Friday’s the new Sunday

Because of well-publicized and tragic events of the past few weeks, my time in Kabul has been spent largely between my home and language classes. (And as I mentioned before, shared dinners. Last night it was tacos with Canadians). For now, my compatriots and I travel point to point by car. This is how people who receive Danger Pay live all the time, but it's not very conducive to being part of an Afghan community, or periods of longer than six months.

For this reason, I don't have many catchy tales of local interaction. The best "genuine" thing happened after taking old bread for our neighbor's chickens. The parents and daughter warmly invited Fay and I for tea, which turned into dinner.

Their 18-yr-old son served as the translator for us all. They made classic Kabuli Palau: a heaping platter of fried rice, raisins, carrot shreds, spices, and mutton. In famous Afghan style, we were fed far more than we could eat of the finest pieces of meat and heaps of rice. Did I say Fay is a vegetarian?

Then because it was city power night, we all sat around the room on cushions and watched television – the news, WWF, Indian and Iranian music videos, and a dubbed Turkish soap opera.

I got a 50% share in a small cat on Wednesday. She's a pretty gray tabby with a tinking bell around her neck. Name undecided, she's precocious and still mostly a kitten. I'm afraid with limited social exchange we'll become people who tell lots of cat anecdotes.

Yesterday we went out shopping. (Fay and I lead parallel lives as you may gather). We hadn't been allowed to the bazaar for the past three weeks as a security measure. The particular shop was full of import foods of dubious origins. I passed on Cheez-Its that expired in Sept 07 in favor of Salt & Vinegar chips from Aug 08. Still, it was nice to do a bit of my own shopping. It was whelming to see the city for the first time since I came from the airport. There is old rubble, new construction, and vacant lots occupied by nomadic Kuchis.

The single most disorienting thing is the Friday weekend. Most everyone except expatriates works a six-day week. And then the week starts all over again Saturday morning.

Because of my limited movement and internet, the only election updates I got were on my portable radio. I heard BBC news of Ohio going to Obama when I woke up and McCain's concession speech during tea break on Wednesday morning.

I had a meeting with the man who ran the adult education program in the south. It's likely I'll move to the north in April or May as part of a new team doing the same work.

I discovered a felted wool blanket in our living room, certainly from a village, with either an indigenous or migrant population of moths and maggots living in it. Fay aired it out and scraped the cocoons off the ceiling, but I have my doubts.

There are spots of brightness I won't call attention to but want to acknowledge. It's a funny world, but life does go forth.