Day 9 - Window Of Hope Orphanage

Quick as I can tonight – we’re on generator rather than city power, and I know it’s going to get cut at about 11pm. So I need to be nice and concise – what are the chances, do you think?

So, let’s be orderly about this – the main highlights of the day were:

A) Going to the **** Orphanage
B) Going to the tailors.

B was after A, but I’ll deal with it first as it was extremely short. At about 4, S**** whisked me off (with a driver, of course) through the snow (we had a blizzard which started about 12 and has been going all day) to a tiny shop about 5 minutes away – the shop was so small that the patrons didn’t bother to take off their shoes, even though they were in various stages of relaxation on a battered old sofa in the murky interior. There was a big cloth cutting table which took up most of the space, and slightly disconcertingly, a number of brightly coloured dresses hanging from the walls – in fact, the shop sign was a woman in a bridal gown. Anyway, I was instructed to remove my fleece (on top of another jumper) and I was measured – fairly differently to the UK as well – no inside leg measurement, for a start. It was all over with about six measurements. I’ve no idea when I’ll be back, if I’ll need a fitting or if it’ll just get delivered to me complete.

So, on to the orphanage.

In the morning, before going down to the orphanage, which is currently housed in the old **** offices – donated when the **** orphanage (****) original building faced demolition, I got to see plans for a brand new, purpose built orphanage which is at the proposal stage. **** Afghanistan and ****, despite their similar names, are tow completely separate organisations, whose similarity in names is just a happy coincidence. They came into contact about a year ago when the original building housing the 14 or so kids was almost demolished during a slum / wasteland regeneration drive (and it was right on the verge of being flattened by a JCB before someone inside noticed just before they were about to be flattened). They issued an urgent cry for help through the NGO community, and **** Afghanistan sacrificed their offices to house the orphanage. Then a call for external funding was made, and the organisation I’m in back in the UK decided to make a donation last year.

PICTURE REMOVED

From this rather ad-hoc starting point, things have stabilised a lot – the old office has been converted into a fairly comfortable house for the gaggle of teenage boys and handful of special needs children – the stability has really helped the health and care of the special needs kids, and there hasn’t been any need to take them for expensive hospital treatment over the last year – and about 8 months ago they were able to take in a child abandoned on the street with pretty horrible head injuries (and undoubted psychological issues); and there has been remarkable progress in their health and mobility. The teenage boys are a good bunch as well – when we arrived, they were having an English lesson from a hired treacher – and we got to sit in on some of the lesson. It reminded me of how much I don’t know about the structure of my own language. Not that this will come as a great surprise to any of you who have suffered reading this blog.

And to be honest, the orphanage was the main reason I came – I decided to actually check out one of the projects I’ve given money to – I wanted to make a more meaningful connection than just a signature on a cheque. So it was good to finally be able to make the connection, and be totally happy about how it was being used – as well as being happy about the use its been to the operation of **** out here as well. To give a little bit of a breakdown of the situation; there’s a two year commitment to funding the operation – the basic housing rental is $750 a month. On top of this are the staff expenses – the director, the security guy (pretty much a requirement here), the special needs carer and any teachers they employ. Then there are things like food, heating, and all the other day to day expenses that occur – fuel for heating over the winter cost $1000 alone.

So, yes, the money gets used. But everyone was happy – well, except one of the special needs kids, who we were told was Mr angry – mind you, by the end we almost got a smile. And it was more of an intense cantankerous nature than anger, I’d say.

It was good to see how closely D**** and M**** - and the other **** staff – are tied to the orphanage and the kids – it’s fairly close, about a five minute drive away , and the kids regularly come over for dinner, and parties, and volleyball (when the front isn’t a sea of mud or snow!)

After seeing a bit of the English lesson, I was told that when the boys are at a sufficient standard, they can start some computer training – which will really strengthen their vocational education, and increase their chances of getting decent work. I met the lads after the customary photo shoot – though I spent a lot longer with the special needs kids, who were a real joy.

The proposal for the new centre is very exciting, and it would certainly be great to have purpose built accommodation with long term planning, stability and family-like support for these and other orphans – and it would be great to be able to provide the kids and staff of **** with this. It would also be great to have an ongoing project that **** could provide it’s considerable worldwide experience to; and be able to produce a centre of excellence in Afghanistan. Dan gave me a fly through of the proposal – the building plans and projected budget, and it was exciting stuff. I’ll be taking a copy of some of the plans to show the folks back home!

