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December 05, 2002
It's Thursday morning, I'm sitting
It's Thursday morning, I'm sitting here in my Uzbek chopon robe, and my poor dog is stoically waiting for me to take her outside. The snow is making the city as silent as my vocal chords, both situations benefitting from my hot tea, laced with a shot of Jack.
It's the end of Ramadan, and it amazes me that over two years have passed since I was in Uzbekistan. Two years ago, I was teaching in an unheated school, living in an unheated apartment, but looking quite svelte at only about 135 pounds. I look at my expenditures here in NYC in absolute amazement. Texas Chris was here this weekend, and I spent about $150 in only three days. Three days. In Samarkand, I was living on a Peace Corps stipend of only $28 per month, and that paid for my housing and most of my food. We had a miserable sodding idiot for a country director, the most nightmarish combination of hippie and bureaucrat ever inbred for government service, and so our country's volunteers basically were starving because our stipend didn't keep up with inflation. Even then, I supplemented my stipend with my own $20, and was able to buy beer on the weekends.
What happened to that person? For a short time in life, I was ecstatic about being able to buy basic foodstuffs. The amount of money I spend in a month now would have shocked me two years ago. I think it has to do with economies of scale.
Posted by G at December 5, 2002 10:37 AM