Sylvia's Journal

“How do guys stand around a barbecue here in Afghanistan?” asked Axel, meaning, what do they hold in their hands if not beer. Our barbecue this evening would qualify as a semi or quasi barbecue if measured against American standards. Axel held a near beer in his hand. It will have to make do.

Barbecuing in the snow felt a bit like back home, except he did it with our two guards and used, as a starter chimney, an empty can of Quaker oats, to get the rough and chunky charcoal going.

Axel worked all day on school applications, helping N. find answers to his thousand questions. “I am the busiest unemployed person,” he quipped.

In the morning I took two newly found friends to Lisa for massages followed by a Starbucks coffee, which came with the massage. It is an all purpose spa. My new friends liked the place and hopefully this will help Lisa expand her clientele. It is pure self interest as I don’t want her to go out of business.

I introduced M to Chicken Street and discovered that she and I have a weakness for fabrics, interesting coats, prints, embroidery. I left them both with Ibrahim off Chicken Street wading through a foot deep of fabrics.

In the evening we had Andreas over. He came all the way from Australia to help get a pediatric hospital intervention, called Emergency Triage and Treatment (ETAT), going in Kabul’s premier children’s hospital. Tomorrow we are going to find out whether everyone involved in this initiative is actually on the same page. I will have them draw a picture. It is important enough that I am willing to sacrifice my day off to see for myself.