Sick, and a Bit About Politicians
Dear Everyone,
as I write this, my knees ache, my head swims, and my throat feels like someone has been scrubbing it with a wire brush, so this letter will be short. I have had a fever since Monday. it is now Friday morning and it shows no sign of going away. you never feel more vulnerable in a foreign country than when you are sick. you never miss modern medical science until you are in a place where it's difficult to tell the doctors from the carpet sellers, where you have to breathe over their necks to make sure you get a sterile poker for the blood test. the test cost about 50 cents, and it showed up negative for malaria, whatever that means. I went because Haleem had been coming into my room everyday to ask if "today maybe check blood?" he thought it was malaria for sure. from his talk, Afghanistan has only one disease, and it's malaria. whenever you've got anything, even a sore tooth, they want to take you to the clinic for a blood test. anyway, malaria or not, this is day five of a coughing sore throat and Joyce has been gone all week, so it's been sue and I holding our own here with five earthquake mitigation trainers from Tajikistan. they've been working this area for a few days. I don't know exactly what they DO, but they go out everyday, so I'm assuming they do do something. one thing they DID do was go see the Governor first off, which apparently put his whole office in a rapture, thinking that SFL was doing a survey, which meant that SFL was going to do a big project, which meant that SFL was now fair game for governmental requests. we spent the next two days explaining to various G-men that we were NOT doing any more projects, and no, we could not help them with their roads, or ditches, or daughters' birthday parties. they kept coming, different ones each time. I guess they don't talk to each other at the pub after work. probably because there's no pub...
the government are a showy bunch around here. I went to an all-afghan meeting at the hospital about the new vaccination program that will prevent childhood diseases. I guess paola's little pep talk at the last coordination meeting found it's way home. we sat in two rows facing each other, and I made a splash as the only white guy there. there were several speeches leading up the the governor himself, who took the microphone with the poise of a real politician. it's a little hard to make a dignified speech when your voice is squawking out of a loudspeaker dangling from a tree and connected to a car battery, but he managed quite well I thought. of course, I didn't understand a word, same as all the other speeches. however, it was quite clear what it was all about when he finished and they brought him someone's baby so he could give the first vaccine. he administered the medicine, mugging for the camera, and then - and I'm not kidding - he leaned over and kissed the kid. folks, this guy is a POLITICIAN.sue has started her English courses and is in her absolute element. everyday there is a stream of young women giggling their way into her two classes, and giggling back out again. their burqas come off when they come in the gate, and it's been nice to have a decided female presence here.ok, I'm starting to shake again, so I'm going back to bed. all mistakes or run-on sentences in the above text are probably due to delirium. keep praying.
rjs.
as I write this, my knees ache, my head swims, and my throat feels like someone has been scrubbing it with a wire brush, so this letter will be short. I have had a fever since Monday. it is now Friday morning and it shows no sign of going away. you never feel more vulnerable in a foreign country than when you are sick. you never miss modern medical science until you are in a place where it's difficult to tell the doctors from the carpet sellers, where you have to breathe over their necks to make sure you get a sterile poker for the blood test. the test cost about 50 cents, and it showed up negative for malaria, whatever that means. I went because Haleem had been coming into my room everyday to ask if "today maybe check blood?" he thought it was malaria for sure. from his talk, Afghanistan has only one disease, and it's malaria. whenever you've got anything, even a sore tooth, they want to take you to the clinic for a blood test. anyway, malaria or not, this is day five of a coughing sore throat and Joyce has been gone all week, so it's been sue and I holding our own here with five earthquake mitigation trainers from Tajikistan. they've been working this area for a few days. I don't know exactly what they DO, but they go out everyday, so I'm assuming they do do something. one thing they DID do was go see the Governor first off, which apparently put his whole office in a rapture, thinking that SFL was doing a survey, which meant that SFL was going to do a big project, which meant that SFL was now fair game for governmental requests. we spent the next two days explaining to various G-men that we were NOT doing any more projects, and no, we could not help them with their roads, or ditches, or daughters' birthday parties. they kept coming, different ones each time. I guess they don't talk to each other at the pub after work. probably because there's no pub...
the government are a showy bunch around here. I went to an all-afghan meeting at the hospital about the new vaccination program that will prevent childhood diseases. I guess paola's little pep talk at the last coordination meeting found it's way home. we sat in two rows facing each other, and I made a splash as the only white guy there. there were several speeches leading up the the governor himself, who took the microphone with the poise of a real politician. it's a little hard to make a dignified speech when your voice is squawking out of a loudspeaker dangling from a tree and connected to a car battery, but he managed quite well I thought. of course, I didn't understand a word, same as all the other speeches. however, it was quite clear what it was all about when he finished and they brought him someone's baby so he could give the first vaccine. he administered the medicine, mugging for the camera, and then - and I'm not kidding - he leaned over and kissed the kid. folks, this guy is a POLITICIAN.sue has started her English courses and is in her absolute element. everyday there is a stream of young women giggling their way into her two classes, and giggling back out again. their burqas come off when they come in the gate, and it's been nice to have a decided female presence here.ok, I'm starting to shake again, so I'm going back to bed. all mistakes or run-on sentences in the above text are probably due to delirium. keep praying.
rjs.
posted by rjs | 4:08 PM
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