Day 196

Today wasn't too bad. I think I've been dealing with a cold for the
last couple days. Yesterday I was miserable, but today was a lot
better. I am still congested and have a cough, but I at least was
mostly awake and didn't just want to sleep the whole day away.

I watched a really good copy of Inception this morning, and it is
still a very good movie. It makes you think, and sometimes I wonder
if I'm in a dream. Maybe we all just wake up when we die. It's an
interesting thought, anyway.

And whoever said Afghanistan is a desert was wrong. It's more like a
rain forest here. We had torrential downpours today, and I saw some
of the largest bodies of water I've yet seen in this country!
(puddles) I actually had to dig out my rain coat, even though it's a
different pattern. I thought it was more important to stay dry than
to match. Tim Gunn might disagree, but I'm sticking to my guns!

We went over to Eggers tonight to listen to one of General Allen's
cultural advisors talk to our PSD team. He talked about greetings in
Afghanistan, manners, general respect for people, etc. These are
principles that I think most of us follow at home. However, it's
harder to keep these in mind when so much of the country seems bent on
killing us all. I'm sure it's a few bad eggs, but we form our
doctrine around those bad eggs. So it's a balance we have to strike
that keeps everyone unhappy.

Some significant changes to itineraries today, but nothing I couldn't
handle. Hopefully tomorrow isn't terrible. Good night.