Next Stage

Well, there's no we can go back to Afghanistan if we never leave it.  So we left on Saturday morning, or Friday night US time.  No major problems with either flight; slight delay in leaving Kabul, but amazingly, and contrary to the expectations and cynicism of everyone we know, the plan to check the bags through Dubai all the way to Dulles worked.  We got to our day hotel in Dubai around noon, had a nice lunch and walked around the mall and saw an extraordinarily high percentage of women in the full black chador, the one with just the slit for the eyes, which is I suppose a step up from the burka.  But here's the difference between Dubai and Afghanistan: in Dubai, there are women in public places like malls.  In Afghanistan, the public is pretty much the man's domain.
Anyway, we went back to the airport at 8 pm, checked in, had dinner, then caught our midnight flight.  For a 14 hour flight, it was quite pleasant.  Dulles is usually my nightmare airport, taking forever to clear immigration and customs, waiting forever for luggage, waiting for an overpriced cab.  We flew through it in about 5 minutes for passport; our bags were the first ones off the carousel, customs didn't even look at our form, and we walked right to the front of the cab line, which zipped to Alexandria in record time.  That's the great advantage of 6:30 am weekend arrivals.  Anyway, we are at our temporary apartment, home for the next four weeks, and we are relatively cleaned up and ready to go find coffee and food.  I have to go to work tomorrow, but that's not until 7:30 a.m.  We actually are getting a Sunday off from work.  I don't believe that's happened in quite a while.

The Final Count

We have 12 rolls of toilet paper left over.  Turns out that that extra week of vacation in France probably saved us from running out.  We have seven rolls of paper towels - turns out that extra year of not cleaning the house probably saved us.  We have 3 cans of bug spray which we can't take because it's aerosol.  We have one remaining bag of coffee - thanks, Mom.  We were allotted 450 pounds of air freight to Panama; we used about 370 of it, plus the packing materials of about 70 pounds.  We were allowed up to 2,000 pounds sea freight, which confusingly travels by air from Afghanistan; we used about 720, not counting the packing materials, which brought it to 895.  We have left over nasal saline spray and eye drops because we became inured to the dust storms.  And that's about it.  Our out of office messages are up and running, and that means we are not doing any work.  We are out of here, and the destination is changing to Panama, via Washington.

The Final Countdown

We are about 14 hours away from heading to the airport.  Our bags are more or less packed, though we're still adjusting to distribute the weight better and, we hope, reduce the Safi surcharges for extra weight (only 30 kg total allowed).  We went to the bazaar one last time, to get a repaired bracelet of Jody's and buy a souvenir for a friend.  No carpets, though at one point I had the guy down to $30, but I wanted lower.  Sometimes you just have to walk away, and that's what it's like for us now - time to walk away from Afghanistan.  Only one more meal at the DFAC to go.  We need to throw away and give away some of the stuff in the apartment this evening.  But we are very close to leaving.

The Destination is Changing

Today we pack out.  After a couple of coffees, we will spring into action and actually pack our suitcases and segregate our stuff destined for Panama from the things we don't want the movers to toss into the crate.  We probably should get started on that.  Otherwise, it's just returning phones and ID cards and things like that.  We are 48 hours away from departure.

More 7/4 Photos

 There's nothing weird going on with the camera in the first two photos.  These were under a large red tent, since in the sun it was about 100 degrees.  Notice the tastefully concealed sandbags protecting the hooches in the third photo.

Fourth of July in Kabul

 Though, as I mentioned previously, it was actually July 3.  The Afghan employees of the Embassy brought their families, which meant there were children dressed in traditional costumes running around the grounds.  The popcorn was a big hit.

Independence Day

Embassies have national day receptions for Independence Day but not usually on 7/4.  Ours was on July 2.  These are working days, where in addition to the setup for the event, part of the job is mingling and chatting with the guests.  Today, 7/3, is the unofficial "community" party, technically not a work day, but since we always work on Sundays anyway, it basically is.  Besides, somebody has to do all the work to set up this party too.  We have a congressional delegation in town - Senators McCain, Lieberman and Graham.  I was reminded of that fact this morning as I got on the elevator and rode down with Senator Lieberman, who was wearing a t-shirt and green turtle-decorated swimming trunks.  I also got a baseball signed by Senators McCain and Lieberman (who was wearing more than just the trunks at the time of the signature).  Tomorrow is a regular work day.
We have three more work days, then the pack out day, then Friday to mail last-minute stuff, and we head out Saturday morning to Dubai.

Last Bazaar

Yesterday was the last bazaar for us.  From now on, everything will be the last time we do something.  Today is the last Saturday.  The next day is the last country team, the last meeting of this or that nature.  The only exception is the ubiquitous baked pollock, which is available at every damn meal, and has been the past eight months, adding a certain je ne sais pas mais ca peste aroma to the compound, as if the natural scent of the air isn't enough.  Anyway, we bought some last jewelry items, lapis of course, and one more small carpet.  I used to hate bargaining.  Now I am, if I say so myself, quite good at it, and the dealers will literally run after me to agree to the price at which I walked away, where then I get it a little bit cheaper.  Yesterday I bought a camel wool carpet with a Kuchi design.  (The Kuchi, frequent readers will recall, are nomadic goat herders, sort of the wandering salmon of the Afghanistan dry highlands.)  This makes five carpets:
 - sheep wool, pomegranate and walnut stained, Ghazni origin, light yellow and red carpet
-  sheep wool, blue and yellow, from Herat though not too Iranian in design, runner
- lamb's wool, dark red, elephant foot design, from Mazar, very large centerpiece carpet
- camel wool, red and light yellow, Qal-i-Naw city, Turkmen design
- yesterday's camel and sheep wool blend, Kuchi design, from Muquer district

I don't think I'll get any more, in part because we pack out on Thursday, and fly out on Saturday.  Now, time to eat breakfast.