Sylvia's Journal

Yesterday was President’s day which is, for reasons I don’t understand, about buying cars. We would have loved to go out and buy a newer car, especially since our two cars combined are a quarter of a century old and have driven half a million miles. But this has to be postponed. Axel is taking the older of the old cars to our guys over in New Hampshire. They get a kick out of keeping old Subarus on the road. We hope there’s still some life left in ours as there is not enough money in the bank to buy another car while keeping an emergency fund for when the unthinkable happens.

Although it was officially a holiday, there was work to be done by both of us. Axel’s was town business; mine was halfway around the globe. First there was a phone conversation with colleagues in Kabul; then one with Bruce from Chicago who is heading to Northern Pakistan to do what I did in Cambodia. And then there was more writing and reading. It was also time to prepare for our talks during the next two days with a team of evaluators who are coming to check out how we have done as a project and make recommendations about more such work, after our project runs out next summer.

I am employed on a 5-year contract that has been renewed four times now since 1986. I can only hope that it will be renewed again in 2010 but there is no guarantee and this contract could be the last. Although we do know that our new administration’s philosophy is favorable to the work we do, we don’t know what it means in terms of money set aside for such work, now that the talk is all about shovel-ready projects and other boosts for our own economy.

I am back at my physical therapist for work on my right shoulder. The Depo-Medrol/Lidocaine shot in my shoulder, last Thursday, has done the trick and reduced the pain but there is work to be done with muscles and tendons around it. Once again I marvel about the intricacies of the muscular-skeletal construction of our bodies and how everything is connected to everything else. Massages and yoga are good and I am encouraged to continue these practices. I checked out a new yoga teacher closer to home and liked her style. It appears she is a follower from the same tribe that produces most of our local yoga teachers.