Feels like home

Having our sofas here. Our bed here. Our dining room table. Photos. Books.

Finally it is beginning to feel like home. Like we are really going to be staying here. Like we aren't living in a hotel anymore.

Early yesterday morning the loaner furniture people came by to pack up everything that we had been using. Then, around 3pm, eight Turkish men and their "chaperone" (everyone on Base who doesn't work on Base must be escorted) showed up at our house with our eight crates! How very exciting.

The next three hours were a whirlwind that didn't end until this afternoon when a few of them men returned to put together some of the furniture that had been dissembled. I hung out by the truck, learning Turkish, attempting to communicate, and finding that sometimes you don't need language to make jokes and be kind. JB was inside, directing traffic. Scrubs was leashed since they had two guys who were deathly afraid of dogs. And the boys were around the house loving all the attention. Our thirteen year old neighbor, Baylee, was also around. (I think she'll be here quite often!) She took the boys to the park and just helped provide an extra set of eyes. Teenagers here LOVE to babysit (probably due to the lack of things to do or ways to make money).

Today was spent getting our house in order. I thought this might take weeks but thanks to the fact that our new housekeeper Hatice (pronounced "Ha-tee-jah) was here today, the house is really already, somehow, in working order. Hatice is absolutely and utterly amazing. She speaks very little English, was fasting food and water until sunset for Ramadan, and is booked every single day of the week for good reason. I'm so lucky to have gotten her on a free day. When I told her I really didn't know what she needed to do she just said, "No problem" in that cute way people who don't speak English say a phrase that they know well.

And then she took over.

She cleaned our kitchen and got all the gunk and grime off everything JB had unpacked last night. She mopped floors and organized and put tinfoil on our oven burners and in it. She did the bathrooms and watched the boys when I had to go run something to JB. We also went to the Commissary together so that she could pick out the cleaning supplies she needed. Seriously. Awesome.

At some point I will write a separate post on the three things that are most "on my mind" right now.

• The first is that I feel incredibly guilty having someone in my house all day working while I sit around. Okay, so, I very rarely sit around. But you know what I mean. I'm not sure how I feel about having a gardener and a housekeeper when what I am paying them is so minimal.
• The second thing is that every time I am out of my "American bubble" (like when moving people come or Hatice was here) I feel culturally exhausted at the end of the day. Trying to communicate through sign language and the Internet's translating tools is wearisome! I remember my Tante Jan (who was a linguist in Indonesia) talking about that once. How at the end of the day she just needed to be in her own house, by herself to recover. That's how I feel. I totally get that.
• And the third is the safety issue. Yesterday I was stopped from going to the post office due to a sensor that had gone off incorrectly. I was also stopped at another outing by a guy in more gear than anyone should have to wear in this heat as I went to walk into the convenience store to get some waters for our movers. Apparently a sensor had gone off a second time. Anyways, I say all that to say, that safety is an issue here. We are in a tumultuous part of the world right now. We are Americans. And we are on a Base that is very important to the world. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Okay so more organizing to do. Enough thinking Wendi! I'll be sure to post pictures very soon folks!