Sylvia's Journal

I started downloading the audiobook The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Part I) about 48 hours ago; Most of its 40 hours of listening pleasure have made it onto my computer but there are still a few hours to go. One learns patience here, none of this instant satisfaction with giga-fast downloads we were used to in the US.

I listen to books on my iPod every morning during my half hour exercise routine. I couldn’t do it without a book; I would be bored out of my mind. Now I look forward to the next 30 minute installment.

It will take me nearly 3 months to complete the Decline and Fall, which I won’t start until I finish Anna Karenina, sometime in March. I won’t know how Rome fell until next summer. I never would have thought that Afghanistan would be the place where I would catch up on my classics. All this thanks to the Manchester (by-the-sea) Public Library.

Early this morning there was a suicide bomber followed by firefight on Jalalabad Road. It is the road that goes to the UN compound and from there the shortest distance to the border with Pakistan. The road is on the other side of town and one we travel rarely. I have only been there twice since I arrived and have no need to go there at all. It has been calm in town so the violence came as a surprise. Rumors have it that the ISI is flexing its muscle, a tit-for-tat for being rapped on the fingers because, allegedly, it disclosed things that should not have been; worse than Wikileaks.

My colleague S and I attended a meeting at the ministry of a committee that is tasked with completing a strategic planning process, all the way down to activities, performance indicators and other accountabilities. It is hard to come in late into a process that is well under way and to have missed some key events that produced the raw material we have to work with.

S and I asked the kind of dumb questions one can only ask at the beginning, but not later on. So we did. I realize I am listening and watching acutely for signs that our questions are unwanted, it is a fine line to walk. I have been on the other side, being mightily irritated when people asked questions that were not asked when we all set out (or that I should have asked myself). It can lead you in circles back to the beginning.

We were called into the process this late to take the seat of the main facilitator of the process, who left for Christmas. It is a true exodus this time of the year. For those of us who stay Christmas is a regular workday and life goes on; the Afghans have had their holy days already. It is not a great sacrifice for me to be here over Christmas – not my favorite holiday, except for Christerklaas which we will miss. But we do miss being with the girls, their men and our granddog.