take me.
I have to review my lesson.
Why should I remember the day I was born? so I can be constantly reminded how long I
have lived when so many die around me?
What is there to be grateful for?
They are the lucky ones the dead.
9:16pm—Coldplay is called ‘a
non-denominational’ band. If that works
in North America we’re all for it.
Because they do know something we don’t want to
believe. And I’d guess the band doesn’t
know either but they are paralleling universes right now.
I have to review my lesson.
I started Karen Armstrong’s ‘The Bible. The
Biography’. Certainly this isn’t in line
with the Catholic Church and I can’t think of a single protestant who’d believe
anything she is saying. But I read on
because there are things she does point out could be plausible. Like the writers in the new testament who
reinterpreted scripture because time required it to do so.
And the people who had ‘experiences’ while studying and
praying these books of the Shekinah Glory.
2.9.16
Just because she could be the first female president
doesn’t mean she should be the first female president.
Leaning against the fish pond admiring the orange
and yellow marigolds I have this idea and oh I wish I said that I could
remember it and type it out here because it was good. And I don’t remember. Will smoking a
cigarette help you remember? I have to
stay near the computer if it comes back.
It didn’t work.
Too many other things mulling.
Travel. Why go? Why not?
If you can do it, you do it.
Right? And where are you
going? It’s six weeks away. Can I commit so far in advance? Sure, let’s commit.
9:09pm—For thirty minutes I tried
to understand why a man’s interview to get the F-1 student visa went sour so
quickly. He showed me the rejection
letter the US embassy official gave him after a two minute assessment. The letter was a formal letter. The only handwriting on it was the date
1/30/16.
Mohammed told me the embassy staff looked right in his
eye as if he was trying to measure him out. Is he a threat? Is he going to abscond? I told him politics are involved here,
perhaps bad luck, I looked at all his papers, bank account statements, the F-1
form completed and so forth, why didn’t the embassy think he wouldn’t return to
his country? Ha, ya right. Because it’s Afghanistan. No, they’re giving how many Fulbrights to
Afghans, they’re limiting the number to the very best, ok, who perhaps will
probably return with something waiting.
But this kid? He wants to do his
bachelors at WSU and his f-1 would be good for five and a half years.
Well I kind of see red flags but universities or the
feds simply have to keep track of all students who come in. Every three months, every six months, an
international student goes online and lets the feds know he’s around.
Did he see anything in this kids eyes that left him in
doubt, was he trained to detect something in eyes that are not honest? Or was in his pitch and intonation, a few
extra trebles of fear detected only by dogs and embassy officials.
Did I think he looked like a threat? No. He said his brother got an MA in Boston, he
said he has relatives in the states, the embassy official also did not look at
any of Mohammed’s papers. Just two
minutes and thirty seconds of that was a stare down, a search for the soul or the beads of sweat, the crease in the bridge of the nose, the
tiniest of infractions that gives you up.
Do you think they are trained that well?
In any case I didn’t see any malice in his eyes but
truth be told there was something on the application he submitted which I haven’t
seen that might have left the office suspicious. I really don’t know.
I told the kid to reapply, ya it’s a $160 nonrefundable
fee, he said he already had, and has an interview the end of this month in Kabul, and I hoped for
him he’d meet someone else.
If they say
no demand a little more explanation for the reason he was rejected because gut
feeling is not enough to deny them an education in the US.
Is that it today?
It’s almost ten. Fezel offered
pan cooked eggplant in oil and I had to decline. Toast and tea is enough tonight. I had a bowl of oily dal and bread for lunch
finished off with fresh yogurt that is so good but it still screams for
fruit. Despite two cases of food
poisoning and a hernia operation I’d say I’ve been eating pretty healthy
here. Cheers.
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