The real danger is the bread.

Do I edit down the details of my trip? Downplay the danger to provide comfort to family members who think I'm batshit insane for undertaking these voages in any condition? Or do I tell the truth? That the situation on the ground here is worse than it has been in four years, according to my esteemed mentor and employer, Dave Warner MD, PhD? That if Fary the Super-Rotarian were not here to provide her considerable social sway and 7 years of in-country expertise, that I would not have been hired to come? Lo siento, mi familia. If you want candy-coated optimism about the sitation here, I'm sure our president can provide you with plenty. It is not my job to provide you with this.

In a certain sense, Dr. Warner explained, Fary and will be insulated from danger specifically because we are women. Anybody (anybody) could fall prey to an IED or a suicide bomber. But only the men in our company might be targeted for any kind of violence. Women will be left alone. The doctors who got plugged out in the sticks? Well, first of all - they were out in the sticks. Second - their execution (that's really what it was) is considered an atrocity even by the most conservative of locals. And the women? Well, they died because they were with the men.

We're not anywhere close to there. And our objective will not be to head out into remote villages and make new friends, or even to provide (nearby, relatively stable) villages we know with the medical care and technology they sorely need. Instead, our plan for the rest of the year will be to shore up existing networks (the hospitals, the university, local officials), and stand shoulder to shoulder with the local people who are the first victims of the Taliban, and of creeping bereaucratic incompetence.

More later - I'm going to be out of the field for at least another day. Right now the biggest threat to my person is not militant islamic extremism - it's the food and waterborne pathogens that got me within 24 hours. What I like to call the "Jalalabad Fire Drill" - total GI evacuation. Everybody out of the pool. Motherfucker. I was really careful not to eat the uncooked produce at dinnertime. I think it might have been the naan - it's purchased in town and carried here. Probably on the back of a motorcycle. This isn't as bad as last time though, and The Bean has raised no complaints at all.

Tonight is Thursday, the night before the Sabbath, and I'm hoping to be well enough to tend bar.