Sylvia's Journal

I realized that all weekend we have been a little flat, as if in a state of mild depression. The Friday morning massage and dinner with friends on Friday and Saturday provided a little respite. Last week’s suicide attack has led to a sort of self imposed house arrest. The effect on our psyches is palpable.

(audio)Listening to the dark and moody tales of famous Russian authors doesn’t help nor does the strain in some of my relationships at work. This afternoon when I got home from my language class Axel announced that a new friend who only recently arrived had just called so say that the Finest supermarket suicide attack (a place he shops every Friday) had freaked him out so much that he is leaving the country tomorrow morning, for good.

M. is being evacuated from Egypt and flying home tomorrow with her family. That too is disappointing as she is cutting short her stay there by a week and is thus not able to complete her assignment and research study – it was a chance in a lifetime and now it is over.

We feel torn; the quality of life, the air pollution, the constant possibility of disaster around the corner, the concerns from our daughters are tugging at us. Yet much is also tugging at us the other way: some very dear colleagues, counterparts, and other people I work with, the girls I teach and mentor, the progress they make in English (and that we are making in Dari), Axel’s renewed sense of energy as a teacher and the gratefulness of his students are all forces that conspire to keep us here.