Day 8 - Man about town

Where do I even start today? At one point I had so many ideas jumbling for attention in my head I had to start taking notes – in a car!

Well, as you can probably ascertain from my introduction, I got to leave the cosy environs of the compound to go into town – I grabbed the loan camera (i.e., the big, conspicuous one) and hopped into one of our cars with P**** (a VERY slim Pakistani guy, who’s a great guy but not the most secure defence against violence) and jumped into the car with our slightly burlier driver to head into town to pick up the computer bits and bobs, and to visit a construction site that HOPE is overseeing.

Before I go into the adventures of town, its worth saying a couple of things about the morning meeting – Sunday here is the first working day of the week, so we had our customary transport (ie, who’s going where) meeting, and then we had the start of week “big” meeting. This was a bit of an emotional affair, as D**** had to announce the laying off of one of the engineers here. One of the reasons for the laying off is financial – the are simply not enough ongoing projects that can support the guy (a local, and one of the highest paid of all the staff) - which meant that D**** had the tricky task of explaining the layoff in financial terms whilst trying to assure the rest of the local staff that his priority was to keep their jobs secure – and try to avoid getting them panicked and start to go look for other jobs for themselves. It went fairly well, and the Engineer (****) was told by the local staff that he was always welcome to come and eat lunch with us, and that he would always be a friend – and it was also said that as a professional – an engineer, that finding a new job should be relatively easy. Still, a tricky meeting nonetheless.

The issue is that there are two sorts of funding that **** Afghanistan receives – restricted and unrestricted. Restricted is the type that generally means fairly large money, but it’s all tied to very specific projects, and can only be spent in explicitly prescribed ways – and they generally don’t cover administrative or ongoing costs. Even things like IT components can be recalled at the end of a restricted budget project. Unrestricted funding is the sort that comes from individuals donors, or group donations like church collections – this money can be used far more flexibly – from the slightly boring day to day ongoing costs, which tend to keep the local workers employed and secure beyond the limits of a restricted budget project, to the more attention grabbing projects which present themselves out of the blue – things like the rescue of the **** Orphanage, and various other little - but important – things that come up – things along the lines of the prison initiative I’ve mentioned earlier. It’s easy to hear the big numbers involved in the restricted budget awards and wonder what difference a small personal donation can make, but the flexibility of unrestricted funding means that sometimes a lot more meaningful and long term – and personal assistance can be given to projects and people that might just otherwise slip under the radar.

Ok propaganda over, back to the adventure of the town trip – we took the back (i.e., more bumpy) way into town as we had to inspect the progress of a maternity unit that P**** was responsible for. The sad fact was that there wasn’t much – Peter was understandably annoyed at the lack of progress and cut through the excuses of the local foreman who was there, but without his workforce. He did offer us a cup of tea. I’m glad to see that some things are the same in Afghanistan and the UK. The offer was refused – quite a show of annoyance in this part of the world. I’d taken my camera out to get a picture, but I felt a bit bad about picturing a scene where I’d just witnessed another sort of a scene. So no scenic building work shots here. Just imagine unplastered fairly rough brickwork of a light mud colour, placed between concrete uprights and lintels, and you won’t be far off.

Slightly unsettled, we headed into the chaos of the city centre, where all the joys of street life represented themselves to me – fish hung up on boards on the pavement, bicycles parked hub deep in filthy water in the open gutters along the side of every road; street vendors cooking pretty much anything on tiny portable chimneys, people on underpowered motorbikes negotiating the traffic in suicidal fashion with 40 gallon battered drums of oil (or similarly flammable material) bouncing around on homemade jigs behind them; occasional women, occasionally dressed in blue burkas drifting along like ghosts, invisible – unknown appearance, age, ethnicity, comfortably anonymous amongst the hustle and bustle. In fact, it was only when I happened to see someone with her burka pushed back over her head (for some reason or other) and I saw a deeply lined, totally characterful face, that I appreciated the anonymising power of the burka – who knows what you’re like underneath? It’s almost like a personal invisibility cloak. I’m not saying that I’m all in favour of them, or that everyone who wears one wants to wear one; but I can see how some people might actually appreciate some of the things it gives them – especially in such a male dominated place as here. Of course, the problem is just that, if you want to take a sociological view – male dominated. I have seen, however, groups pf women walking comfortably together as friends, some wearing the burka and others not. There seems to be a slightly more relaxed attitude than we traditionally associate with Afghanistan back home.

