Birthday in Kabul
Today is my birthday and lots of people helped to make it special.
Kabul at this time isn't the best place to celebrate, but everyone I work with here, as well as my colleagues in DC, friends and family have done a great job of making it fun. I've been receiving emails since last night and have saved up cards that began arriving weeks ago and marked "don't open until Nov. 3!"
The day began early with a call to my hubby for birthday greetings. He can't all me, so I helped him by making the call. I then hurried over to a meeting at the Embassy. Afterwards I joined a large group of people for breakfast in the Embassy cafeteria and to watch the election returns. It was still Nov. 2 in the US and the returns were beginning to roll in. The event drew a lot of media as well.
For much of the rest of the day we were glued to the Internet watching the returns and reading stories as they were posted. There are few televisions in our building, and with work to get done it's easier to switch back and forth on the computer between work and the Internet.
This election had a few surprises and we kept a healthy banter going in the office as the day went on.
(Don't tell anyone, but I was feeling a bit tired right around 11 a.m. and squeezed in a two-hour nap over lunch! It is my birthday after all -- I think I'm allowed!)
I have to admit that although I was getting lots of good wishes from people during the day, I was beginning to wonder about the folks in my office. They really seemed to be playing it down. Not that I'm special or anything, but I kind of thought we'd at least go to lunch or dinner together. Just when I figured that I should just suck it up -- that it was just another day -- they surprised me with a party in the office. When I returned to the office after a meeting late in the afternoon, I was treated to a surprise birthday party, complete with a cake and the decorations my mother had sent ahead of time. I work with good people and I think they enjoyed keeping me in suspense!
Finally, tonight I was treated to dinner at another government compound. It was delicious -- 100 times better than the prepackaged food we get. I had curried prawns with fresh ginger and saffron rice. Other US government agencies eat much better than we do!
All in all, it was a good day. I'm settling in -- getting a feel for the work as well as the people. I've got good support and that's important.
Coincidentally, today is also the day that Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of the presidential election here in Afghanistan. His inauguration will be the next big event for us.
And we are already beginning to plan for our involvement in the parliamentary elections in the spring. That will be a long and complicated process, beginning with a census, establishing district boundaries and another registration period.
In-between we have a few congressional delegations coming to spend holidays with the troops, and of course we are all hoping for a happy resolution to the hostage crisis. It's enough to keep us busy everyday.
But rest assured that not a day goes by that I don't miss everyone...
Kabul at this time isn't the best place to celebrate, but everyone I work with here, as well as my colleagues in DC, friends and family have done a great job of making it fun. I've been receiving emails since last night and have saved up cards that began arriving weeks ago and marked "don't open until Nov. 3!"
The day began early with a call to my hubby for birthday greetings. He can't all me, so I helped him by making the call. I then hurried over to a meeting at the Embassy. Afterwards I joined a large group of people for breakfast in the Embassy cafeteria and to watch the election returns. It was still Nov. 2 in the US and the returns were beginning to roll in. The event drew a lot of media as well.
For much of the rest of the day we were glued to the Internet watching the returns and reading stories as they were posted. There are few televisions in our building, and with work to get done it's easier to switch back and forth on the computer between work and the Internet.
This election had a few surprises and we kept a healthy banter going in the office as the day went on.
(Don't tell anyone, but I was feeling a bit tired right around 11 a.m. and squeezed in a two-hour nap over lunch! It is my birthday after all -- I think I'm allowed!)
I have to admit that although I was getting lots of good wishes from people during the day, I was beginning to wonder about the folks in my office. They really seemed to be playing it down. Not that I'm special or anything, but I kind of thought we'd at least go to lunch or dinner together. Just when I figured that I should just suck it up -- that it was just another day -- they surprised me with a party in the office. When I returned to the office after a meeting late in the afternoon, I was treated to a surprise birthday party, complete with a cake and the decorations my mother had sent ahead of time. I work with good people and I think they enjoyed keeping me in suspense!
Finally, tonight I was treated to dinner at another government compound. It was delicious -- 100 times better than the prepackaged food we get. I had curried prawns with fresh ginger and saffron rice. Other US government agencies eat much better than we do!
All in all, it was a good day. I'm settling in -- getting a feel for the work as well as the people. I've got good support and that's important.
Coincidentally, today is also the day that Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of the presidential election here in Afghanistan. His inauguration will be the next big event for us.
And we are already beginning to plan for our involvement in the parliamentary elections in the spring. That will be a long and complicated process, beginning with a census, establishing district boundaries and another registration period.
In-between we have a few congressional delegations coming to spend holidays with the troops, and of course we are all hoping for a happy resolution to the hostage crisis. It's enough to keep us busy everyday.
But rest assured that not a day goes by that I don't miss everyone...
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