Ramazan is Over!!!

So, what does that mean to Me????
(1) I can drink during the day and particularly out in public. In empathy to my Afghan colleagues who do not eat/drink/smoke during daylight hours for over 30 days during Ramazan, I did not do any of these in front of them. The problem was, I was always around them.
(2) The afternoon demeanors of my colleagues will be much better now given they have food, water, chai tea (caffeine) and cigarettes during daylight hours. This is a good thing for me. The bad news is that I'll have to drink Chai tea again. The senior Minister I work with has really been looking forward to sharing a cup of his beloved chai tea with me for a couple of weeks. Bad? Typhoid remains a problem here and the unclean cups we drink the tea from are a threat. But, I'll take a chance as it is just a beautiful thing to do.
(3) Asa now works a full day which means we can spend the entire day at the embassy. I plan to bring a case of bottled water in today. Given all this, I've just got to find that rumored clean bathroom!!! Will let you know how that goes.
(4) Extremists used the holy time of Ramazan as justification for further violence... whew! Of course, national elections are coming up in a little over a week, so violence will be back up and I'll be hunkering down in our safe zones for a few days.

Other big news: I went to the gym after work yesterday!!! Walked over to the US Embassy's gym and got in 30 minutes on the eliptical (sp?) machine. Of late, my cyatica has really been flaming up despite twice daily icings. I'm hoping this will help. Gotta send Doc Rosenbaum a note asking for a muscle relaxer.... I can't afford to be layed up with this. And, let's be real... I definitely need to work out and lose some of this chow hall weight. Oh ya, soon I'll let you know about the food here.

This blog hug goes out to my dear friend CT... I wish you a full recovery so we can drink lots of beer on your beautiful back porch when I finally return home.