Of course, to see evidence of the (sometimes quite cheeky) individualism of the Afghans, you really need to start looking at the vinyl decals they’ve attached to their white Toyota Corolla. And believe me, it’s going to be a white corolla. Unless it’s a Taxi, in which case it’s a yellow and white corolla. They’re all pre-owned (I suspect referring to them as second hand would be being a bit too generous) and the majority of them come from Germany. There’s the occasional Town Ace MPV (Toyota again), but any other make is more than likely to be an NGO vehicle. Of course, you’ll know its NGO because it’ll have the NGO (or army or police) logo in huge letters on the side, it’ll be a new vehicle, and, crucially, it’ll be clean. They’re usually very big as well, and if you’re lucky, it’ll have a huge antennae on the front bumper. Needless to say, I was in a dirty old white Corolla – nice and anonymous, just the way I like it. But I was talking about decals, wasn’t I? Yes – the cars have all sorts of decals on the back windows – eagles are popular, as are wildly inappropriate claims (in English) about the power, or ability of the vehicle – or, as I found particularly intriguing just after going past a group of burka clad women, a particularly attractive woman’s face. I say face, but it was really the eyes and top of the nose, because you’ve got it, it was a decal of an attractive woman wearing a veil. I couldn’t quite get my head around it.

We got to our first computer store – the one in the courtyard tower, and the guy had managed to get us a genuine Toshiba power lead – good news indeed – not the usual Chinese generic product they get over here. The first thing people ask when they buy something electronic over here is “is this western Chinese, or Afghanistan Chinese?” – because there are two, quite different standards of manufacture for the same brands. Like Sony – there’s the good quality “Japanese” (and you can bet it’s actually Chinese) Sony, and then the far more dubious “Chinese” Sony – so beware of any real bargains. Mind you, the adapter we got was a fair bargain at $30 – I’d be pushed to get a genuine charger replacement for the same price – but I do suppose the chances of getting a new one would be higher. Still, I was pleased. And I managed to get some street scenes from the first floor – hanging over the balcony, hoping that I wouldn’t fall.

I may not get the pictures up tonight – the power got cut at 11 last night and I’m cutting it pretty close right now) (ok, so this is obviously out of date now, and I did get the pics up, but I think I'll leave it right threre as a reminder of what it's like here!)

One of the many street food vendors - though I think I'll stick with the food back in the compound. For a start, at least I know how to ask for it!

I hate to think what happens when it rains. I'm guessing these things don't come with a worldwide warranty.

Then we went to City Centre, where I was convinced I’d spotted that bargain RAM – and it was still there. Unfortunately, it didn’t fit. We found a 1Gb card that did, and when I tried to use the 512s ridiculously low price to lever the price of the 1Gb card down, they spotted their mistake! Still, they gave us a good price on the 1Gb module – but we had to stay for about 40 mins whilst a utility I’d hooked off the net did a through job of testing the RAM – I didn’t want to fork out other peoples money on something that wasn’t going to work. I made a bit of a deal about looking at their laptops; which I think might have helped the price to come down that little bit more. I also exchanged a couple of photo opportunities with the young sales assistant you see below:

Hello sir, how may I be of assistance? Perhaps you need instructions with your camera?

I think this kid may have a future. Nice composition!

On the way back, I managed to snatch some pictures of Kabul, though I chickened out in the market again – I was determined to get at least one picture, but I never felt quite confident enough, though I had been very jaunty with Peter when we had been waiting for our driver to turn back up, standing around waving laptops and cameras around with an air of unworried bonhomie. I swear I’ll get at least one meaningful picture of the market before I go! I was pleased, however, to get a couple of close-ups of the crazy hill clinging houses on the side of the road.

I know I said I got two pictures, you only get the one. Only the best for you guys!

Yeah, strolling across the road is like a national passtime here. No rush, mind you.

