Dear Reed:

Kabul still seems pretty stable.  I pondered over that word for a while.  I've never seen so much rubble, block after block.  We used to say the Bronx looked bombed out.  Now I know what we meant.  One problem is no clear land title (warlords in succession granted title to the same property to various people, so now no one knows who really owns it, and there aren't really any functioning legal institutions.)  And yet somehow life goes on. 

There's a young guy who works for me, Ashoob.  He met me at the airport today.  He told me the other day that a relative had died (he's had several relatives die in recent months, and frankly it's made me a little suspicious.) But he explained the relationship and the deceased was his uncle by marriage (and not very old, by the way, probably in his 50s but nobody really knows quite how old anyone is in this country because 80% are illiterate and they don't seem to keep such records even if literate).  Anyway, the uncle was related to Ashoob in three different ways that I can't begin to explain (I think it may mean that Ashoob is his own grandpa or something).  I remarked that this was like losing three relatives at once.  Ok, so I was tired and in a foul mood from having to come back here so soon, and I knew it was rather insensitive when I said it.  Anyway, he took me to the Afghan version of a wake (Pepsi instead of booze).  We sat in the courtyard of his uncle's house, me and probably about 70 Afghan men from 14 to 70 I would estimate (or maybe 35 - they've been hard years).  We sat on cushions under the leafless grape arbor and had traditional Afghan food - pilaf, lamb, spinach, nan (Afghan flat bread, similar to the Indian variety), all finger food (I demonstrated again why I don't work with my hands).  Oh, he also got stopped by an Afghan National Police officer on the drive over there.  The ANP guy was reputed to have been smoking hash, which his glassy eyes confirmed.  Ashoob has no license plate, no side mirrors and (unbeknownst to the cop) no functioning headlights.  But he has a get out of jail free card in the form of a laminated letter from the First VP of Afghanistan, for whom Ashoob used to work.  I've seen this card keep him out of trouble before, but this guy was insistent, so Ashoob went with him to see the commander (after dropping me at his dead uncle's) and the commander slapped the ANP guy down. 

So, a typical Friday in Kabul.  I could have gone to prayers with him, but didn't really feel up to it. Maybe next Friday for St. Patrick's day. 

As for more macro details, well, I've never been outside Kabul and this is my 10th trip here.  The main danger zones are in the south, although tension is bubbling in Herat (which is otherwise supposed to be relatively well-governed and pleasant), apparently encouraged by the deposed Gov. of Herat, Ismail Khan, whom Karzai made his Energy Minister.  (Keeping his enemies closer). 

And that's the way it is, ...[name deleted]