games

My ex-neighbor invites himself over every few days to escape from his wife and children and use my internet (his ulterior motive in helping me get wired up thus revealed). At my house yesterday with his brother--who had just returned from India on business that went unspecified despite my probes--he told me that I should get myself a girlfriend here for the summer. I asked him how you meet women around here and he said usually over the phone. Sometimes you get their number from a friend or relative and other times you just dial random numbers and when you reach a girl with a pretty voice say oh sorry wrong number but strike up a conversation anyway. Then you talk and talk and maybe arrange to meet somewhere private like a restaurant if things really heat up. Indeed a few expats have told me that they sometimes get calls from completely random Afghan men who apologize for calling the wrong number but then start asking all about their lives instead of hanging up.

I'm turning into the grumpy old man next door. My other neighbor's boys, the older of whom is maybe 10 and has Down syndrome, have come up with a new game of repeatedly throwing their soccer ball up onto their slanted corrugated metal roof with BANG and a CHCHCHCHCH as it rolls back down to them so they can (it sounds like) compete to catch it. About 2% of the time (so every few minutes) it rolls off the roof into my courtyard. At first the older boy just threw himself against my front gate repeatedly with all his might but after I told him off now at least knocks more politely.

My browser history after letting my ex-neighbor use my laptop: