Sylvia's Journal

If ever I needed a weekend, or at least half a weekend it was today. The weariness of the week ‘s long hours was in every cell of my body and I was aching for a massage, one of the many pleasant Friday activities. When I found out work sessions were scheduled for today I was not happy. Luckily, after some back and forth the sessions were turned into a dinner and I scheduled my massage for 4PM.

We took our usual walk in Bagh-e-Bala which, now that the new year has arrived, is suddenly populated with women, lots of them. Where were they all winter? The place was busy and small tea stations had popped up like weed after a rain shower. We stopped at a place that can now count us as regulars.

On the way home we stopped at an Afghan version of a garden center with prices that were American, probably raised the moment we walked in. Our guard and driver shook their heads, too expensive, and so we left empty handed. Axel was ready for the geraniums but I think we will wait awhile.

We tried to express our interest in buying seeds but could not find the word in Dari. It turned out to be the same word that is used for egg. That makes sense.

We were dropped off at Paul’s house for a lunch with various colleagues from USAID, WHO, UNICEF and the EU as well as one Belgian, the number one man in Afghanistan. It was a lunch rather than a dinner because many of the guests are not allowed by their security chiefs to cross the town after dark. It was a nice lunch, arose de vin blanc et biere, and thus a faint memory of Lebanon; we pretended that all we had to do was get on the balcony to see the Mediterranean.

I did not get the full 60 minutes massage that I had signed up for but the 50 I got were the best ever. I left with a credit for the remaining ten minutes, may be next week. They know me there now.

All limbered up I went home to tackle the continuing annoying task for catching up on 100s of emails that have slipped in while I was sans computer, and working on a new machine that remembers nothing of me and is missing most of my non standard programs; including my Byki program for learning Dari with the remembered and stale items. Having to start from scratch to build up my remembered vocabulary is annoying to say the least.

Just as I was about to settle in for the remaining hours of the day an invitation to join the Boston team for dinner came in and I was torn: it wasn’t work, but still. Axel, already in his pajamas declined but I am glad I joined the others. It’s always a good strategy to be there when your bosses meet. Email dumping will have to wait, and so does the other work that needs to be completed before bedtime. Although tomorrow there is another day, the weekend is essentially over.