Sylvia's Journal

I have decided I need an office outside our home simply to park all my African and other collections of stuff collected over the last 25 years. I don’t want all of it in my home anymore because it collects dust and Ali Ghulam is no longer there to keep things dust free. Visiting colleagues at MSH this week I realized how many knick-knacks that people buy, or that are gifted, are parked in their offices. I even recognized knick-knacks I had given away when I left two years ago.

They fill 100s of yards of shelves and every horizontal surface. I was wondering whether I could slip some things in, like my collection of African toy planes that I have outgrown, without anyone noticing.

I went into the big city for the second time this week, to catch up on two years with my longtime (but no longer) squash partner Annie, then have a wonderful Thai lunch (much better than the kind of Thai we would get in Kabul – so much better that I practically licked the plates clean) with people from Boston University’s School of Public Health, and then back, through excruciating slow traffic to MSH for a discussion about a chunk of work that needs to be done and for which I was considered a good candidate.

Since I will be running out of vacation time in the next couple of weeks – and was starting to get a little nervous – this was good news. I went home with some papers to study and accept or decline early next week.

I talked with M in Kabul, who was at home because the traffic is all tied up in condolence events for the recently slain leader of the peace process. I think that since the start of Ramazan in early August there has not been an entire work week, what with attacks, holidays, and traffic chaos. The phone call was to let her know that I may be far away but there is still that piece of my heart that is over there. M. says she will be hiding it so that I have to keep on coming back, over and over, to find it.

I do miss my team. Here I am not on any team at the moment and I realize that I need to work with a team to feel complete. If I accept the job given to me today I will be on a team with people I can learn much from. I have also made contact with my co-teacher for the Japan assignment in early November. In the meantime I am on my husband’s team as we move back into our home.

The moving back in, which went so fast when I just got home, is running into some snags, mostly mildew-related snags, exacerbated by the recent water main break – but not entirely. And so my neatly arranged office is in disarray again with stuff and books piled up on every horizontal surface, the smell of bleach and piles of books I am discarding but don’t know where to discard to.

Only a month ago I in my Kabul home with piles everywhere. Now I am back amidst different piles and the removal of these piles is so much more complicated because most people don’t want my stuff but I can’t throw it out. What a luxury problem to have – abundance!