Sylvia's Journal

The banking system works again! After more than four weeks of filing papers, answering questions and waiting for various checks and assessments to be done, we finally signed the papers for a loan. It’s funny how we, who own property that is worth 10 times the size of the loan, are subjected to this sort of scrutiny while risky ventures were cooked up without much of a thought in the bank’s back room.

We now have access to money to pay the bills that are heaping up in direct proportion to the number of workmen in and around the house. The line of credit could have bought us an entire house when we started with home ownership, some 25 years ago. Now it will get us only a septic system and some long overdue maintenance.

Tessa and Steve are beaming – life is good to them: parents who fix up the house with a new septic system, a new coat of paint and a new fireplace and beautiful stone heart, and then leave for Afghanistan for a year.

More doctors’ appointments are filling my days. Yesterday I visited the ear doctor because of another defect that surfaced during my physical, a hearing problem I wasn’t even aware of.  Since there is no obvious cause for it that can be ascertained without cutting, we decided to leave things alone as the hearing is not affecting the quality of my life. Today I am seeing the hand doctor to take a look a my left fingers and hand to figure out what causes the persisted tingling and numbness that wakes me up at night and stops and starts without any pattern. In the meantime I continue my physical therapy, faithfully doing my exercises, to get the right shoulder back to normal functioning; one more week of sling.

The departure for Afghanistan is now like a waxing moon; everyday a little more of the reality of that departure shines in my face. A small suitcase is packed with sewing and knitting materials, an exercise ball and the Dutch goodies my brother brought last month. It will precede me to Afghanistan with my colleague Alain who is leaving tonight for a quick visit. I am also filling up boxes with books I will need and taking them to Cambridge, one by one, for shipment. In the meantime, things in Afghanistan remain in flux and I have to remember that anything I ship out I may never see again. It certainly is one way of getting rid of superfluous (but nice to have) stuff.