I'm sitting in Terminal Two at DXB, waiting for my flight to Dushanbe. About three hours to go until boarding. This terminal is just for use by FlyDubai, the emirate's budget airline. People in Kabul complain about it a lot because it's apparently often late and you have to pay for anything on board, including pillows. But the plane was new, the staff were pleasant, and the flight was on time. Maybe I just got lucky but based on that one experience I'd take it over Safi any day.
The terminal is kind of a Terminal One in miniature. Even the weird juxtaposition of the branding (utterly generic and global) and the people (god only knows how many languages are being spoken in my immediate vicinity right now) is the same. The destinations are smaller, though. Some I haven't even heard of: Where is Mahsad?
I finished Liar's Poker and left it in Kabul for Liz to read, and then read the entirety of The Places In Between between last night and today. More thoughts on those later. For now I'll just say that they were interesting books to read back-to-back. Had to pick up a new copy of the Economist and a copy of The Hobbit from the truly, somewhat depressingly pathetic newsstand in the duty-free. They had 18-20 different books, of which two or maybe three seemed like things I'd ever want to read.
The time in Tajikistan is going to be a little nuts. I just set up one meeting but the rest of my non-PE meetings there are going to be completely ad hoc. A woman from Focus Tajikistan just told me that there is apparently a habitat improvement conference next week in Khorog, which some donor-unit colleagues are attending. Who knew? Maybe I'll go to it. It's nine days until I'm home and right now that seems like a ways, but I know it'll rocket along.
The terminal is kind of a Terminal One in miniature. Even the weird juxtaposition of the branding (utterly generic and global) and the people (god only knows how many languages are being spoken in my immediate vicinity right now) is the same. The destinations are smaller, though. Some I haven't even heard of: Where is Mahsad?
I finished Liar's Poker and left it in Kabul for Liz to read, and then read the entirety of The Places In Between between last night and today. More thoughts on those later. For now I'll just say that they were interesting books to read back-to-back. Had to pick up a new copy of the Economist and a copy of The Hobbit from the truly, somewhat depressingly pathetic newsstand in the duty-free. They had 18-20 different books, of which two or maybe three seemed like things I'd ever want to read.
The time in Tajikistan is going to be a little nuts. I just set up one meeting but the rest of my non-PE meetings there are going to be completely ad hoc. A woman from Focus Tajikistan just told me that there is apparently a habitat improvement conference next week in Khorog, which some donor-unit colleagues are attending. Who knew? Maybe I'll go to it. It's nine days until I'm home and right now that seems like a ways, but I know it'll rocket along.
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