July 8

July 8, 2013

It was a rather uneventful day except for the fact that my landlady’s brother knocked on my door around 9:00 am, and I refused to open it since I didn’t really remember what he looked like and he doesn’t speak English at all. I had received no notice that he needed access to the apartment.

Later on, Diana called me to let me you there was a potential renter interested in seeing the flat in the early afternoon, so I told her it would be no problem at all as I planned to be at home all day.

I then had no choice, but to set out to clean the place so it would look spotless. The kitchen and the bathroom took forever and I tidied up the furniture so that this burly African-American guy could blow into the space and be gone in less than five minutes.

He was from Atlanta, GA, and I knew immediately he’d be one of those guys with little education who’d gotten a job with one of those subcontractors at the Manas Transit Center which are making millions while supplying the troops in Afghanistan with everything they need to continue that futile war.

He was accompanied by a striking Kyrgyz woman who didn’t bother looking at the place but sat in the living room fanning herself with a look of exasperation on her face. She claimed to be a friend of the guy and was only helping him find a suitable place to live. She wanted to know how much I paid and if there was an A/C unit.

The guy took some notes, made no comments on the place whatsoever and left saying he had another four places to look at that afternoon before making a decision. I got the impression he wasn’t really interested in the apartment.

I called the dental clinic and rescheduled my cleaning for Tuesday at 2:30 pm. Luann confirmed we would be having coffee on Wednesday at 12:15 at the 135 Coffee place near my flat.

I sent the last highlight report to the embassy and got a note back from Natalia thanking me for the great job I had done in Kyrgyzstan. Johanna wrote approving the final expense report, which I promptly forwarded to Gen at Georgetown.

I uploaded the photos taken at the Ala Archa State Park and finished my final report for Georgetown. I think I did get everything in this time around. I only need to attach some photos, and voila, I’ll be done.