Sylvia's Journal

The cold now quickly sucks out the heat in my room during the hours that the electricity is off. The temperature was 11 degrees Celsius when I woke up this morning. Getting out of my warm bed is a little more difficult now. There is nothing I can do about it unless I start using the kerosene stove.

Yesterday was our day off and so I slept in till 7 AM. I checked my mail and Facebook to see what my family members and friends were doing and then crossed the yard to get to the shower. It was nippy outside and I took a very long shower to re-heat myself, practically using up the entire hot water tank. I did some fruitful design thinking while in the shower and by the time I got back to my desk I had made a good start.

After a leisurely breakfast with Steve, both of us in our jammies, we all went to the German high school where they have a track and sports field that is made available to the foreign community between 10 and 12:30 to jog, play Frisbee, soccer or walk in outfits (especially for women) that are not OK outside the school compound. It is a joyful reunion of mostly young foreigners of all nationalities and a place where they can mingle without having to be worried about attracting the attention of bomb throwers.

The school is tucked in between the UNDP and army compounds and heavily protected. Getting to the school entrance is, I imagine, like entering Baghdad’s green zone; it is a heavily fortified battle zone with more tanks and armed soldiers per square inch than anywhere else in the city.

Steve and I opted for the old people’s activity, and walked the tracks while joggers and faster walkers kept overtaking us. We talked about everything and nothing, with a little gossip thrown in here and there for good measure. Contrary to public opinion, men (not just Steve) are just as good at gossip as women. Occasionally we had to duck for an overhead Frisbee with heavily perspiring young men and women dashing after it.

Back home it was time for lunch. Steve was about to eat the now two week old spaghetti which had purple spots on it. This did not seem to deter him; it was the smell that finally made him throw it out. We are finally making a dent in the backlog of leftover dishes – some now over a week old. I think we are down to three or four now. Today the cook starts cooking new dishes again so that is how we get behind.

Our next door kite-flying neighbor invited me up on his roof to fly a kite with him. I would have liked to but I declined because I had some serious design work to do. Over the next few hours it slowly emerged out of conversations, reading and old notes. I have something now that is solid enough to start the process that is to, eventually, create a strong team, even if I don’t really have the intact team in the room today, a real possibility.

Maureen and I had more leftovers for dinner (the cook does not come on Fridays) while Steve went to a fundraiser /winners-and-losers party in the US compound. I lent him my Obama button – he had to show everyone that he belonged to the winning group. When he came back he told me most everyone else did as well. He did not see any McCain buttons.

I narrowly escaped two stuff-buying expeditions to Chicken Street over the weekend, Maureen went once and Steve twice. At the high school field we met David, the accountant for the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, which is another handicraft outfit, started by Rory Stewart (the man who walked across Afghanistan in the winter). David was carrying a shopping bag from Holland’s major grocery chain (Albert Heijn) which is why I sought him out, thinking he was Dutch. He wasn’t, but had lived in Amsterdam for some time, hence the bag, and only spoke rudimentary Dutch. Steve wrote down his number – it’s another potential shopping destination for those rare moments we have nothing to do.