Sylvia's Journal

Yesterday Courtney walked into our life, or rather he was driven by Afghan Logistics driver number 16, with some rudimentary navigational help from our youngest guard Fazel.

We met for the first time over dinner, after his wife Elaine introduced us via facebook and long distance. I have never met Elaine either but we are now facebook friends since she discovered my blog and we started chatting via facebook.

Elaine will come to Kabul in June and so for now we are getting to know her via her husband whenever he is in town, which is rather irregular. He is a pilot with Safi Airways and hops all over the country and the region: Herat, Kandahar, Mazar, Kuwait, Dubai and soon Doha.

Courtney explained to us he is a farm boy from North Dakota. I would add to that ‘an adventuresome farm boy.’ After he was retired by US Airways he chose to fly for an airline company that most Americans have never heard of and be based in a city (Kabul) that is associated with bombs and other mayhem.

For us Safi Airways is our connection to the rest of the world, to home and to vacation. It is our flight out of Kabul to Dubai. Maybe on our next flight to Dubai, when we head to Beirut on March 11, he might be our captain.

We had a wonderful dinner together, Qabuli pilau expertly prepared by cook Amin and an improved version of the apple pie. The leftovers went home with Courtney, to his hotel room. I guess they don’t serve home made apple pie at the Safi Hotel.

We looked at each others’ pictures, of Kabul, the Hindukush from high up, the Kabul Golf Course, Lobster Cove and all our children. When the evening was over it felt as if we had known each other for years.

One of the pictures taken last summer, of Elaine licking ice cream in a pedal boat on lake Qarghi, some 15 miles out of Kabul, prompted me to arrange for a car tomorrow to go for a visit to the lake and have lunch there.

But then, in short order, Steve returned home not feeling well and Axel called in sick also. No point in planning an outing with two of the bunch indisposed. I gave up the tourist plan for tomorrow and rushed home to care for the patient. We will go next week when our new housemate Julie is here and the men will hopefully be better.