The afternoon was a lot more laid back, although I had a lot of work to do in the office – and it turns out that at least one of the voltage stabilisers is probably up the spout. Probably Chinese. Afghan Chinese, that is. It looked like I might get out the **** Orphanage this afternoon as well, as the director showed up for a meeting with D**** – unfortunately, we didn’t have a driver available, so I’m going to be going tomorrow.


There was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to talk about today as well, like small buisiness advertising, the meaning of adverts in English with high production values scattered round town – i.e., who are they really for; and the idea (and reality) of NGO branding – a good or bad thing? Have a guess what I think.

Day 7 - techno-awe

Well, I’m afraid it’s going to be another day without pictures today, as we were inside again. I’ll be sure to get some staff pictures when I’m sure of everyone’s names – I’m at about 80% at the moment – a little ways to go.

I had a lie in, which would have been more effectual if I’d got to bed at a decent hour, but I ended up trying to coax my laptop to install Skype, without much success. Of course, when I ran it today it installed fine – typically.

But I was glad that it did as I was able to have a good catch-up with Sarah (the girlfriend) – we’d had a bit of a miscommunication on Thursday, and I was a little worried that the conversation would be a little fraggy due to the microwave link, and the fact that well, I’m in Kabul. I tested it out with my mate Roger in London, and yes, it was a bit laggy, and only one person could talk at a time (good old half duplex) – but then again, he was using a webcam. And as he was on, Sarah logged on unexpectedly – so I dumped R and talked to Sarah - and as there were no cameras involved, the quality was fantastic. Fair goes to skype, they’ve made something possible that was scarcely conceivable by Joe public as recently as five years ago. And it was great being able to have a relaxed catch up with my girlfriend, although it does make me sorry I can’t just pop round and see her like I’d normally be able to – but I’ve got less than two weeks to go. Time flies.


Mind you, if D**** had his way, I’d be here for much longer. He was very kindly saying how useful it was to have me around, and how an IT person could be really useful as a permanent fixture. He was also throwing big hints at Anthony, the visiting ER specialist, who’s helping set up an ER department in obstetrics (I’m pretty sure) that **** are in charge of here in Kabul. I’m not going to make you suffer the internal dialogue I had about the pros and cons of living in Kabul – mainly because I fulfilled my personal angst quota for the week yesterday, but also because it’s really not an issue right at the moment – I’ve got far too much keeping me in London at the moment – which I know Sarah and my boss will be glad to hear (and mum and dad too, of course!) – I was paying close attention when I watched “The Last King of Scotland” before I came out!

The thing that really struck me when D**** and M**** were talking about the various projects that **** Afghanistan is responsible for here is the sheer scale and variety involved – they’re project managing some essentially very complicated, professional areas – as disparate as engineering, architecture, medical projects, social and educational projects amongst others, doing large and small scale things, things which are funded by corporations, funded by foreign governments, the Afghani government, external groups and individuals – all of which have to be properly managed and accounted for. Add to this the HR and diplomacy issues of dealing with government red tape, and local staff, and breaking across a cultural barrier and work ethic which is totally at odds with just general day-to-day expectations in more settled economies, and I’m surprised that they have any hair left, let alone go about their jobs – vocations – with the energy and happiness that they do.

I find it especially remarkable that rather than being ground down into a resigned and somewhat detached mild cynicism, they really enjoy working in this dysfunctional country, despite the frustrations – and, even more importantly, keep looking for ways in which they can use their personal resources to make a direct impact in situations which might get lost amongst the bigger projects they’re responsible for. I’ve seen quite a few NGO staff who are highly professional and effective, but who have lost their compassion somewhere along the way – and it’s so easy to do. It’s great to be reminded that this isn’t necessarily the fate of everyone who tries to help in complex situations.

Oh, and I read about the train derailment yesterday on the route up to Glasgow back home – a route I take every so often to work. Who’d have thought staying in Kabul would be safer than catching a train to work? Well, given my experiences with the public transport system in Blighty, I can’t say I’m particularly surprised. I think I may write a letter* to the Metro about the whole affair.

(* thanks for the suggestion, Sarah!)

Day 6 - the day of rest

Well, I’m tempted to write nothing at all today – after all, everybody deserves a day off, right? But this is the internet, ever hungry for information, and I am but it’s humble servant.

