Sylvia's Journal

We had asked for one butter dish but now we have at least 10 and we are trying to figure out creative uses other than butter or cheese (which we don’t have) for these sturdy glass containers. They are oven proof and so I was thinking of baking, except we have no flour.

Other items that we once requested are streaming into the house in duplicates. We now have two electric kettles and various food processors with all sorts of attachments. A five story shiny Chinese steamer set sits unused on top of a cabinet.

We are trying to get into the mind of the person or people who are doing the purchases. Working in a country and a place where there are so many controls on expenditures, it seems that something has broken loose. Every day when I come home there are new surprises. We are still like the newlyweds who keep getting belated wedding gifts.

Yes, despite all this fancy kitchen equipment the cook still makes essentially the same dishes that he made without it when we started off in our new house. We are going to request some technical assistance from the other guest house cooks: the one who is famous for his pies and the other that makes the best vegetable soup.

Axel has signed up for Dari lessons, every day two hours starting on Sunday. This will facilitate the cook exchange no doubt as well as local shopping if security ever lets him escape the house again.

In the meantime I called in help to deal with the continued fumes in my tiny office. We diagnosed the problem: it was the exhaust fumes that escaped from where the pipe is ill-fitted into a hole in the wall. A traditional Afghan solution was applied: a strip of cloth soaked in salt water was wrapped around the pipe where it goes into the wall. I am told that the salt water keeps the cloth from combusting. This appeared indeed to be true as I observed several hours later when the blue print cloth had turned white, not black. Still, the fumes remained.

As part of the senior leadership team I paid a visit to one of the three director generals where we have placed counterparts. The purpose of these visits it to put expectations on the table and explore where we can be of most help. It was a frank and spirited conversation about what it means to be in charge and holding one’s staff accountable. I have no illusion that such conversations transform the status quo but they do offer opportunities to find small openings or cracks in the walls of old habits.

Afterwards the boss took me and Steve out to a nearby Turkish restaurant where we hatched a plan on how to celebrate the upcoming Eid holiday with our staff. Basically we will provide the money for sheep or catered food and then, I am told, everything else takes care of itself. I am recruiting all expats, permanent and consultants, who will be in country on December 2nd. I am planning something else with the youngest MSH staff member that will entertain us all after the food is eaten (which I am told will be done quickly and quietly).