Meetings, grab bags and emergency burqas

My new boss Peter, a tall, lanky Australian from Sydney with years upon years of development and emergency experience, and I have spent the last few days wrapping our brains around our newly acquired program. The program has been in start-up since March but is fairly new to both of us. This has involved meeting after meeting as we try to flesh out what staff we have, where they are located, how many more are needed, and most importantly, what they are doing. Next week we are scheduled to fly up to Faizabad to see it all first hand and get to know the team and projects in the area. Essentially the program involves agriculture livelihoods (infrastructure and horticulture) and livestock (animal health, poultry) to provide income opportunities other than poppy cultivation.

At the same time, I have been trying to get acclimated including attempting to develop a routine and make sure I have all the necessary paperwork and essential equipment. For the former, it's figuring out when and how to exercise - making friends with the treadmill (ugh) and rediscovering my yoga dvd - what to eat since it's all cooked and shopped for by Ali - and someday I hope to actually sleep through the night - jet lag has been merciless this trip. For the latter, it means getting my work permit and visa extension processed, payroll paperwork filled out, learning how to use a hand-held radio, adding various manuals to my reading list and lastly being commisioned my grab bag. The grab bag is just that, what you would grab should we need to move to a safe location for a while. It has a blanket, pocket knife, flashlight, more medical supplies than one person really needs unless you want to be a mummy for halloween, strawberry biscuits (?) and the all essential emergency burqa which I promptly tried on. It did not fit so well - apparently women's heads here are significantly smaller than mine not to mention they are shorter than me. Hopefully, I will never need to wear it, though speaking of costumes...