Sylvia's Journal

I had it all planned out: a half hour walk on the exercise, a pancake breakfast and then off to the rug shop where I bought Axel’s birthday kelim that I no longer like and want to exchange.

But somewhere over on our side of town the Hazaras and Kochis clashed. It is part of a longstanding battle that has to do with tribes and land. The police and army got involved, there were shots fired and we were told to stay home.

Since there was no information from our security folks about the fight Axel surfed the internet and found many of our usual sources for information blocked; a censorship that we had not experienced before. Clashes like that, political like those, are apparently kept out of the public’s eye to avoid creating any more waves among the already excitable population, especially with the elections only a month away.

In the afternoon the all clear was given so we could go to our language lessons and then to a pool party at the International club, one of the few places where foreign women could actually swim in a regular bathing suit (as opposed to total body cover). I have no intention to swim here in this country as I can’t imagine being in such a state of undress when there are male Afghan waiters moving in and out. I will wait with the swimming until we are in Lobster Cove.

The pool party was organized by Mary who is the person in charge of Democrats Abroad, Afghanistan Chapter. There are about 117 people on the list but only 7 showed up, two of them brought by Axel and me, colleagues of mine who are actually Independents. It was a bit of a sorry show, especially since only 7 or so of those 117 are registered to vote in the next elections and will have their ballot sent to Afghanistan. We joked around for awhile about Sarah Palin and then had our business meeting on when and where we meet next and how to mobilize the vote out here.

And then we had cheeseburgers and beers.