Tuesday, August 11th
Kabul
Today we heard non-stop gunfire and fighter jets flying overhead all day. It isn't Taliban shooting. It's ISAF and Afghan police in target practice next door - preparing for the election next week. Still the sound of nonstop gunfire has a numbing effect. This kind of stress causes adrenaline highs and a survival instinct to shut down and sleep. My team is on a critical path to finalize our design documents. But the stress is outrageous. It's a funny thing how the brain works in this kind of situation. We all want to sleep ... all the time.
I'm trying to get my own work done right now so that if shit really does hit the fan next week and I am wigged out with adrenaline and fatigue at least I don't need to work on my report at the same time. I find myself doing the weirdest things when this nervous energy takes over ... like going to the roof and looking at the sky or taking photos of myself in the mirror. Yeesh ... I need to continue with my report.
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ReplyDeleteIn 1992, the Syrians attacked the Presidential Palace in Lebanon. I was in Lebanon, helping my mom get settled into our home in the mountains with a large balcony that has a lovely, full view of Beirut—and the hill where the presidential palace sits, maybe 10 miles away. At 7 am, two Syrian fighter planes bombed the palace as the opening oeuvre, then all hell broke loose as a barrage of tanks and artillery from our town of Aley and the surrounding hills started to fire at the palace below. Defenders on the hill and in Beirut fired back at the Syrians, and some shells landed very close to our home. This lasted till early afternoon. Within minutes of its start, the view was obliterated by smoke. Shells were whizzing overhead faster than one per second ... a solid stream of whzzz-whzzz-whzzz—punctuated with explosions and more dust, obliterating any “view.” We huddled in a back room (no basement) and played cards … even had an omlet for lunch … Later, a neighbor said one shell had landed in the earth between our homes but failed to go off... Thank God. Sitting though this, I must have been a little on edge, because all I could think of was Julie Andrews singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music... fa-la-la-laaaa..." I realized laughter is good.
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