February 24, 2012

I had a long Skype conversation with my sister Esther about the current state of my mom’s health as her cancer seems to be spreading and she’ll probably need full-time care soon. Thinking about the logistics of moving our mother and ensuring she gets the treatment needed at this point must be a nightmare for my sister. I simply pity her, and I will do what I can to pitch in when I get back to the States this summer.

I spent another day at home nursing my body and working on yet another presentation, this one on poetry, to take place at the American Corner on March 3. I haven’t bothered to do any cooking as I was able to fix the soup Madluba sent me and along with the flat bread and fruit Ryan brought, I have been able to get by as my appetite has yet to rebound. Still no water all day. So I had to take what we Dominicans like to call a “half bath” after heating water on the stove. I desperately need to do some laundry.

Takhmina, at Caritas International, replied to my email asking me to keep the Tajik dress she had loaned me for the trip to Nepal. I feel conflicted about it as I’d hate for her to feel I’m taking advantage of our friendship. I’ll discuss it with her when I see her on Monday for our conversation class.

Caroline received confirmation of her departure date and her itinerary. She only has six days to go. She spent the day at home too as she was sick of attending to so many demands and needed some downtime. We made a pot of Tazo tea, something she had brought from the States, and gossiped some more and speculated about the future of Tajikistan and the people we have met here.

I’m almost done with “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack” and will be sorry to see it end as it has been such an enthralling read. Caroline asked me yesterday what I was going to do with the many books I have accumulated since there’s no way I’ll have a chance to read all of them in the next four months. I’ll probably donate all of them to the Dushanbe book club since no one of the locals around here likes to read.