Today’s entry is going to be short, as I’m pretty tired – although I do have some rather fetching pictures of the compound in the sleet to show you.
I had an early start – and a hot (!) shower - I was bracing myself for freezing water, one of my pet hates, so I was very pleased to get hot water. I know this doesn’t say great things about my personal hygiene that it takes two days for me to get into a shower, but you have to understand my phobia of cold water.
Speaking of which, the weather has been pretty dreadful today – rain, that’s turned gradually throughout the day into a freezing sleet – it looks like it might settle tonight; which will at least cover the mud for a bit. It meant that I’ve been stuck in the compound all day today – but at least I was able to keep myself busy with my job here – and I actually managed to get a couple of computers back up to optimum operation. I think I’m going to have to take a trip out to the local computer suppliers to get a few fistfuls of RAM – that really is the main problem. If I’m lucky, I’ll also be able to score some hard drives for some of the older computers – and then I’ll have to find a copy of Norton Ghost or similar to clone the current setup. Actually, I could always use a copy of true image, I think. Details, details. Bringing along a bunch of 1Gb USB sticks has gone down very well – I really am mister popular, although I’m waiting until I know exactly who is permanent staff here before I start handing out the techno-candy.
I had the joy of trying to dismantle a Toshiba laptop today to figure out why it wasn’t working. I didn’t get very far, although I concluded that it was probably more to do with the power supply than the laptop – this was after I’d cannibalised the RAM to put into a computer which was running very slowly – and it certainly perked up after I’d slammed it in; although I had a nasty moment when I thought I’d permanently locked out the user after putting in the wrong system password three times. Didn’t help that it was one of the directors computers.
I was pretty exhausted after lunch – my cold is definitely receding, but its going out with a fight – so I came back to my room and read some Bill Bryson – “Down Under” – pretty surreal, reading an Americans account of travelling though Oz as a Brit in Kabul. Still, It was good to wind down and to get started on my pistachio mountain.
I leant another interesting cultural difference today which made a lot of sense about the frustrations I’ve heard from other people who work in developing nations. It came about when I borrowed some tools off Dan (after stripping the heads off my cheap jewellers screwdrivers) – and he told me about the trauma of actually owning tools in Afghanistan – because nobody else does. They don’t have a concept of “do it yourself” – if something needs fixing, they get somebody else in to do it. Need a hole in the wall? Go down the street and hire somebody to do it for you for $2. Over here labour is far cheaper than tools. Oh, how different from London can you get? The upshot is, if you have tools, you have to watch as people tend to borrow them and never return them. On a slightly deeper cultural note, I guess it also highlights a difference between a community based urban economy, built on networks of (so called) expertise that’s been in operation for hundreds of years in places like Kabul against the independent, self reliant and resource rich cultural factors we have in the “modern” world. It would be easy to make some kind of value call at this point, but, as we know, the real world is far more complex.
I’m really getting to know the guys here better – and I’m confident with about half of the names – this is helped by the socialising together – mealtimes and games of cards in the evenings – I won last night, but I’ve been invited to another game tonight. And no, it’s not poker. I’ve also been having some wide ranging discussions with an Australian ER doctor (Anthony), which may culminate in me helping him revise for an exam when he goes back – he’s a very laid back kind of guy, so it should be a fair old challenge – although it’ll be interesting to revisit medical textbooks, which I haven’t seen since my first degree! Oh, hark at me with my educational name dropping. It was a medical science degree, the poor mans version of medicine. Feel free to send complaints if you're a fellow BMedSci grad.
OK, well I promised you pictures, so here you go!
I had an early start – and a hot (!) shower - I was bracing myself for freezing water, one of my pet hates, so I was very pleased to get hot water. I know this doesn’t say great things about my personal hygiene that it takes two days for me to get into a shower, but you have to understand my phobia of cold water.
Speaking of which, the weather has been pretty dreadful today – rain, that’s turned gradually throughout the day into a freezing sleet – it looks like it might settle tonight; which will at least cover the mud for a bit. It meant that I’ve been stuck in the compound all day today – but at least I was able to keep myself busy with my job here – and I actually managed to get a couple of computers back up to optimum operation. I think I’m going to have to take a trip out to the local computer suppliers to get a few fistfuls of RAM – that really is the main problem. If I’m lucky, I’ll also be able to score some hard drives for some of the older computers – and then I’ll have to find a copy of Norton Ghost or similar to clone the current setup. Actually, I could always use a copy of true image, I think. Details, details. Bringing along a bunch of 1Gb USB sticks has gone down very well – I really am mister popular, although I’m waiting until I know exactly who is permanent staff here before I start handing out the techno-candy.
I had the joy of trying to dismantle a Toshiba laptop today to figure out why it wasn’t working. I didn’t get very far, although I concluded that it was probably more to do with the power supply than the laptop – this was after I’d cannibalised the RAM to put into a computer which was running very slowly – and it certainly perked up after I’d slammed it in; although I had a nasty moment when I thought I’d permanently locked out the user after putting in the wrong system password three times. Didn’t help that it was one of the directors computers.
I was pretty exhausted after lunch – my cold is definitely receding, but its going out with a fight – so I came back to my room and read some Bill Bryson – “Down Under” – pretty surreal, reading an Americans account of travelling though Oz as a Brit in Kabul. Still, It was good to wind down and to get started on my pistachio mountain.
I leant another interesting cultural difference today which made a lot of sense about the frustrations I’ve heard from other people who work in developing nations. It came about when I borrowed some tools off Dan (after stripping the heads off my cheap jewellers screwdrivers) – and he told me about the trauma of actually owning tools in Afghanistan – because nobody else does. They don’t have a concept of “do it yourself” – if something needs fixing, they get somebody else in to do it. Need a hole in the wall? Go down the street and hire somebody to do it for you for $2. Over here labour is far cheaper than tools. Oh, how different from London can you get? The upshot is, if you have tools, you have to watch as people tend to borrow them and never return them. On a slightly deeper cultural note, I guess it also highlights a difference between a community based urban economy, built on networks of (so called) expertise that’s been in operation for hundreds of years in places like Kabul against the independent, self reliant and resource rich cultural factors we have in the “modern” world. It would be easy to make some kind of value call at this point, but, as we know, the real world is far more complex.
I’m really getting to know the guys here better – and I’m confident with about half of the names – this is helped by the socialising together – mealtimes and games of cards in the evenings – I won last night, but I’ve been invited to another game tonight. And no, it’s not poker. I’ve also been having some wide ranging discussions with an Australian ER doctor (Anthony), which may culminate in me helping him revise for an exam when he goes back – he’s a very laid back kind of guy, so it should be a fair old challenge – although it’ll be interesting to revisit medical textbooks, which I haven’t seen since my first degree! Oh, hark at me with my educational name dropping. It was a medical science degree, the poor mans version of medicine. Feel free to send complaints if you're a fellow BMedSci grad.
OK, well I promised you pictures, so here you go!
This is where I stay – at the front of the compound on the first floor – I’m on the right hand side; and I’ve got a window (with mirrored plastic) facing the street
This is the office from the bottom of the apartments. The generator is housed in a building on the left. The plastic sheeting is a basic method of double glazing during the winter
This is a corner of the roof, where I watched the pigeons yesterday. Those little square boxes are where the bukharis vent.
And here is a view of the mountain in the centre of Kabul from the roof – I had to bump up the contrast a lot, but I hope you can make out the houses clinging to the sides.
