Our passports are now sitting in some part of the Fedex system on their way to Washington, for their Afghan visa stamp. We were not able to get our visas renewed in Afghanistan because of a Byzantine bureaucratic process, a misalignment between the various agencies involved in the stamping process, or because we are not paying under the table as we are expected to do. Or all of the above.
We are trying to balance our time here between ‘have-to’s’ and fun. We took care of some of the ‘have-to’s’ yesterday (haircut, tax stuff, visa applications, appointments) and the rest was for fun. The latter included a walk into town, a breakfast at the Beach Street cafe consisting of home fries and lots of bacon, and then a drive to Newburyport for a reunion with Anne and Chuck, a salad lunch and a glass of rose.
On the way back we assembled our dinner: fresh fish, local strawberries, local asparagus (including some of the remaining stalks from our garden), fresh corn from further south, fresh pasta and wine. I marvelled at the taken-for-granted luxury here to simply walk into a store and buy wine and beer, drink it, and come back for more as often as your wallet allows.
People outside the US may not understand that fun does not include being glued to the TV to watch the World Cup matches. Although a bigger deal than 4 years ago, from observing our surroundings it does not seem to be something that stops everything and everybody in its tracks.
Today fun will include a pedicure for me, more walking and sitting in the garden to read. It is vacation time after all. Afghanistan seems far away, even though this morning, reading Dexter Filkins in the NYT, brought it momentarily, and uncomfortably back on our screen.
Sylvia's Journal 
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