Settling in for a reunion

It’s my second weekend in my little apartment and I love it. It’s not too big, but plenty big for me – ang bigger than Baghdad, of course. Three bedrooms (one’s an office) and the same weird assortment of half-bathrooms as the big house. It does have one whole bathroom, though – including a bidet, tub and shower. The downsides to the big bathroom are that it’ll be chilly and there’s a step down from the toilet/bidet tub area to the rest of the bathroom. I’ve come close to face planting twice so far and stubbed my toe once. 

The kitchen is perfect for me. It’s got a table for two in it, right near a really big window leading to what could, I guess, be called sort of a balcony. If I was on the second floor or higher, it would be one, but I don’t know if it’s the same thing on the ground floor. There are four of these, all told, and all have those big metal safety shutters that envelope you in complete darkness when they’re closed. They each have screens but the one in the kitchen keeps popping back up. It’s still nice to have the window open, because it’s right across from the sliding glass door on the patio so it gets a good cross-breeze.

And that’s good because power failures are a frequent occurrence here. We have generators but our ACs and stoves are not on the generators. The cross-breeze is a good workaround for the AC. For the stove, it’s a bit harder, but we have hotplates to substitute the stovetop. No sub for the oven, so I may be looking at getting an air fryer or toaster oven soon.

 The early lesson is to cook when you have power, even if it’s not at all time to cook. The hotplates work fine but they are slow. Last Saturday, we barely had power all day, but Sunday it was on and I started cooking like a mad woman. Most weekday mornings we seem to be on generator and it takes a long time to cook eggs, so I go for pancakes. Yesterday,  though, we had it and I scrambled some up quick.

 It’s a hardship post, so I pretty much expected it. It’s not Peace Corps but I can cope because I did Peace Corps. Others don’t have that … gosh, I’m not sure what it is. I hate the word “resiliency” and I’m not even sure it fits. Low maintenance? One guy was railing about it last week and I just shrugged. He acted like he and his wife were the only ones going through it, but there are probably at least 10 other embassy employees in these apartments. And we have nice apartments with things like distillers. I discovered my neighbor works for another embassy in the neighborhood and she doesn’t have a distiller and has to buy water. I also have a more awesome yard than she does; her apartment is a studio.

 Yes, a yard! My first! It’s so cute; it’s not big at all. It has a little raised garden area and I’ve gone out and bought some seeds, watering bucket and a couple hand tools. It’s a start. However, it’s been super dry of late (and this has effects on the power) and the city has but a water ban in effect, so those seeds are just cooking now, I guess. The rains should start in a couple weeks. It has rained twice in the last three weeks, so it’s coming.

Meanwhile, I’m settling in. My air shipment came, but my boat shipments are still on the way. Inchallah, they will come on Friday. I’m looking forward to reuniting with my stuff, which I haven’t seen since I hurriedly packed out of Minsk what feels like two lifetimes ago. I literally do not remember what I have, although I am hoping for more clothes. I didn’t have as much packed in the air shipment as I thought and have only added two work shirts into my rotation. There must be more.

Although I know I have a bunch of rugs, I don’t have much of a clue what’s coming. Once in a while a random item I own will go through my head and I’ll think, wow, I get to see that again! For example, it crossed my mind that I own a little firepit! I’ve never used it. I bought it on the tail end of my tour in Istanbul, then went to Baghdad and Minsk and then Baghdad again – all apartments, no yard. Now I can use it! I have also remembered my collections of rocks, crosses and magnets and my two bespoke leather jackets. I won’t be wearing those any time soon – we’re southern hemisphere, so summer’s coming – but it’ll be nice to see if they still fit.

My current kitchen has LOTS of storage but I can’t remember what I own, other than some dish towels I got forever ago from Lands’ End. They are quite awesome, IIRC, and are way more than the dustcloth I tried to use in their stead. I had made popcorn and went to use the dishcloth as a trivet and it melted. Oops.