Sylvia's Journal

Many people were busy all day preparing for the visit next week from our Chief Operating Officer from HQ. It is a huge deal. Carpenters are putting up tables and cases to display the products of various units: posters, printed materials, photos, etc. Other people are collecting documents, making appointments, cleaning the gardens and me, I am still working on the slide show that we will show next week.

The large display boards in the main building, with their old and tired pictures and posters that have not been changed since I arrived here have been cleaned off and dusted. They have been spiffed up with new photos. One entire board has been dedicated to guards and security personnel, our very Special Forces. It has pictures of a training they received on how to disarm and tackle a person with bad intentions. I am so impressed.

The first tree blossoms are out, the almond trees, the cherry trees and some others I can’t name; the fragile pale pink, hot pink and white petals stand in sharp contrast with the otherwise grey and colorless backdrop of the landscape.

And then, in the middle of the morning the infamous dust storm came rolling in, the khak bad as it is called. It is a bit like the Harmattan or the Zephir, but not hot (at least not now). Everything slammed, rattled and was covered with dust in no time. Next week we plan to have our project display under a tent in the garden. If such a storm rolls in then we will have a big problem.

One of my colleagues said that these storms come to open the blossoms – it’s a nice image of nature working together with nature to speed up the reproductive processes. If this is true we ought to be expecting a visit from large swarms of bees next.

Yesterday I had arrived back from the ministry at 1 PM and found the cooking pots in the kitchen empty. I noticed that people are having lunch earlier and earlier (at 11:45 I already see people leaving the canteen with trays of food) and so today I joined the early crowd to make sure I wouldn’t miss lunch again. I made up for the missed lunch by scissoring off a chunk of the ‘farmer’s sausage’ that Paul had left me when his trip ended earlier than he thought. Paul lives in France, amidst many such sausages I imagine.

Back home today I finished the sausage off with another of Paul’s gifts, his last Kriek beer while Axel was trying to sleep off of some pulmonary affliction that will probably be aggravated by today’s dust storm. This is not a good place for people with lung problems.

Today was SOLA day again. The class was more than full, with two new girls who are quite a bit behind. I have no idea how much they got from the lesson. Suddenly even the weakest English speakers and readers seemed strong in comparison. I noticed how the presence of these new girls boosted everyone’s confidence (through probably not the confidence of the newcomers). I had given the girls as homework to slow down in their reading and scan the entire sentence before reading out loud. They had all practiced this and the difference was noticeable. It shows what sponges they are!

And now it is weekend, a short one because I have to work on Saturday. We are now only one week away from our trip to Sikkim. This is very encouraging and lifts our spirits.