Happy New Year-1386

This is a picture out of our bedroom window of our neighbor exercising his pigeons-I supppose Afghans have been exercising their pigeons off the rooftops in Afghanistan ever since Kabul began.

Norm and I have had a heavenly two days of quiet...a luxury for westerners here...something that Afghans have difficulty understanding as their idea of heaven is a room full of relatives-eating and chatting. For the new year, we recieved "Seven Fruits" as a gift from our Yasin and Salia, and ventured out in the streets to find a hill to walk but the streets were filled with Afghans trying to find a place to picnic. Traffic being rated as the highest stressor here in Kabul (by Afghans) above suicide bombers.

My son is getting ready to come and visit me-my mother is extremely nervous and it seems that the airwaves are full of dire stories of the disentegration and chaos here....as usual not the whole picture or even part of the picture. In fact, as far as I am concerned it is all old news and the upheaval was anticipated and is being addressed. American media has not lost their ability to promulgate fear, hopelessness and the sense that nothing we do makes a difference-a view of the world I do not subscribe to.

I will stand corrected if the predicted "spring offensive" materializes and impacts us...the conditions do not seem much different from when I started coming to Afghanistan-but Afghans-at least in Kabul are getting on with life. Especially as our hard winter relents and is turning into spring. Maybe it is just our two year mark and we are used to exercising caution and living with it but we feel like peace has taken root and is imminent.