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The dirt here is rather intense.
In all my life my feet have never felt so dirty. It
does not matter how often I wash the kids’ hands
and feet, they're black minutes later. The annoying
thing is that it's not really dirt…it's dust.
At home if something was dirty, I could just clean
it and it would no longer be dirty. But here, the
dust is wiped down only to return when the wind blows.
According to the people who have been here for years,
it did not used to be so dusty. I guess all of the
years of war have left Kabul a pile of rubble. I am
amazed when we drive through the city that literally
everything has been blown
up. I have never seen anything like it. |
I find myself worrying about the water.
The kids are not old enough to understand that they
CANNOT get any water in their mouth. Jaden gets it.
I told him, "Listen buddy, the water is like
poison. It could kill you." So after he asked
100 questions about exactly how
dangerous the water really was, he decided the worst
thing he could do was get a drop of the “poison
water” in his mouth. But Jett and Ava just don't
get it. They are both dirty, but I really don't like
bathing them because of the chance that they will
get water in their mouths. We do a lot of sponge bathes,
but that can only get you so clean. |
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Washing clothes here is an interesting process.
We have a water heater that warms the water to a boiling
point and stores it. It's nice to have hot water,
but unfortunately the hot water has to be mixed with
cold water or the hot water cannot be used. I have
a washing machine that fills itself with water. So
either you have boiling hot water (that you feel
cleans the clothes but shrinks and discolors them)
or you have cold water (that makes you feel your
clothes are not really clean). I tried dumping
a bucket of cold water in with the load of hot clothes,
but it confused the washing machine sensor, and it
started draining the water right away. Ahhhhh! It
may be better to hand wash the clothes, but that does
not seem like it would really clean them either. Of
course, with limited electricity, the clothes have
to line dry. This means they are always crunchy and
smell like dust, even though I dry them in a room
with the windows closed!
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I do feel rather isolated, being in my house
all day every day. The idea of being at home
with the kids in the states was great. We would go
to the zoo, the mall, the children's museum, the park,
play in the pool… there were SO many things
to do. Here I cannot leave my house. If I do leave,
it has to be scheduled and approved by the security
a day ahead of time. Not knowing if the kids will
be sick, it’s very difficult to plan errands
24 hours in advance. I thought that perhaps security
was overreacting about the danger of walking around
the block – could that really be so bad? Apparently
it’s bad around the block where the German girl
got taken (3 blocks from our home)! However, I don't
really think they would want to take me and my three
screaming children. |
I hate the ants. Ever have that
feeling that something is crawling on you? In Afghanistan
it is! Our mattress is still on the floor because
we do not have our bed frames. Whenever we lie on
our bed, tiny ants come out of nowhere and start crawling
on us! They crawl on our pillow, our legs, and our
arms. When you look at the floor after meal time,
you can't see the ants because the floor is brown,
but you can see the food crumbs being carried away
on the ants’ back! I try to clean up the best
I can, but without electricity you can't vacuum. I've
resorted to sweeping the floor, but it's just not
the same as a vacuuming. We were going to buy ant
killer and spray it everywhere, but they told us the
poisons here are not safe to have around small children.
"Don't worry the ants are harmless!" they
tell me. Ha! |
