cursed internet

Well, yesterday was a day of mighty struggle to get and stay online. The IT guys from AKF (FOCUS doesn't have its own) were on leave yesterday or something, so one of the admin guys here, Gul, signed me on with his username. But for some unknown reason, it's on a timer and just cuts out after a while. What the fuck. And then at the guesthouse I couldn't get online at all, but it was such a tease: the wifi connection was recognized by my computer but there was something messed up with the firewall or something. Anyway, Yousef, the Canadian financial guy, showed me how to fix it this morning (I think). And the IT guys are coming today to set me up properly in the office. Oy.

Anyway, apart from that yesterday was nice. The weather is beautiful, 70s and dry, and it even rained for a few minutes yesterday, which killed the dust for an hour or two. Just like Santiago, the mountains in the distance are way more beautiful when you can actually SEE them. I've been reading the Sphere Project Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, which Maiwand had sitting on his desk, in the down times when I can't get online. Very interesting, practical info. I'd skimmed sections of it before but never given it a good read. Currently I'm working on "Minimum Standards in Food Security, Nutrition and Food Aid" - i.e. the bit that I find most interesting. The first section was "Common Standards" (the ones that apply to all sectors), then "Hygiene Promotion and Water and Sanitation." Not a bad use of time given the options, honestly.

I've got my plane ticket to head to Faizabad tomorrow and it looks as though I'll be able to get to Ishkashim and the border after all. There was a security incident in Warduj a bit over three weeks ago, so they weren't letting cars through for a while, but things are stable enough now that even marked cars are allowed (and I'll be in an unmarked car, you can be sure). The guys here are fanatical about security and won't even go themselves if things are unsafe, so if they say it's okay, it's okay. I'm excited to see some of the program activities. Apparently I'll be mostly seeing DIPECHO-funded (i.e. EU) stuff because they're a little ahead of my grant in terms of the schedule: past the evaluation stage and into the actual work. I'll take lots of pictures.

I'm still working off the jet lag somewhat, but I think today I'll finally be on a normal-ish schedule. Napped from 6-7 last night and then had no trouble falling asleep later after a call with Nashir (CEO of FOCUS Afghanistan) at 9. That's pretty unheard of for me.