In Which We Welcome 2011

Embassy Kabul celebrated the New Year as we celebrate almost every week: hosting visiting dignitaries. They in turn brought press delegations and inspired subtle suggestions that we Embassy staff should not be too boisterous because, after all, it's still a war zone. Apparently our public affairs experts determined it would not be a PR "win" to show off drunken diplomats whooping it up in Afghanistan, even on New Year's Eve.

Nevertheless, there was a bonfire on the dirt patch behind the chancery (known as the "soccer field" because apparently people were allowed to play soccer there before it, like every other open space bigger than a postage stamp, was fenced off for mysterious construction-related purposes). And somehow, the Embassy owns a New Year's Eve dropping-ball contraption - our own little slice of Times Square, New York here at Dirt Square, Kabul. A small but hardy band of revelers enjoyed the fire, counted as the ball dropped, and sipped champagne with maximum possible restraint and decorum one can muster while wearing novelty 2011 eyeglasses.

The mainstream media, it turns out in the end, were not at all interested in what we were up to.