Sorry to my 5 readers. Being back in Australia is taking some getting used to, and I am not at my creative and productive best. Partly this is due to lingering illness – I have come back to Australia with an ear infection I picked up in Kabul, which is rendering me partially deaf and extremely uncomfortable most days. The way hearing loss mutes interaction and dulls relationships is interesting academically, but just plain upsetting and distressing at a personal level. I was giving some lectures at the university last week, and I had to keep stopping to ask if I was yelling. And I could barely hear the questions asked. Still, a friend of mine working in in India came back with TB. I shouldn’t expect that long term work in a conflict zone is cost free.

Partly I am at a low because of the way I have parted company with the agency I have been working with. I am feeling somewhat abandoned. And I am just missing the hard edge of Afghanistan.

I’m not asking for sympathy. But I guess this is also a way of saying that I probably don’t have quite as much to say about life, from this position smack in the middle of Western affluence and apathy. Or rather, I have lots to say, but it is bilious, critical and needs a bit of moderation. I may tone down in a few weeks, hopefully by which time I will be able to hear again.