day two

Got to Kabul yesterday morning. Missed my driver at the airport so I caught a ride with a couple of locals who work for IRD. After a brief adventure, they dropped me off at the AKF offices on Wazir Akbar Khan (a major street). Nice guys, especially the English-speaking one.

Met with Kevin, the CEO of AKF,A right after I got in, then went around and met everyone. The HR guys, Cipta and Donny (both Indonesian), and the admin guys, Ramin and I-forget-the-other-one's-name (both Afghan), are really friendly. Took a trip to the Ministry of the Interior to register with the government, which was interesting. The driver took a reeeally long route back -- expats have to be driven everywhere by the local drivers and the route changes every time as a precautionary measure. The streets here are unlike anything I've ever seen. Choked with dust (the air literally smells like an old bookshelf), full of cars and people moving around without much rhyme or reason, mostly unpaved and really, mostly rutted so much that even a Land Cruiser pitches and yaws like a rowboat in a hurricane. And there are AK-47s everywhere. Cops, Afghan army, private security.

Anyway, then it was back to the AKF office to get my computer fixed, and then to the guest house to put my luggage down, take a shower and have some lunch. The shower was, surprisingly, scalding. Then over to the FOCUS offices to meet everyone (except Maiwand, the program manager, who's in Islamabad waiting for a UK visa). Did some work, then back to the AKF offices to pick up my computer. One of the IT guys, whose name I also forget (I'm going to have a hard time with names...there are a lot of staff and a lot of them have longish names that I don't catch on the first go-round), came back with me to the guest house to hook me into the wifi here. He's really friendly, too, and speaks good English. He studied in India and a lot of his family lives in Toronto. We talked about a lot of things, including how Kabul has changed since he was a little kid and about differences in marriage traditions in Afghanistan and the US/Canada. Really interesting conversation.

Talked with Claire and watched some TV. Dinner was awkward as crap because it was me and eight Afghans, only one of whom speaks any English at all. It was silent. I ate as fast as possible and then absolutely passed out at like 8:50.

Woke up at 4:30 this morning, ended up Skyping with Alix from AKF USA, and Vale, of all people. She's going to get engaged. Holy crap. Then did a few exercises, ate a much friendlier breakfast with the two Afghans I spent the most time with yesterday (waiting around at the AKF office and riding from one place to another). They're HIV educators in Kandahar, but they're on their way to spend a month in Pul-i-Khumri for training. The one that speaks English (kind of) is nice and this morning I introduced him to granola. He is a big fan and ended up having two big bowls. There's no brewed coffee, just Nescafe, but whatever.

Okay, that's enough for now. The car is coming to get Yousef and I in fifteen minutes and I need to get dressed and get my stuff together for the day. More later.