To be honest, today was very laid back. The big demonstration (which went way over 20 000 people, according to the ANSO alert (Afghanistan NGO Safety Office)) dispersed without incident, which I guess is good news for everybody. There also seemed to be quite a lot of traffic around for blocked roads, but who am I to question the Afghan polices efficiency? And we still have city power! Talking of which, I managed to wire up one of our new voltage stabilisers successfully – at least I hope so, because that’s what I’m running my laptop on at the moment. Its been going for a couple of hours and coped with a couple of spikes, so I guess my wiring isn’t too bad. Just got to keep my fingers crossed – I’ll hook up the “server” tomorrow.

It was a funny day really, I thought I’d be bored out of my head being stuck in the compound all day, but A**** (one of the Pakistani expats) has two of his brothers staying here over the weekend, and so we had quite a full house, even with the local staff being away. Its heartening to see how quickly I can get used to life without TV (although I still take fairly regular looks at the BBC news website, so I know all the important stuff like Brittany Spears shaving her head) – and how much time just socialising and playing games together can take up. And it’s not like time goes any slower, or the pace seems wildly more relaxed here – it’s just that it feels like a big family, all hanging out. Good stuff, I say.

The other interesting thing is that I’m noticeably losing weight. This can’t be to do with exercise, as I don’t do more than walk from the flat to the office, or, if I’m lucky, from the car to a shop and back; and it’s not to do with the amount of food I’m shovelling down – two substantial meals a day, with eggs for breakfast as well – although I’m not eating huge amounts of meat – I think it probably has more to do with the fact that I’m not drinking my regular couple of glasses of wine with the folks every evening – not something I’ve been doing over here. You’d think it would be impossible to get alcohol over here, but there are a few bars in Kabul – mainly in Hotels, but they exist. In fact, I suppose I should really see one before I go, as the woman I flew over with bet me a drink that we weren’t actually going to get to leave Dubai that day, and a drink (alcoholic) was the price. Though, to be honest, I feel a bit dubious about collecting on it. This is for a few reasons a) Even though it’s totally above board, I feel a little weird about going out for a drink with a woman I only just met when I have a girlfriend back home (which I made very clear, and I’m sure its just about hanging out, but, you know how these things can look), b) Doing something “Western” isn’t very appealing, to be honest – especially if I’m going to be going into town to do it (and a man and a woman hanging out together really is very western), c) I’m getting used to not drinking, and d) The whole idea of going to go somewhere where there will be a concentration of western people doing something profoundly anti-cultural and anti-Islamic strikes me as a fundamentally bad idea. I mean, the phrase “fish in a barrel” springs to mind. Still, She really helped me out with getting over here, we got on well as potential friends – and I’m always up for getting new friends (that’s GETTING, not REPLACING, folks!), and she’s involved in some interesting things that could interest a couple of my friends who are planning to come over later in the year – and it would be plain rude just to blank her, especially after she called me to check I was OK after being picked up. So, what to do? I’m not quite confident enough to get a driver to take me out on my own for a meeting, but that may change over the next week. I do like making dramas out of the most inconsequential things. Give me a genuine emergency any day of the week, thank you!

Oh, and I also know that a hotel bar was raided a couple of days ago by the police, and, although I like experiencing cultural differences, I draw the line at testing prisons.

(Talking of which, M**** and D**** went to the women’s prison in Kabul the other day – and I got to hear about how it operated. The thing that sprang to my mind almost immediately was 18th century descriptions of Newgate debtors prison, where those with families outside could live an almost bearable life, having provisions brought to them, whilst those without lived a pretty miserable existence. And as a majority of women in Kabul prison have been sentenced for murdering their husbands – and I’m sure you could find several mitigating circumstances, given the history of these things – they have no one to support them or their children when they’re in prison, making the experience much, much worse for them)

I’d like to end this post on a slightly less self obsessed note, and say I learnt something profound today, but the closest I got was this morning when Dan gave me a shout from the roof – the weather has been getting better and better, and the clear air gave a breathtaking view of the mountains. I’m not going to show you here as a) too many rooftop shots get boring very quickly and b) I didn’t take my camera up in the morning. I did take it up tonight though, and got a couple of nice long exposure shots of the houses (like birdhouses is how Anthony described them) clinging like little lamps to the hillside. I need to take some time to review if any of them came out well, so no photos for tonight!

Sorry, I couldn't resist it!

