Sharky says this was the worst bomb she's experienced in Kabul (and she's already experienced some bad ones) but she's 'fine'. I wish I hadn't left her there alone.
I've seen a few queries about my deployment to Haiti. This is the scoop:
I applied to a few organizations in hopes of helping in Haiti. Only Merlin responded, but by then a Canadian UN recruiting agency had asked me to go and help the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Haiti. I enjoyed cooperating with OCHA in Sri Lanka so this makes me very pleased.
I resigned from the World Food Program and am right now in Frankfurt en route to Ottawa to collect my tent (and see my Dad) and then Santo Domingo where I will have a day of training before heading to Port-au-Prince - perhaps on Tuesday.
I don`t know much more about what will happen except that I understand I'll be living and working this close to the Aeroport Toussant L'Ouverture airport.
Meanwhile Sharky is expecting confirmation of a different opportunity in Port-au-Prince. No details yet.
Sharky and I are fine. We just flew into Kabul from India and did not know about yesterday's attacks on UN staff, but now we know a friend's friend was killed. More soon.
Clockwise from top right: Sharky, Angelica (who is actually a boy), Fernando and Tom
We wish all our friends happy holidays and a safe and healthy 2009.
Uh... that would be the first pictures of our recent honeymoon. Not pictures from my first honeymoon. Those were torn up long ago.
In fact Ms S. and I went to China and India for our honeymoon. We took thousands of pictures and it will take a while to sort them out but the first, close-ups of the Terracotta Army near Xi'an are here.
(The army will assemble again soon for more general pictures of the viewing experience).
Some snaps of some wonderful Chinese acrobats are here. 
(Unfortunately I let my camera battery die before the intermission.)
There was an explostion at the Ministry of Interior in Kabul today that shook our house and broke some eggs but Ms S. and I are OK.
Ms S. gave the Kids a bath the other day. I thought cats hated baths - in fact I think I remember once a long time ago after Bentley went up the chimney it took Mom, Dad and me a lot of struggle and I think some actual bleeding to get him presentable again. But our darlings seem to like it.
Fernando dries off
Angelica dries off
We are starting to question their initial gender assignments. No, it's not obvious with kittens. I read something about it at the Wikipedia 'kitten' page) but it was too technical and personal for me. I'm reassured that I used to live and work with an obstetrician-gynaecologist in Liberia who incorrectly identified the gender of our adult cat, 'Bravo Zero'.) Ms S. and I both claim we can identify cats' genders by their faces but I don't think we've done a scientific test. I understand that ginger cats are normally male but we call our ginger cat 'Angelica'. The tabby is 'Fernando'. (This site says three out of four ginger cats are male and tortoiseshell cats are 200:1 female.) Our tortoiseshell is going to remain 'Fernando', even if he his own kittens. And Angelica will remain Angelica even if she turns into a radical Talib.
Ms S., or 'Sharky'
I admit it: I've been placing teasers on my Skype(tm) and Crackbook profiles about getting married tomorrow. Yes it's true - and yes, it's been fast but it's also totally wonderful.
Sharky and I met here in Kabul in November when I was working for an International NGO and she was working for a national NGO. We didn't speak the first time I went to her office but we caught each other's eyes and I thought a lot about her afterwards and worked hard to make another meeting there happen. When I went to that meeting she wasn't there and I was sad but she came in at the end and I gave her my card, not knowing whether or not she spoke English. But Sharky is a very westernized Afghan who has actually lived in Afghanistan less than I have.
I'm too shy to explain all the ways she's incredible and we're too worried about some security and cultural circumstances for me to reveal almost anything of her biography but we are in love and we are marrying tomorrow evening. Watch this space for pictures.
Got back into Kabul yesterday - thrilled beyond thrills to reunite with Ms S. and anxious to catch up with other friends. Counting down the minutes (263 as I write this) until my first game of Ultimate.
I had had a fantastic few weeks in Ottawa - thanks to those who encouraged me to spend some time resting between jobs although it was also partly because when I left Kabul I didn't know what would be next. (Slight pity I had to transport all my stuff back and forth.) It was terrific to see Dad and some of my oldest friends.
The trip here was hectic. Collected a new reason for a flight delay in Toronto: "Ladies and Gentlemen we regret to announce that our departure has been delayed for a technical reason, and that technical reason is that we have no pilots. We don't know where they are. We don't know when they will get here. We will keep you informed." I'm not joking. After roughly half an hour one pilot showed up but we didn't move until another ambled up (OK, use of that term is a joke) and then we had another hour on the tarmac while queueing up for de-icing. One loud mouth complained about the de-icing, but would he really honestly have wanted to go without it?
I didn't think I'd make my connection to Dubai but Lufthansa in Frankfurt were marvelous. They had a separate bus waiting at the foot of the stairs for the half dozen of us hoping to make the same connection. Off we zoomed with, apparently, Michael Schumacher at the wheel to the right part of the airport and then we followed a ground staff person at a very brisk walk up to the departure gate for Dubai.
I'm so glad to be back.
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