A quiet friday....

It is a quiet Friday. No staff and only a survey report to write on our "feasibility of maternity waiting homes" which I will write more later on about my trip- and three proposals to write. Here is our new Pee Shoe Gak who has made himself at home. Norm is in bed miserable with a cold so he has had to postpone his trip to Mazaar-i-Shariff. All of us expatriates who write proposals are doing double duty in all of our projects as accessing international aid is so dependent on international skills.

There is something normalizing about having animals to tend to that gets me away from the computer for a minute and makes Kabul seem like home.



This is my correspondance with a friend who also grew up in Afghanistan.











Dear Marnie,
Greatly relieved to hear that you don't do clandestine work, except in the realm of animal
rescue.
I imagine it must be so hard in Kabul, especiallyaround the holidays. I remember when we lived there,
my mother used to get depressed at Christmas time. I didn't get it, because I thought being in Kabul for
Xmas was so exotic it was fun.The first year we bought a pathetic evergreen tree in the bazaar, for
which we would express great guilt because it contributed to deforestation, but our logic was
something like we might as well buy the tree because it already got cut. The second year I think we rebelled and refused to buy a tree. I just remember how simple Christmas was and I liked that. I still have an Afghan ornament from that time, a littlesheepskin bootie, that I hang on our Christmas tree
each year.

….I'd love an Afghan kitty for Christmas. I could ask for one but I think I'm getting a crock pot instead.
Love, Anne

Anne,
So good to hear a newsy letter. Instead of international development correspondance that I am getting in abundance these days. Mahbouba wants Xmas this year and is arriving back from thestates on the 24th for dinner on the 25th. Norm and I drove by some spindly pines that are living and we are going to the wedding store to find sparkley lights. I think we will
then raid PARSA gift shop for some Taliban dolls as our "theme"this year. Mom highly recommends roast leg of goat with alot of garlic. Not a Wal Mart in sight.

It is still pretty warm here. Five of my puppies left today with me threatening to visit them and telling their new owners that I retain the right to take them back if they are mistreated. Afghans are astonished at my attitude. We have rejected 3 potential owners- and Palwasha now has my "dogs are friends to the Americans" speech down in Dari including a rosy picture of how dogs have jobs in America and- in fact -"America was built on the back of dogs love and labor for human
beings" speech...I even sent one of my smallest puppies to a farm in Paghman with my coveted hot water
bottle. I think I am going over the deep end. Love to all….