In Kabul after dark - day 5

Well, my entry for last night was so long that I never actually got round to researching the memory specifications for the laptops I’m tending – in fact, I was up so late that I was surprised that I got up and out for breakfast in time to get to the daily 8.30am planning meeting – in the end I had time to spare, and to be presentable as well, as I was woken by a brilliant sun shining into my room – which was a nice surprise. The range of weather here really is quite… British. I can see why we tried to control it for so long!

The highlight of my morning was bouncing through a low doorway a little too high, and almost scalping myself – I was dazed (and confused, though that’s pretty normal for me) for a fair old while, and I have a nasty looking graze / gash on my head, which at least produced a lot of sympathy at Lunch, and no, you’re not getting any pictures. The guys were saying I should say I got it from escaping a kidnap attempt by the Taliban, like ducking a sword or bullet or something similarly violent – but I feel it’s my journalistic duty to tell the truth, however prosaic it may be.

We actually had city power all day today (as well as all last night) – which is almost unheard of. We were trying to work out why – though I reckon it’s something to do with preparing for a huge demonstration that’s planned by the muhajadeen tomorrow against the government – there’s a high violence forecast, and the police are going to shut down all the roads in Kabul tomorrow – which means we get to stay in all day. So don’t be worried if you hear about any suicide bombs in Kabul tomorrow – well, don’t be worried about me, anyway, as the demo is going to be happening in a different part of town, and I’m not going to be there.

In the afternoon I was totally spoiled – I got to go into Kabul twice – the first being our electronics shopping. This time it was only me and H**** – it’s amazing the difference a day makes, as I felt almost relaxed wandering through the busy streets with him, and got far more into conversations – and haggling (though only a little, mind you, still have to get up to full speed on that area) with the shopkeepers. Didn’t see the corn seller though, even though I took my little camera on the off chance. I didn’t take any pictures though, even though we went back through the market and along some amazing streets- as I was just enjoying the scenery, and looking in a little more detail at the people and produce- and guess what? Those orange things yesterday were actually oranges, I was just a little way away. It was really fascinating to see barrows full of just one or two products – it was particularly arresting to see a big barrow completely full of Garlic. It’s also quite strange to see meat sold out in the open air, hanging from strings, exposed to the elements (which today seemed to be mainly dust). I’ll just keep drinking strong black tea. I’m a firm believer in the medicinal qualities of strong black tea.

So what did we actually buy? The only real success was two voltage regulators – at present I’ve got five computers hooked straight up to the mains – and the supply is highly dodgy, spiking all the time. It’s only a matter of time before they all fry. The trouble is, I have to wire and slice these things up myself – I got a walk-through by the shopkeeper, and feel fairly confident of getting it right, although it’s a far cry from plug and play! We were less successful in getting laptop RAM – we got quoted some prices that, to local resources, were pretty eye watering – so we went on a hunt to another area, with only slightly better results.

After we’d come back, I had a brief debrief with D**** and then we headed back into town with the guys – to Kabul City Centre – which turned out to be a hotel with a mall. It had a kind of 70/80s aesthetic to it, although it was only built a couple of years back. So we did a little shopping – got a couple of new DVD releases, looked for a (working) toaster – but of course, things are always different in Kabul. I also happened to ask about laptop RAM in one of the shops, as was shown a module which was less than half the price that I’d been quoted to me earlier in the day. I am almost certain that it had been mispriced, not that I was going to let that on when I was buying for a lean local charity, from a (comparatively expensive) electronics shop in one of the highest rental and probably highest foreign income locations in Kabul. Still, I haven’t bought it just yet, as I’ll go back with a laptop to check that the thing works.

Anyway, after all the retail excitement, I went to the roof and took some photos with D****, and then went to the café in the lobby and had a banana milkshake. All very civilised. We then went and did a little more shopping (well, all I really felt I needed was a razor), and managed to get a toaster (not that it worked by the time we got back) – and by this time it had got dark – which was really exciting – it was great to be driving through the ill-lit dusty streets, with the cars casting yellow halos with their lights through the dust, fumes and smoke that curled over the dark roads, with tiny houses staked up the mountains on either side as we crossed the pass. This is where Kabul Zoo is (With the late lamented, famous one-eyed lion), and the wall that bisects the mountain in the centre of Kabul, with various stories about warring factions and dissenters being killed and placed into it’s construction.

