Sylvia's Journal

How different the day ended from its start; first there was the news that the Egypt trip I was supposed to pack for was canceled, for obvious reasons. No point in dragging 20 Afghans to a place that, at the moment, appears more dangerous than Afghanistan. So rather than preparing for a trip we had a leisurely morning of sleeping in and making our customary Friday chili omelet.

I made my way through the barricades to see my masseuse Lisa. While Englebert Humperdinck sang about love on a karaoke DVD, she relaxed my sore muscles and then cut my hair. She is a woman of many talents, an all purpose and one-woman beauty parlor.

With my skin all rosy and oily and my hair neatly trimmed I returned home, picked up Axel and returned back to town to join Meghann and Pia for a farewell lunch in one of our favorite coffee houses, the Wakhan Café. After our goodbyes we walked over to a nearby gallery where we never buy anything but feast our eyes on beautiful art, felt products, carpets, saffron, ceramics and carpets until the car came to pick us up.

The dispatcher, announcing that the car was waiting for us, mentioned nonchalantly that there had been an explosion not far from where we had lunched. We had not heard anything.

When we got home we discovered that one of the four supermarkets where we do our shopping had been blown up by someone out to get the heavily armed Blackwater people who tend to shop there. I have seen those folks and shopped with them many times and only now realize that being in the same place with them is not a good idea. Luckily the supermarket chain (Finest) opened a shop near our house which is far from where the Blackwater folks hang out. We often shopped in the blown up place. We probably won’t anymore.

And then we watched, ad nauseam, the Egypt drama unfolding in front of our eyes. The Kabul explosion was not reported here on any of the channels we watch (BBC, EuroNews and Al Jezeera) which were rather preoccupied with the momentous developments in Egypt. I am now glad I am not leaving for Cairo tomorrow.

It seems that the Kabul drama did get some attention in Europe and the US as evidence by a number of emails, checking on our safety. That is when facebook comes in handy.

The suicide attack is a bit unnerving as Kabul has been spared such events. There had appeared to be some pact between those in power and those trying to unseat them. We wonder what this new development means.