From www.inminds.co.uk Camp Baqir
I start this at 8:20am. We have been up since about 6:15. Ori nursed twice, walked around, moved things, came back to bed. We got up to say good morning and goodbye to Beca and Daddy. The kitchen is now tidied, the dishwasher loaded, the toddler fed. Tea is steeping. The beds are aired and made, the diapers are in the laundry, I am dressed, Ori is dressed. There is still much to do, but I am feeling pretty satisfied with the first hour of my day. :D Then I hear on NPR about the Iraqi refugees, about women who have children to care for and who have no resources, no one to depend upon for income, because they are under arrest by the US, or murdered by a car bomb, or by Sadaam. I can't get iTunes to burn a CD of audiobooks for me, and my knitting is at a bitty frustrating point, but I have food for a month in this house, and we have healthy people in this house and we have this HOUSE - this 2740sq. feet of private, personal, safe space. There is a TV that will entertain and enlighten my children when I have absolutely had enough and need the break. There are radios that have news casts to keep us in the loop (accident on 87S this morning, people died, trucks overturned; Shrub realizes for THE FIRST TIME? that there ARE Iraqi refugees), we have so many good books, stories to whisk us away to foreign lands, fairy escapes, adventures on the ocean or in the desert. And the toys and clothes and hand creams and pots and pans and - not least - computers (three!). I don't feel I am not worthy of these things, but the perspective is enlightening. I want to guess what an Iraqi refugee does in her morning.
6am wake self, walk to toilets, wait on line to pee, return via spigot to get water.
6:30 set water to boil for tea, wake children.
6:45 sweep sleeping area, bring carpets outside, beat carpets
7am wash baby, using last of water
8am children off to school, or to beg, or to play in the filth, go get more water
8:30 wash nappies
8:55 wash clothes
9:25 hang clothes, beat carpets 2nd time
9:40 bring in carpets, stack along back wall. tidy from tea.
She hasn't eaten, neither have her children. She must now figure out how to find some protein for their day. Some eggs, perhaps, or a shank of bone for soup. I all of a sudden don't neeeeeed that break I've been craving. Our sitter canceled on our Saturday night plans, so maybe we'll find someone through the coop, maybe not. Either way, I think we'll be fine. :D
Current Mood: Grateful
3 comments:
One of the things I really like about you is your ability to really and truly put yourself in someone elses shoes. Thanks for this post.
feel the same way!
i often remind larry of this when he complains that he doesnt' make enough money and i have to tell him how lucky and fortunate we really are
awesome post.
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