PICTURE REMOVED

D**** in his Afghani gear

The TV masts on the central Mountains of Kabul. The other side is covered with little white flags where they've cleared the mines. I'm not sure if they've done this side yet.

Mountains, Looking Northwest.

The street running down the side of the hotel - this ones woth looking at expanded, if you can.

Bet you didn't expect to see this in Kabul, hey? Mind you, this now nullifies any credibility I have as a rugged adventurer. I guess I really will have to try and risk life and limb for some good street shots now.

OK, so it didn't take me too long to risk life and limb, although it was dark. Still, I didn't exactly know how this fellow would take being in the centre of a photo. He just wandered on by, blithy in the middle of the road, much like the majority of Afghans (or is it afghanis? I think that's how you refer to the currency) I've seen.

It’s funny to think that tomorrow, Friday, is the local (well, whole Islamic worlds, really) equivalent of Sunday. We’ll be all sat here at home, unable to go out, so I guess I’ll have to find a few Sunday type things to do. I’m sure I will. And probably watch one of those new releases too, I imagine.

Adventure on day 4!

What an amazing day – the highlight being a trip out of the compound and into Kabul proper – made even better by the sunshine and (almost) clear skies.

(boring techie stuff follows, feel free to skip to the next set of brackets)

I got a whole lot of kinda boring stuff done as well – mainly centred around working out how to obtain SP2 for a copy of XP which isn’t exactly fully licensed – and working out the only way to do that was to get a network admins copy from Microsoft – which weighs in at 260 odd MB – and over a microwave connection, and with a dodgy power supply, I wasn’t very hopeful of a successful result. Still, I looked for a decent freeware download manager, and actually found one at the dubious sounding “freedownloadmanager.com” or something like that – nothing very convincing anyway – I had to read about three independent reviews from reputable sites before I dared install it. And actually, it’s great – I started it at about 3.30pm, and its still going now at about 10kbps; it should finish just before 11pm, which is when the power got terminated last night (without any warning, thank goodness for laptop batteries and torches). I also was weeding out a very cluttered old laptop; using a selection of tools which I haven’t used for a long while – mainly based around msconfig and “hijackthis!” which I thought had stopped being updated, but the genius who put it together has gone back to regular updates. It’s one of the few freeware things out there where I’m actually tempted to click on the paypal donate button. I may well still do. Anyways, I’ve rediscovered a whole new slew of fantastic freeware utilities – and some more besides – that I’ll be bringing back to blighty with me.

(OK, boring bit over, welcome back, normal people!)

Between downloads and digital disinfecting, I took a trip to the roof with the decent camera that my work colleague (well, strictly speaking it was his wife, bless her) very kindly leant me to give it it’s first outing. Results below:

You can see that having a clear sky and a decent camera with a decent telephoto certainly makes quite a difference!

So I thought my trip to the roof would be as much as I could expect from today, but we need to get some RAM for the laptops here, and a few other bits and pieces – I was going to do a through audit of the components before we went into town, but it was suggested we go into town today and scope things out and then go back tomorrow – I jumped at the idea. I crammed a hat on my head to hide the shiny white dome of my head, stuck my little camera in my pocket on the off chance that I might be able to grab a sneaky picture or two without being killed, and got into the car with four other guys from the compound – including a security guy, H****, and our cook (who we dropped off on the way). We threaded our way into town past the bottom of the central mountain – I was right by the window facing the mountain covered with vertiginous stickle brick housing clambering up the brown rock face – an amazing sight, although I was too nervous to ask for the window to be pulled down and shoot a couple of pictures – although I was absolutely aching to get some; the sight was amazing, and the light was fantastic.

Soon afterward, I got more involved with the people than the scenery – I quickly realised that Kabul is full, jam-packed with people. And dirty cars. And people on bikes. And armed police at roundabouts (I was a little nervous as I’d gone out without ID). And old Toyota Corolla yellow and white (well, brown really) taxis, and busses. And one motorcycle. At least, that was impression I got until we turned into the street in the electronics part of town – and then I was faced with the rather daunting prospect of actually getting out of the car and being on a very busy street mixing it with the locals. I suddenly became very aware of my jeans and jacket, and my very pale face. I became aware of all the bustling going on – and the hundreds of ways I could get separated from my guides. Then I managed to relax a little and start to enjoy it. For a start, it may have been as busy as Oxford Street on Christmas Eve, but it was a whole lot more interesting. I was almost disappointed when we stepped into the computer place. I can’t call it a shop, it was more of a multilayered courtyard, feeling a bit like a slightly modernised and amplified version of some of the courtyards I’d managed to stumble into in some of the darker recesses of Istanbul’s labyrinthine markets – and I loved the dank atmosphere, with computer shops stacked on top of each other like battery chickens.

