5/27/07
Today as I was heading downstairs for dinner, Maryann, the ethnobotnist among many other titles, stopped me and asked to have a word with me. Maryann is really sweet and so I was not immediately worried that she was taking me aside, but at the same time I was initially perplexed. She began by saying that she was getting ready to go out with Ana and Mark, two other project leaders to talk about who will and wont be working here next year. My heart sank. Richard and i had already talked about me coming back here next year, but was she pulling me aside to tell me otherwise?...I struggled to piece together the past few weeks at rapid pace, racing through anything I could have possibly done wrong and trying to come up with some sort of response to it. Was someone having a problem with me that I didn't know about? Had I done or said something inappropriate or disrespectful? I keep to myself a lot, so I could not imagine what she was going to say next. Well, it turns out, that that was just the sidenote for why she was talking to me now and not at dinner. She actually just called me in to say very kind, supportive, and encouraging things. She has been a tremendous help while I have been here and I look up to her so much. She constantly tells me how well I am doing and that she thinks that she and I are a lot alike, which is an amazing compliment, because she is so accomplished. She has worked all over, and she teaches in London. I could only hope to be that successful in my endeavors.
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The weather is getting much hotter. It's the kind of heat that rolls over you, makes you break a sweat and take a long blink. You feel tired, and out of it, with intermissions of light headedness. As much as I want to drink coffee to combat the sleepiness I feel, I know that it is from dehydration and not from lack of sleep, or the need for caffeine. What I have been doing is telling myself that I cannot have coffee until I drink a bottle of water. By the time I down the water, i feel energized again and don't need the coffee, so it works out. It is pretty uncomfortable though. You walk by a window and it feels like you are walking by an oven. In the lab, I will feel like I am fine, but then i will stand up and realize that my clothes are damp from sweat.
My sweat dampened skin traps dirt into every crack and cuticle on my hands. I looked down at them today after I had been working a while. I thought to myself, wow...my dad would be so proud...so proud to know that his little girl followed his footsteps in picking up and seeing the world, living in new places...he would also be proud to know that my dirt crusted hands could rival his own- yes, that's how dirty my hands were today.
Given that the days are filled which so much dirt and sweat...naturally when I get home, I want to get into the shower. So far, I could vouch for the fact that the showers here have been great. The water works, the bathrooms are clean...but of course, that would be a statement spoken much too soon.
Today I got in the shower after work, much like I do most days. I start my shampooing my hair and letting it sit on there for a bit so that I can really get all of the dirt out. Meanwhile I lather up the rest of me, lots and lots and lots of soap. So I am doing this, the way I do everyday...then suddenly, the shower head starts spitting at me..a rush of pressure causes hot water to spout from the hose connected to the head and complete shower chaos ensues. Next, the pressure reduces to the point that only little droplets dribble down, having minimal affect on my sudd covered self. So I try turning the water off and turning it back on. Again I get this spitting response from the shower until it just stops working all together. So here I am, standing the shower, soap all over, shampoo in my hair utterly perplexed...perplexed, but not surprised. Okay,, the soap not a big deal...take a wash cloth and get it off. My hair...there was the challenge. Lucky for me, I am one of those terrible people that constantly has 4 or 5 half filled water bottles in my room. So I wrap myself up in a towel and trot down the hall to my room to grab some bottles...BLAST! Yesterday the cleaning people had taken all of my water bottles! I did have one though, but it was nearly empty. The sink in the bathroom wasn't working either so I couldn't fill it up there, and I did't want to walk downstairs in a towel to get more bottles of water for my hair. Quickly I think to try the sink in my own room. Eureeka! it works...so I start filling up my water bottle..done...scuttle back to the bathroom and rinse out the shampoo...but of course one bottle of water isn't enough, have you seen how long my hair is getting??? So i come back here to repeat- a situation where rinsing and repeating is actually necessary. Only this time, when I fill up the bottle the water looks like this:
I repeat, this water came from my faucet.
Now at this point I am incredibly distraught...I begin thinking...holy geez, how often is the water like this withut me knowing or noticing. Word on the street is that if you put your clothes, after washing them here, into a clean bucket of water, the amount of dirt that bleeds into the water is outrageous. So at this point...I can't even decide if i want the water to start working again knowing that theres a chance that that much dirt could come out.
Of course after a certain amount of time the water did start working again and i just did as I always do and rinsed the rest of my hair out without thinking about how dirty the water could be,,,but this had involved many trips back and forth to the bathroom, in my towel and shampoo saturated hair.
Well that is going to do it for the day in the life of a kelly in cairo. I took some benedryl because my allergies were out of control today. Apparenly date palm is in bloom...and apparently i'm allergic to it! I sound pretty gross...lots of sneezing and lots of snot, and lots of morning post nasal drip mmmmm....
I hope everyone has a good day off tomorrow. I will be working from 7-5 yet again~!
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