Sunday, September 28, 2008
The end is near….and then off to the motherland!
The end of Ramadan is near. Thank god! Only 2 more days to go (depending on this moon over here). It’s been tough, but a good experience so far. I think my favorite part has definitely been the spirit of it all, the amount of time everyone spends together, eating and cooking, there’s a huge community feeling in it. We had three very nice dinners this weekend – one with our local staff at a local restaurant, one in the compound, and then one at a friends place in the city. A nice last weekend of Ramadan.
I’m off to Delhi and Agra on Tuesday for five days with some friends from here for Eid. We have three days off here, so we thought it would be nice to do a short trip. There are five of us going and we are all counting the hours until we fly out. I’ve never been to India, so I am very excited!!!!!!!
It’ll be nice to get out of Kabul for a bit and to have the chance to walk around, eat good food and just be out. It’s scary how much you appreciate that; not having to get security clearance to go out, or face the possibility of a lockdown, or have to be searched each time you change locations. I’m back in Kabul on the 5th for 2 weeks; then I’m headed back to India again for what is going to be the trip of a lifetime.
My cousin and her husband have decided to adopt a baby girl from an orphanage in Calcutta, so I will be meeting up with them, as well as my uncle in mid-October to pick up the newest addition to our family, Zaleeya. To read their story check out Zaleeya’s blog: www.zaleeya.blogspot.com I’ll be meeting up with Zeena, Azeem and Mohammed Uncle in Delhi from where we will do a bit of traveling. We will then head over to Calcutta to pick-up Zaleeya and spend some time at the orphanage. I’m so happy that I get to share in this experience with them and I think it will be a phenomenal trip. Things are very hectic for the next month or so, but very exciting! I will try and write as much as possible and post pictures of course.
Back to the motherland I go!!!! (well sort of)
I’m off to Delhi and Agra on Tuesday for five days with some friends from here for Eid. We have three days off here, so we thought it would be nice to do a short trip. There are five of us going and we are all counting the hours until we fly out. I’ve never been to India, so I am very excited!!!!!!!
It’ll be nice to get out of Kabul for a bit and to have the chance to walk around, eat good food and just be out. It’s scary how much you appreciate that; not having to get security clearance to go out, or face the possibility of a lockdown, or have to be searched each time you change locations. I’m back in Kabul on the 5th for 2 weeks; then I’m headed back to India again for what is going to be the trip of a lifetime.
My cousin and her husband have decided to adopt a baby girl from an orphanage in Calcutta, so I will be meeting up with them, as well as my uncle in mid-October to pick up the newest addition to our family, Zaleeya. To read their story check out Zaleeya’s blog: www.zaleeya.blogspot.com I’ll be meeting up with Zeena, Azeem and Mohammed Uncle in Delhi from where we will do a bit of traveling. We will then head over to Calcutta to pick-up Zaleeya and spend some time at the orphanage. I’m so happy that I get to share in this experience with them and I think it will be a phenomenal trip. Things are very hectic for the next month or so, but very exciting! I will try and write as much as possible and post pictures of course.
Back to the motherland I go!!!! (well sort of)
Monday, September 15, 2008
Officially half way through Ramadan
So we are on day 15 of Ramadan (Day 10 of fasting for me. I skipped some because I wasn't feeling well) and I can't say that it gets any easier. This is probably one of the most difficult things I've done and it has definitely tested my patience and strength. Having to work and be productive has been a challenge. My schedule has been redonkulas. I go to bed at 11pm after eating, wake up at 3:30am again to eat, go back to sleep at 4am and then wake up at 7:30am for work, work until 5:30-6 and then break my fast at 6:15. It gets quite exhausting. The weekends aren't bad because you sleep, but I hate being this lazy. It's so hard to eat properly. At least we are officially half way through the month :)
Otherwise things are going well. Work is busy and I have several big projects that are due in the next month or so. Things have been a bit quiet in Kabul in terms of security, nothing major, but we've had a couple of precautionary lock downs. The governor of Logar, one of the provinces near us was assassinated this weekend, but it hasn't really affected us.
I'm planning a trip to India (Delhi and Agra) for Eid, which I am very excited about because I've never been to India, so that will be nice. I also found out this week that I'm going to have a month off in December, so I am getting very excited about being in Canada (both Toronto and Vancouver) before the end of the year for an extended period of time.
There is a really need photo story a guy I know did for BBC, if you have some time take a look: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/south_asia_afghan_school_life/html/1.stm
Otherwise things are going well. Work is busy and I have several big projects that are due in the next month or so. Things have been a bit quiet in Kabul in terms of security, nothing major, but we've had a couple of precautionary lock downs. The governor of Logar, one of the provinces near us was assassinated this weekend, but it hasn't really affected us.
I'm planning a trip to India (Delhi and Agra) for Eid, which I am very excited about because I've never been to India, so that will be nice. I also found out this week that I'm going to have a month off in December, so I am getting very excited about being in Canada (both Toronto and Vancouver) before the end of the year for an extended period of time.
There is a really need photo story a guy I know did for BBC, if you have some time take a look: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/south_asia_afghan_school_life/html/1.stm
Monday, September 1, 2008
Day One of Ramadan
My appologizes for not writing over the past couple of weeks. Things as always have been quite hectic with work and I was sick for a few days from some food I ate.
Today was the first day of Ramadan, so I thought I would try to fast, my first time ever. We had the day off work so it was not too bad fasting. I'm going to try and fast for most of the month, but we'll see how it goes. I think it's going to be rather difficult when I have to work normal hours.
The security situation has been pretty bad since I've been back, so we've been pretty limited in our movement. No day trips or exploring whatsoever. I'm hoping we can get one trip in at least before the winter, but I am seriously beginning to doubt it. I was supposed to go to Jalalabad this week because we are opening a playground there, but due to some attacks there I couldn't get clearance to go (and again today there was another attack in Jalalabad).
Nothing else exciting going on to report, everything has been pretty low-key. Hope things are well!
Today was the first day of Ramadan, so I thought I would try to fast, my first time ever. We had the day off work so it was not too bad fasting. I'm going to try and fast for most of the month, but we'll see how it goes. I think it's going to be rather difficult when I have to work normal hours.
The security situation has been pretty bad since I've been back, so we've been pretty limited in our movement. No day trips or exploring whatsoever. I'm hoping we can get one trip in at least before the winter, but I am seriously beginning to doubt it. I was supposed to go to Jalalabad this week because we are opening a playground there, but due to some attacks there I couldn't get clearance to go (and again today there was another attack in Jalalabad).
Nothing else exciting going on to report, everything has been pretty low-key. Hope things are well!
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