We trotted up to the third floor into a little shop known to the guys – well, it was the owner, not the shop that was important, obviously – and it became pretty clear that, as far as hardware is concerned, I’ve got a little way to go. Still, I have a few hours tomorrow to get my facts straight before we go back – guess what internet stuff I’ll be doing tonight? So much for the flown in expert, hey? Oh, I don’t feel so bad, I never said I was a hardware expert when I asked if they could use my help here – and it’s not like I didn’t know what I needed, just a few of the details!

Anyway, we’re at the top of this amazing place, and I’m starting to feel a little more secure, like nobody’s about to kill me, and so I finally get the courage to get my camera out, though I did ask H**** to take a couple of pictures initially for me; hence the cheesy one of me next to the laptop shop.

The courtyard, looking down

Then I discovered there was a balcony that looked over the street, and I was in heaven (not literally, you must understand).The view was outstanding – from the view of the buildings and mountains, to the countless thousands of people who could be seen in the middle distance crawling alongside the Kabul river and down the roads leading to and from where we were. The sheer scale of people was amazing – the last time I’d seen a scene anything like as busy and muddy as that was when I saw an exhibition on miners in Brazil in indebted servitude crawling over open cast gold mines. It was amazing. I’m sure my pictures don’t do it half the justice it deserves – tomorrow I’m going to take along the decent camera.

When we finally spat ourselves back onto the street, waiting for out driver, I saw a street vendor cooking corn in hot sand – I think it was corn, although it certainly wasn’t for the cinema market. I’m quite pleased I got a photo at all, the street being as busy as it was, and not wanting to draw too much attention to myself. I thought I got it, until I checked the actual picture at full size tonight and realised that some dude had managed to walk in frame exactly over where the guy was. And the dude was blurred, to add insult to injury.

The drive back to base was even more spectacular than on the way in – we drove through the market, and inched through the mass of people I’d seen from the balcony – and I started feeling nervous again – what if someone took exception to my face, and dragged me out? We were travelling at less than walking speed, and we weren’t in the 4x4. Still, I found the market incredibly engaging, with nearly all the stalls being on handcarts, with a few on boards on stools, and an unlucky few being on sheets on the ground. I lost the opportunity to ask what the big piles of orange coloured nut type things were – what particularly attracted me to these (invariably huge and well proportioned) mini mountains was not so much the product as the few spindly plants stuck into the top which looked like they might have once been flowers.

I also had more overwhelming urges to take pictures, but common sense made me stick to trying to shoot out of the windshield from the fairly unobtrusive vantage point between the shoulders of the two guys in the front. Sadly, but rather predictably, the pictures weren’t great – a shame, as being crammed in the crowds reminded me what a handsome lot these Afghanis really are. Obviously hardship is good for the face, if not a warm sense of security.

The guys took pity on my photographic efforts once we’d cleared the melee, and we stopped for a couple of seconds, my window was wound down, and I managed to get a picture of a pretty yellow mosque which looked like it had been designed by a 19th century Bavarian architect.

When we got back I was exhilarated, and can’t wait to get back out there. I’m especially looking forward to getting fitted for my Salwar suit - the sort of suit that most of the men wear here. It doesn’t seem particularly warm, but these guys are a hardy bunch, and I guess I’ll have the option of getting a waistcoat and hat (I’ve wanted one of the afghan pie type hats since I first saw them on students at my old University, over ten years back)

The evening was quite relaxed after my busy day – I got to know some of the local staff a lot better, and gave news of some of the people I’m friends with back home who have been through Kabul in years gone past. They remembered C**** and M**** with particular affection. Then I taught some of the guys the much underrated game of “lie dice” and won some instant converts. I plan to expand my dice playing empire tomorrow.

Day 3 - down to business - properly!

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!

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.