Sylvia's Journal

I am still a bit out of my rhythm and haven’t returned to my disciplined daily writing – I crashed around 8 PM.

I spent my entire first day in the US at our Cambridge HQ. It wasn’t just about being devoted to my work but also to see some friends, pick up my new computer, an and take care of other matters that needed attention. I arrived early to catch one of my colleagues before he went into a three-day training on business development.

It is strange to come back to a place that used to be my daily destination for so many years. There were many new faces, the carpets had been changed (one thing that the Afghans know to do a whole lot better than the Americans) and the walls had been painted in new colors. There were also a lot of young women who used to be single college grads and are now moms. They proudly showed me pictures of their babies and toddlers.
I experienced the commute again which made me think twice about returning to HQ and doing this on a daily basis again. Being driven around in Kabul isn’t so bad, even the traffic is not as bad. What we would consider a very long drive in and out of town would be normal stop and go here. At least in Kabul there is a lot of interesting stuff to see while stuck in traffic.

And so my plans for after Kabul remain vague and my interest in finding another field position has gone up by a few notches.

On the other hand, being in Lobster Cove is wonderful. It was another sunny day, the grass was bright green, and fish in the cove (Axel caught one – Tessa and I sputtered about animal abuse when we saw the poor thing flapping around on the lawn). When I got home, about 11 hours after I had left in the morning, Axel was hunkered over a large chunk of meet on a beach fire, beer in hand while Tessa prepared the rest of dinner – freshly picked asparagus and new potatoes.