Sylvia's Journal

The weather pattern in May and June goes like this: crisp mornings, blue skies, no wind. Slowly, over the course of the day the wind picks up and swirls the dust of Kabul around and deposits it on all of our horizontal surfaces. Everything is gritty.

Leaving Axel behind at home to finish a writing task before the end of the day, Katie and I visited Babur’s Gardens this morning, early, before the crowds arrived. Where all the lilacs were in bloom during my previous visit, now it was the turn of the roses, and cherries ripening on the trees.

We were lucky to stumble upon an exhibit entitled ‘Afghanistan Observed 1830-1920.’ It is an extraordinary peek into Afghanistan as it was observed by several famous British military artists, photographers, lithographers, watercolour painters and draftsmen.

The exhibit was mounted in the Queen’s Palace, in the beautifully restored harem with its high walls that kept the women safe from the men who didn’t owe them. Today there were lots of men in the harem. They crowded around us, watching us as much as the pictures.

Katie and I had a salad and mango smoothie lunch at the Flower Street Cafe before making a last trip to Chicken Street (we will both be gone from Afghanistan next Friday). On our way home we shopped for fruit and vegetables, picking up an odd vegetable that we looked up on the internet. It appears to be a prickly cucumber; we don’t quite know how to prepare it yet.
Tomorrow I will take it to my language teacher for further instructions. I discovered Afghan leeks; they look more like the Thai chives we have growing in our Manchester yard and taste more subtle than the American and European leeks.

We also loaded up on the many fruits that are now available in the market: tiny white apricots from Iran, melons, lemons plus freshly made yogurt and butter. After three days off from work (for us as well as for our staff), we have finished all the meals prepared by our cook and are now cooking ourselves; Nasi Goreng tonight, Tacos and Fajitas tomorrow. After that the cook will return and cook again.

We are learning from the foreign media what the Peace Jirga appeared to have produced, against most expectations: a consensus about negotiating with the Taliban, on the condition that the Afghan constitution is not violated (i.e. right of women). This is not welcomed by everyone, especially not by those Afghans who want to move into the 21st century. How all this will play out in real life is far from clear.