Sylvia's Journal

Friday is supposed to be a rest day but that’s hard when Boston is still working. When you are in a Moslem country and a full workday ahead, there is really never time off unless you forcefully take it. I did that until about 2 PM (while Boston was still asleep) – we went to the German school and walked our laps around the Frisbee teams, then to Chicken Street.

We spent hours amidst dusty rugs, grimy knick-nacks and sparkly jewelry. I sent about 10 pictures of trays with rings to Tessa and she placed her order. This means I have to get back there next Friday.

I was supposed to be on the plane to Boston by then but the amount of work could not be squeezed into two weeks and I am delaying my return by another 5 days. When I look at the fresh asparagus that Axel sent me (as a picture) I regret for a moment the delay. But then I also know I’d like to return home feeling that I got something finished and accomplished – to the extent that that is possible in my work. Five extra days will help.

Said and Wafa went back to the northeast after spending another couple of days with us. Earlier this morning, while waiting for MP and Steve to get up, he served as my teacher and corrected my exercises at the end of my Dari lesson four. I am allowed to move on to lesson five – much less fun without him.

Everyone worked hard this afternoon and we did not come back together for dinner until the middle of the evening. MP and I felt in a celebratory mood and wanted a glass (cup really) of wine. I sent an SOS to Boston to a colleague who was here earlier and also likes wine – to help us finding the cork screw but we concluded there was none and so MP pried the cork out of the bottle with a knife. We did not mind the pieces of cork and other debris in our wine – to have wine at all is quite something.

Tomorrow is a work day again, since I work with the ministry folks and their weekend just ended while the one in Boston begins and my project colleagues are in the middle of the weekend. The misalignment between weekends easily creates a 7-day workweek.

I had a long Skype call with Boston to discuss how best to support the local team and the fact that this is nearly impossible to do in twice yearly 2-week stints. Maybe something longer is needed in the future. This makes sense but also eaves me with mixed feelings and thoughts about next steps. Some things will have to simmer for awhile longer.

I logged on to a webinar with fellow OBTS-er Jim Clawson from the Darden Business school that I had very much looked forward to but discovered that I had calculated the time difference wrong and so I came in just when they were closing at noon EST.  I was very disappointed as it clearly was a good conference.