Sylvia's Journal

We moved into our new house. We brought the last load over at noontime and at 7 PM we were receiving our first guests, Janneke and Pia, from our old guesthouse .

The guards welcomed us, saying ‘mabrouk,’ the housekeeper dusted off the last sawdust from the closets, more or less, and the cook set to prepare our first lunch which we ate from our new 12 place-setting dinnerware. Unlike the Pakistani dinnerware at Guesthouse 0 with the gold paint that arcs in the microwave, our fine bone china from China is oven and microwave proof and actually quite lovely with a ginkgo leaf motif.

The silverware is solid German stainless steel with gold edges, also enough to sit 12 people down. It came in a polished wooden box with three drawers and includes several kinds of forks, spoons, knives and serving utensils. It did feel like the delayed wedding presents that I never had; never asked for at my first wedding (we requested donations to Amnesty International) nor for my (our) second wedding when we were already settled enough and had everything we needed.

The only thing missing are drinking glasses and so we sipped our inaugural wine, brought in from Dubai, from the tiny cobalt blue glasses that I bought two weeks ago in Herat.

The internet was not yet connected so we were out of touch with the rest of the world. It felt a little funny, having been so very connected all the time. It was probably a good thing as it kept me away from my computer. Instead I tuned the two ukuleles and enjoyed having a living room instead of being cooped up in our small bedroom which allowed two activities: sleeping or sitting at my desk computering.

And now our new life in Kabul can really start.