Leslie is a uniformed US Navy physical therapist. He is part of a US Navy medical team that is embedded in the military hospital, built some time ago by the Russians. I assume this because of the square and chunky concrete architectural style (functional without any elegance or esthetical value).
He is a trainer and assigned to assist the local PT team with the rehab of amputees and war-wounded. When he heard that there was this American woman with shoulder problems his curiosity was peaked. Fahima asked if I was willing to have him look at my shoulder.
He stood waiting in the hallway with his interpreter because he was not allowed to enter the female PT room. Since I could also not enter the male PT room we were left with the staff lounge and the lunch table became the examination table.
He checked my range of motion and strength while my PT looked on. I became a training session. I learned that I am a prime candidate for frozen shoulder (female, in her late fifties and post-menopausal) and my PT was instructed to watch out for signs of imminent frozen shoulder. This reminded me not to take this shoulder business lightly. I was given a few exercises and Leslie instructed my PT to treat me as if I had just had my rotator cuff operation and start from scratch with my exercises, the same I did faithfully every morning in September.
In the meantime Sara took pictures of the PT team receiving the supplies provided by my PT place in Manchester that had been packed in our container the day before our return trip to Kabul via Holland. She got to witness what happens in the female PT treatment room – something that appears more like a social affair than the serious treatment in separate treatment rooms practiced in the US. For me these ‘sessions’ are always great ways to practice my Dari. We can have more and more interesting conversations now that my vocabulary and master of grammar is expanding.
More snow and rain is coming down, as if the winter realized it had not done its work yet not that spring is just around the corner, and is in catch up mode. Sara would have preferred two sunny days on her last weekend here but the Afghans are happy. This is after all primarily an agricultural society and people like rain and snow because it means water and water means new life in spring and new life in spring means food.
While we were at our Dari class Sara watched 6 episodes of the (British) The Office and prepared our goodbye dinner party with people she has met and people I thought she should meet before she leaves.
Sylvia's Journal 
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