Sylvia's Journal

I finally did it: I spilled my afternoon tea (black, no sugar) over my laptop keyboard. For awhile my keyboard would work like the T9 feature on my mobile: you type one letter and it adds others, supposedly into commonly used words. For me it always comes out like gibberish and on my laptop it did too. Not only that, caps lock or num lock would go on and off by themselves and commands produced random actions.

I am afraid it is a permanent condition. My small portable laptop now needs an extra large bag full of supports: a multi USB port, a mouse (the touchpad/nipple no longer work) and a separate keyboard. It makes for very cumbersome computering and travel between office, ministry and home.

I was told that new computers are on their way from Boston and that I was on the list to get one; but getting them here and through customs may take awhile so I have resigned myself to this new reality. A small thing that was easy, now no longer is easy. But, I remind myself, there are more serious things happening here, like the Taliban tunneling over 400 commanders into freedom, out of their Kandahar prison cells. How did they do that? It is the stuff of movies and the prospect of more violence.

Back home I gave Axel a traditional Afghan hair wash. The attendant at the Delhi hospital had washed his hair with hand soap. After that it looked flat and brittle. So tonight I applied ‘gil,’ small pieces of hardened clay, dug from some riverbed, known for its special hair conditioning properties. The big chunks dissolve into smaller chunks and eventual into mud when immersed in hot water. It is as messy as doing a henna wash but it doesn’t leave your hair red or orange (good thing said Axel). Whether it is better or worse than olive oil remains to be seen. We can try the oil treatment tomorrow if the ‘gil’ doesn’t produce the desired results.