Things Are Looking Up

Nothing major has happened, but I think that my e-mail woes are resolving themselves, slowly but surely. I was finally able to get into my work e-mail account last night, which was both good and bad. It was good because I was able to finally check all of my messages. It was bad, because the number of messages I had extended well into the double digits. I know that I’m not that important, but I guess that’s what happens after almost a week off e-mail. I also heard from one of my colleagues in Pakistan last night, apparently some massive cable in the ‘stan was destroyed, so no one can get e-mail out of the country, or something bizarre like that. I don’t claim to fully understand what the heck he’s talking about, as it sounds a little “the dog ate my homework”-ish, but the upshot of that is that I might have a week or so of radio silence once I return on Monday. I will, however, have a functioning cell phone again, so that will be good. Plusses and minuses, I suppose. I never really realized how important e-mail and internet access were to me here until I didn’t have them – it felt really isolating. Weird, no?

Things here are picking up, and all of a sudden, I feel like the most popular girl at the party. They want me back to the ‘stan as soon as possible, but we’re in a staffing crunch here and I’ve been told to stretch my time here as long as possible. So, everyone seems to want me to work on their project – flattering, no? It’s good, though, I like to feel useful. Plus, since I just found out that I got the raise I asked for, I’m not only stunned, but feeling kind of warm and fuzzy about work these days. It’s good times. It also means a teeny bit less financial stress, so I’m very grateful for that as well.

But back to the relevant part here. I have no idea what I’m going to do about my time over the next few weeks, it’s getting crunched. There is some mandatory time that I’ll need at home, starting in late August and going through the end of September, because I want to see friends and family, and people are having babies and getting married and all of those things that I’m not going to miss. Plus, the fact that I would just kind of like to be home for a bit. But then after that, maybe it’s back here? I don’t know. Maybe it’s here for a couple weeks after the ‘stan? Options abound, and I’m not sure how I feel about all of them just yet. I have told the relevant people that I need to be home for at least a month for personal reasons, and my boss said that was fine, so I’m hanging onto that e-mail for proof after I book my plane tickets. It’s good, though – he’s been quick about getting back to me about this kind of thing, which I appreciate. Even if he doesn’t have finalfinal say, he can help and/or act as a buffer if needed.

Although, really, if everyone could just postpone the having of babies and getting married stuff until it’s more convenient for me, that would be best. Can you guys look into that? Thanks.

The daily rainstorm came at night tonight, and I noticed something funny. Since rainstorms are so frequent in the wet season (it’s not just a clever name), most people have plastic ponchos that they carry around. When the skies open up, people whip them out of the storage compartments of their scooters and keep on with life, which makes perfect sense. What doesn’t make as much sense is people draping the front of their ponchos over the front of their scooter. Covering their headlight. It’s not a big deal if the poncho in question is clear, but the vast majority are some sort of color, with varying degrees of opacity. This unfortunately renders them virtually useless - more like mood lighting than a safety device. One wonders why the traffic fatalities here aren’t higher. I mean, they’re high, but they should be higher.

I just spent a brief amount of time online, getting disconnected every two minutes, so I’m going to have to post this tomorrow.