Back in Kabul

A lot of internationals had left Afghanistan during the week I was in Pakistan, over fears of more civil disturbances. Naturally, since everyone was worried about it, nothing happened. So it seems a bit ironic that on my first night back in Kabul, I was awakened by a rocket striking my neighborhood. This place is starting to feel less and less like a "post-conflict" environment and more like a "conflict" environment.

That said, five minutes later I was asleep again. The rocket hadn't hit my building, and there was nothing I could do about the event, so there was little sense losing sleep over it. I'm not worried about the occasional bomb or rocket. They're so random my odds of getting hurt by one is less than my odds of being run over by a car back home.

The kidnapping feels a bit more personal, however. Clementina, the Italian aid worker, still hasn't been released by her abductors. It's unclear whether her kidnapping is the beginning of a trend, but everyone fears it.