Sylvia's Journal

There were demonstration today of students marching through town shouting Allah Akbar. These kinds of crowds make me nervous but luckily I never saw them nor heard them. We were advised to stay in the office, not because it was dangerous but because of the enormous traffic jams caused by the student marches. Only very critical trips to senior level ministry officials were deemed serious enough to suffer such traffic jams. Luckily I was excused from such a trip and was therefore able to take care of a lot of business before heading out, very early in the morning to the airport for a week’s worth of work in Herat.

I sent Axel’s arrival information to Khaleed to make sure he is properly welcomed at the airport on November 4. Khaleed is MSH’s youngest employee and the one who picks people up, drops them off, gets visas, etc. He is our expeditor and does it well. He is also the one who periodically stands in line at the Indian embassy and whose luck it was that I retracted my passport for the previous trip to Herat. It was either good luck, or as people here tend to believe, God has something more in mind for him that required a longer life. Whatever the cause or reason, we were all grateful he wasn’t at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Although Axel will be welcomed to his new hometown, he won’t be welcomed to his new house. We are still lodged for some time in guesthouse zero because the house is not quite ready. So we get to share are dorm room for a bit, cozy but a little bit crowed with the stuff that will spill out of two more suitcases added to the contents of at least 4 other large bags, boxes and suitcases.

I received a long-distance physical therapy session over the internet from the Swedish PT who trained the local lady therapist. The inflammation after my previous session at the military hospital set me back a bit in my exercise program. I haven’t given up on her yet and hope that with the guidance from Sweden we will be able to get back on track, after my return from Herat.