Day 1 - 6 August 2010

Journal – Friday, 6 August 2010 – Day 1

I woke up at 9:38am Syrian time after dreaming about taking naps because I was so tired. I puttered around still a little disoriented and in a fog from jet lag and a new apartment. I made a cup of instant coffee heated in the microwave and ate a banana out of the refrigerator from the food stash they left me.

At 10:30 Jim called me, met me in the street and showed me to the school. We walked in together. Since it’s an open air school, the perimeter is enclosed by a wall and we enter through a security air-lock type thing. In the main office, Annie was pouring coffee; she offered, and yes, I definitely wanted it.

I wrote an email to my family. See msrichoverseas.blogspot.com

Annie was making coffee in the office because this morning she couldn’t get her stove at home to heat water hot enough for coffee. She was unsure about her new gas stove because she had to turn on the gas and then light the gas burner. She used the glass top to put the pot on to heat the water after she got the burner lit. After the water had heat up as much as she thought it would, she put the water in her cup and as soon as she put the pot back on the glass, the cover shattered. She made sure she told Jim because there was glass all over the kitchen.

That morning, Jim drove us to the German store because it was a Christian store and everything else was closed since it was the Holy day of Friday. Jim, Annie and I got some things just to get by for the next few days such as, shampoo, water, trash bags, lunchmeat, cheese… I spent about $25; Annie spent about $80. She bought wine, salt and vinegar chips and some other stuff. We took one of the guys from the store back to the apartment with us so that he would know where we lived so he could deliver our groceries from then on out.

Just to give you a little background on our living location, we live at a dead end cul-de-sac traffic circle next to the Consulate of Ireland, and across the street from the Ambassade de la Republique Islamique de Mauritanie, with a UN building at the end of the block.

We dropped off groceries at my apartment and then drove across the circle to drop hers off at her apartment. Jim pulled up to the front of her apartment building. We all got out helping Annie carry her groceries into her house.

She had a handbag, a backpack, and a little purse. Apparently she had shoved the purse into the handbag, so her keys weren’t initially available. She sat her bags down and searched for her keys. 5 minutes later she was able to locate her keys.

The keys fit into the locks, but she couldn’t get them to turn. There was a top lock, a bottom lock and two keys. Annie worked with them for a while, then Jim couldn’t get them to turn, then the German store guy couldn’t figure it out either. We spent 10 minutes trying to get the door unlocked. Jim said he’d call and send kHallad to come over and get it to work for us so that he could take the German store guy could go back. Jim left with the guy and kHallad said over the phone he would be there in 10 minutes.

Annie and I waited for him inside the stairwell where it was cooler. After about 30 minutes, I went over to my apartment to call Jim to ask him where was kHalled. Annie and I decided on a hand signal so that we could communicate from across the traffic circle. Jim’s phone was busy, I went out to tell Annie, and she was wandering back inside and didn’t see me from my balcony. Several times I waited a few minutes and called him again and Annie was still inside and wouldn’t see my hand signals.

I went back outside and back to her apartment. She said she still hadn’t seen kHallad and so I went back to my apartment to keep trying Jim. This time Annie brought some of her groceries to my house to put in my refrigerator.

The phone rang. Jim said, “Oh, you are at your place. kHallad is at the apartment.”
“Really? We were just there”.
“Yes, I just talked to him, he’s inside and he can see the mess that Annie made.”
“ok, thanks Jim, we’ll go back over there”

kHallad was standing outside of the building next to Annie’s apartment and so when we saw him, with trails of sweat running down his face. He said, “Where have you been?”
Annie: “Oh thank goodness you’re here. It’s the apartment over here.”
kHallad: “No, it’s not, THIS is Annie’s apartment.”
Annie looking up and around: “oooooohhh”
Kat: “ANNIE! You don’t know your own apartment? Didn’t you come here last night?”

Annie had been trying to break into the Embassy of Mauritanie!! No wonder her keys didn’t work.

Annie to Hallad: “Have you been inside?”
kHallad: “Yes.”
Annie: “Did you see everything?”
kHallad: “yes”
Annie: “My stove is broken.”
kHallad: “Yes, I know”

There was a security gate outside the building for one of her keys and the second key was for her door. She was able to immediately open the security gate and her apartment door. Once inside, we all went to the kitchen. kHallad explained that the glass was a ‘cover’ for the stove and not to be cooked on, but to cover the burners when you were NOT cooking.

That brings us up to noon on Friday……
That afternoon, Annie came over for lunch; we ate turkey and cheese slices rolled up, drank wine, and salt & vinegar chips. I didn’t want to drink wine because I didn’t want to get anymore dehydrated. That wine, however, went down a lot smoother than I thought it would.

We decided we wanted to walk up to the U.S. Embassy to see about joining the commissary and the pool but we should wait until it was cooler. 10 minutes later was the longest we could wait because we also wanted another bottle of wine.

We set out with a map, Annie’s back pack, she had been shopping with (left still at my apartment), and some water. We walked for a while trying to remember where we had walked the night before and then had driven this morning. We ended up on streets we sort of recognized, but streets aren’t labeled, so we were navigating by how far it had been since the last traffic circle and in relation to the river (stream).

There were all these men in brown suits. Earlier as we were driving to the German store, Jim had pointed them out as the equivalent to the secret service, but for the Syrian president. Well, we used them as a landmark too. “Hey look, we’re on the right path because there are the suits!” We did not stop to ask for directions as Annie wanted to do.

We never made it to the U.S. Embassy; we took a wrong turn and ended up at the German store, Norma’s. We got our wine and headed home. ON the way home, we found an internet café to come to later when we had our laptops, and then decided to stop for iced coffee and sorbet at an Italian restaurant which was open.

Another DCS teacher, Peter, happened to wander up and he joined us at our table for coffee as we discussed the humour on the day so far. Peter gave us some tips about living in Damascus because he had lived here for several years prior. After Peter continued on his way, Annie and I went back to our separate apartments.

We met at the school and went to dinner at 7:30 with Lauren, who moved in across the street, Annie, Brian Smith, Jim, Bettie, Marion (who eventually showed up after her long nap), Peter and his wife Toni with 2 kids. Tyler Ready was under the weather because he had the Syrian-Stomach.

We went to a Japanese-Syrian type place for dinner and I had Hamour fish with steamed vegetables and some rice.