hazards

1) Transience. Many expat communities are like this, with plenty of coming and going, but it's hitting me hard here this month. One housemate left on Friday for a month at home. A friend left the next day for a month of holiday, and will be moving up north when she returns. Another housemate is going back to the US next week. My boss is going on home leave in May. And perhaps here the partings are poignant because of how close you become in an intense environment like Kabul...

2) Earring-stealing chadors. I have lost 3 earrings to my chador. The stupid head scarf snags jewelry and then drops it. I lost half of my very favorite pair of earrings within a week or two of arrival, and lost another one on Sunday. A small annoyance, but still...

3) Carbon monoxide poisoning. Now this is a serious hazard here because we have gas heat, and the tanks of gas sit inside, potentially leaking or burning up all the oxygen in a room. Everyone here has a gas horror story, and now we have one. On Friday morning three of us were in the living room and started hearing a odd noise that at first we assumed was coming from outside. I remarked, "It sounds like me when I have a migraine." One housemate got up and walked into the kitchen and realized the sound was coming fro the bathroom. We banged on the door and called our housemate's name. No response from behind the locked door. This threw us into action mode. First we went to see if we could get in through the window, and then J. decided to break down the door. He did, I ran in and found my unconcious housemate on the floor, wrapped her up in a blanket and got her out. Very fortuitously, there was a car waiting at the gate to pickup some other people from our compound, so we threw her in, and rushed her to the hospital. Along the way, she lost her pulse and needed CPR. Once on oxygen in the HDU she started to recover, but spent a day and a half there before coming home. She still has some back pain from when she fell, and doesn't have a lot of energy, but is pretty darn lucky to be alive. Our gas heater was quickly replaced with a nice new electric one. We're just hoping that doesn't blow the inverter system when city power cuts out (as it has been again more frequently lately...)