Not-So-Observant

For someone who enjoys sharing observations, I discovered yesterday that I am anything but observant.

I’ve noticed the smell of cigarette smoke several times during the day. I haven’t made much of it, just marveling that smoke from the street could smell so strong in the house. Yesterday, I stumbled upon my mother-in-law taking a furtive smoke in the stairwell. It just made me laugh. I’m sure her own kids would be scandalized, but I’m in no position to judge. In fact, it reminds me of a few stories I heard about my own grandmother.

Over the last six months, I’ve spent almost a month staying with E’s family. Yet, only yesterday did I notice that his little brother is missing his left pinkie finger. Seriously, how could I have missed that? I asked E about it, and he swears he told me the story before, but I have no recollection. Either he didn’t tell me, or my pregnant brain has forgotten it. Apparently, when he was a small child, Ismail was playing in an abandoned house. A rock wall fell on his hand, cutting off all four fingers on his left hand. The doctors were able to reattach three fingers but not the pinkie. Talk about horrible.

Unfortunately, I’m not too surprised. It’s probably because I’m pregnant, but I find leaving the house now very stressful. There are so many children running around the streets unsupervised that I just want to close my eyes. It’s a miracle that any children survive the day considering the rubbish they play in and the cars that speed by within inches of them. I seriously to cry. I am just grateful my husband survived to adulthood, though his body sports many scars testifying of his youthful misadventures.

I’m also pretty amazed that Ismail still has three fingers. Yesterday, we took E’s aunt (who is younger than he is) to the emergency room. The impression I got with my not-so-great Turkish is that she has mastitis. Anywho, the emergency room was chaos with people shoving for position and randomly going in and out of any space. I never want to have an emergency here. Knock on wood.