The Return of Spring

Once again, time has slipped away from me. I can't say it's been a very eventful week though - at least not locally. The announcement about Osama bin Laden certainly was big news around the world.

Thanks to the time difference, we actually got to see it live since Monday was a holiday here. The local reaction wasn't very pronounced - the president had a lot more to say about the royal wedding. He apparently felt it was silly for anyone to care about "princes and princesses" when there are so many other things to worry about like poverty, hunger, etc... Of course, there doesn't seem to be much of a focus on resolving those sorts of issues by the local government anyway, so I'm not sure what his point was. (Let me just say that statement was entirely personally motivated and doesn't remotely approach an official opinion).

Anyway, it was interesting to see the different reactions from local staff at the embassy and the reaction from people on the street. Reading the local newspapers, it seems most people don't think he was actually killed, but everyone interviewed takes pains to say that terrorism is bad - whether they believe bin Laden is dead or not. At the embassy, most of our staff seemed to take a much more positive stance. One guy asked if we would have a party. While officially that would not be appropriate, the idea was tempting.

It was neat to get to watch the celebrations outside the White House and in NY, although a little bittersweet for us not to be there. Still, I guess we're doing our part by being here and we can feel good about that. Of course, as it's been noted in the media, we're all on high alert in case of any attempts at retaliation, but so far there hasn't been anything unusual. Except, perhaps, for the angry looking man walking down the center line of the main road carrying an alarmingly large knife Friday evening. He didn't look like he was heading for the embassy though, so I don't think he was a threat to anyone except the person who made him mad.

The other thing we've been watching is a growing fuel crisis. Russia is either greatly increasing tariffs or completely cutting off exports depending on who you ask. Many gas stations are dry and the prices are going up rapidly. We're even having trouble getting vendors to fill up the embassy tanks. We aren't sure if they're just waiting for the prices to go up more or if they're actually concerned about running out. Either way, we'll have to keep our eye on the situation.

One of the nice things this week was that the heat wave finally broke. At least for the time being. We got a couple of nice waves of thunderstorms through and now the weather is quite pleasant. Getting some rain was an added bonus since the spring continues to be unusually dry.

The weather seems to have been affecting the reliability of our internet connection lately, so we've spent a lot of time on the phone with the provider. The service might not be as reliable as we'd like, but they are very helpful. Saturday morning, Stephanie stayed home to wait for them while I went to the market. It's nice to finally see fresh fruits and vegetables for sale again. Cherries were available for the first time this year, but the price was outrageous - 30 somoni per kilo, where they were 10 last year. I'm hoping that the prices are just high because the season is beginning. Just today we found them for 20 somoni per kilo at a different bazaar.

Last night we went out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at the lone Latin American restaurant. It's only about a mile and a half away so we walked there and back. I guess technically the meal we had was Ecuadorian, but it's as close as we could get.

The great thing is that this is another three day weekend, so I get to look forward to another day off tomorrow!