Just a Day

I felt today as if I am fitting in more and actually have a real job. I am understanding more and more of the acronyms used by my colleagues who have been with the company for months or years, and I have a general idea about how to answer the e-mails that come my way from the head honchos. As a result, this day wasn’t nearly as exciting as the ones before it; however, I felt pretty good about what I did today.

To begin, I am going to have to continue bragging that I am actually getting to work on time, and that is early in the morning. As difficult as that is, I’m sure, for many of you to believe, it’s happening. I will spend some time figuring out WHY it’s happening, so that maybe I can keep it up on the other side of the world when I return. I am not going to say that I am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 8 a.m., but at least I am where I am supposed to be at that time.

Next, I’m feeling more normal about going to get food in a cafeteria line that more often than not offers little to excite my palate. Tonight, for instance, was Mexican food night. After El Tapatio, most Mexican food just kind of falls by the wayside, and this was the same, but I do appreciate the effort that the service workers put in to try to keep me well-fed.

And this evening, after being lazy for three days, I actually made it to the gym and spent 10 minutes on the elliptical machine and 25 minutes on the treadmill. The added bonus: This camp is occupied by an army from another country, and the soldiers have little to do other than keep themselves very fit. So while I was walking on the treadmill, I was surreptitiously checking out all these very strong men who were lifting weights as if they were marshmallows, and doing so in what appeared to be spandex gym clothes. Fortunately, all those in spandex wore it well – at least as far as I could see. I thought about trying to get someone to coach me, but I think I will show up a few more times before I become so bold. Nicci, I could sure use you here.

As I worked today, I remembered what it had been like to work for a corporation. I have been out of the corporate world for so long that I had forgotten the inter-office memo, and other methods of communication. In fact, the last time I worked for a corporation, overnight mail was THE thing. There was no FAX, and e-mail wasn’t even a blip on anyone’s radar. I wonder what Yellow Freight would have looked like in those days with e-mail!

One of the most enjoyable parts of my day today centered around talking with some of the Afghans with whom I work. Save one, they are all men, and they are polite and well-educated. One used to be a professor, and one is a doctor. The others are lawyers, even the lone woman, who is also a wife and mother of four. My office mate and I were discussing our hopes for his country. He wants to see living conditions improve for the citizens, and we discussed how that might happen. I admire him for getting in the trenches to try to make it happen. I imagine it would be easier to sit back and wait and hope, but he has taken the bull by the horns to be an agent of change. As we go along, I hope that we will talk more and that he will let me know about what his friends and relatives think about the United States and our role there. He was delighted to know that I am an English teacher. He wants me to help him with his writing, as he thinks his progress has been slow. I think he does a great job, but I agreed to assign him papers and then help him revise them. And here I thought I was going to take a grading hiatus!

Another young man went to University in India. He dresses nattily each day in a suit and well-pressed shirt. He told me that his mother is ill with asthma, and that he takes her to a doctor from the UK once every six months – in Islamabad. He made a point to tell me that they fly rather than “travel by road.” He tried to help me with my company-issued phone, but I am totally lost when it comes to those things – even though 10 days ago I thought I knew SO MUCH about SIM cards. Ha!

So tonight, after a normal day at work, I sit in my room, looking at the sheet that covers the two windows, and think about what I might have to offer these people, and more important, what they have to offer me. My hope is that they will help me tell you what their lives are like, and in doing that, will allow all of us to walk a mile in each other’s shoes and see each other as human beings, and not as enemies forged by the actions of some crazed maniacs. Pollyanna? Maybe. But worth a shot.