Day 6 in Kabul

Day 6 passed uneventful. My class started late since the electricity was out when class was supposed to start but we made it through a couple more chapters and the students are picking it up well. One thing that I have noticed is that if I stand close to some of the students they will ask a lot of questions about how to do simple things in the exercises so I have learned to stand across the room until they really need me. For example, one of the students will go line by line asking where each button is to click rather than looking for himself. He will ask and then I will point to the button and then right away he asks about the next one without thinking about it or looking for himself. But overall it is a good class, a little slow, but good.

I heard some interesting and scary news tonight. One of the directors for the non-profit that owns the guesthouse that I am staying in stopped by at dinner time to talk to us. Us consists of two other Americans that are also staying at the guesthouse. He told us that his security group told him that there are two additional bombers in Kabul and the police and security groups are looking for them. He warned us to not go near any government offices, embassies, or major gathering places for a while. He did tell me that the universities should be okay though.

In addition to this nice news, he told me that there is a known Taliban cell at Kabul Polytechnic University and a smaller one at Kabul University. After he told me that, I started wondering about something that happened yesterday. My classes are at the IT Center everyday from 1 to 5, sort of a no no…to be in the same place at the same time all the time. The IT Center is open and students walk in and out all the time. It is a two story building with probably a couple dozen rooms or so. Yesterday, we ended class early because the electricity went off so the students left. I stayed behind in the lab to work on my laptop until Jim could get there to pick me up. When Jim got there and we were leaving the building, the custodian, who has become my friend (he is probably 70 years old and holds my hand all the time with a tight finger interlaced grip), walked us to the door and unlocked it to let us out. The building isn’t normally locked and at the time, I thought it was odd but didn’t worry about it. So I wonder if he did that because of the bombing and was worried that something else could happen or if something else is going on. I mentioned this to the director who was visiting with us after he mentioned the Taliban cell and he told me that the custodian probably did it to protect me. Up until now, I haven’t really worried about my safety at the university. But now I have something else to worry about….yeah!