Sylvia's Journal

And so, I wondered, what would have happened if OBL would have been knocked out on the day of the royal wedding, would he have stolen the moment, soiled the day? The timing was thus perfect – the couple has gone off to their love nest and we can celebrate something else.

I keep wondering about this ‘burial at sea’ thing. For me a burial at sea is men standing on deck, hymns being played, salutes and the body, wrapped in the national flag tilted into the sea. Did they just drop him out of a helicopter? Do we have proof he is really gone or is he going to be like Elvis Presley, popping up everywhere?

The news reached us in the early morning hours and everyone rejoiced while probably wondering, ‘what does this mean for us, here in Afghanistan?’ I did. The UN is closed (already was because of the Taliban’s heavy PR about their spring offensive) and the Germans declared Kabul ‘white city,’ which I think means ‘hunker down.’

We went about our business as usual which included countless project management tasks. It is annual performance review season, it is post project planning time, there are deadlines for registering staff for English classes, filling vacancies, finalizing appointments, contract negotiations etc. And then there are the usual roadblocks to getting things done which require creative thinking about such matters as task versus relationship.

Several hours after the official end of the day a few of us were still looking at pages and pages of Excel worksheets with tiny budget numbers until we were cross-eyed. As if that wasn’t enough I then had to figure out how to get 140 MB of video film to Boston by tomorrow with an on and off internet connection. All in all it made for a very long day that isn’t over quite yet even though it is getting close to bedtime.

On the personal side there is an enormous new challenge thrown at us by Axel’s longstanding allergy to house dust and dust mites. On Saturday the South African doctor told him he should prepare for his immediate departure from Afghanistan before he gets a massive asthma attack.

I suggested a second opinion which came from Dr. Tim. He told Axel that he may be able to stay until we leave for the US in 3 weeks if we rid our bedroom of dust and mites. This is a tall order anywhere in the world, but in particular here. We can’s just simply walk over the Bed & Bath and get the mattress and pillow covers made specially for this purpose. Axel did go to the Safi Landmark hotel where they sell things with HEPA filters, an air purifier and a special vacuum cleaner that doesn’t simply moves dust around like the one we have now.

We are very motivated for Axel to stay here until we leave in the fall and have started tackling this enormous challenge with vim and vigor. We had the nice Afghan carpets taken out, ordered tiles to replace the wall to wall carpet and got a bunch of workmen to start tiling the room tomorrow. This requires removing everything out of the bedroom tonight.

Dr. Tim also told us to wrap our mattress in plastic and remove anything else in which dust mites can thrive. All this doesn’t do much for comfort and aesthetics but it is better than accepting the inevitability of a massive asthma attack and Axel’s departure. Of course there is no guarantee of success – but we decided it is worth a try.

And here, for cricket lovers, a chuckle, with apologies to the artist whose name was blacked out in the local newspaper: