Cyclic leaving - office --> guesthouse --> office ---> guesthouse

It has now been two full days in Kabul. And they have been good so far. I am staying at Sierra Base, one of five guesthouses located very close to the MC office, and also home to our country director Christine. She has been a very hospitable host. I'll include a picture at some point but a brief description will have to do. The two-story house sits behind one gate and two sets of walls. We have a full-time guard (basically manning the gate and generator and doing odds and ends around the yard) and a cook and cleaner. The cook Ali can make just about anything you request, does all the shopping and the cleaner does laundry. On Monday morning we asked him for salad, curry and stir fry and when I went home for lunch that day, it was all there. He proceeded to rattle off all the possible things I might like him to make adding "Do you like pies or cakes?" I think he is rather bored and itching to feed people.

Christine and another colleague have set up a small gym room at Sierra Base. This is especially important considering that movement is extremely limited and we are driven everywhere. But before this starts to sound glamorous, it's not. My room is rustic, there isn't much of a closet and no dresser - the desk drawers are standing in for that. The power goes off regularly and when it is on, the lights are dim unless the generator is on. There is currently no internet. But it's comfortable. And hey, I have all the Al Jezeera, BBC and CNN news I could hope for.

Did I mention being driven everywhere? The guests houses are all within a couple minutes drive to the office but we are picked up and dropped off everyday and there are drivers on duty around the clock. The security level has been lowered slightly post-election and today two colleagues and I actually walked the two blocks back from a cafe - a cafe with two gates and an armed guard who checks bags. When you are outside the guesthouse and office gates, wearing a headscarf is actually a nice thing. Not that I don't for an instant think everyone knows I'm a foreigner but it gives you something to feign hiding behind.

It's evening prayer call during Ramadan. The office is quiet and the smells of break fast and the clinking of food preparations are coming through the open windows. But the sounds of helicopters flying low over the city remind you where you are.