Kabul, Afghanistan - english part

Hello,

as I promised, finally I am writing news about how is it in here. I would compare it with India as regards to hygienic conditions, a little better it's with the traffic (people do drive here as crazy as well and do not respect any rules, but are more careful). Well, thats as I can say from what I have heard about India and saw in the TV. And of course, its an Islamic country so it's a given dress code in here and also position of women and men in the society. But not to go too much in details now, I will start from the first day of my arrival.

As I already mentioned, flight from Dubai had 7 hours of delay. Luckily enough I got to know 3 afghan guys at the airport in Dubai and they were doing me a company during that time. I had some short chats also from other afghans who were waiting with us for the plane to Kabul. All of them were very curious why I am going to Afghanistan, who to do there, if I am not afraid etc. .. but also were telling stories about how it looks like there, how are the people etc. Generally I have a good feeling about Afghans, there are very friendly, nice and helpful people.

At the airport was Mike and 3 other guys from AIESEC waiting for me. They took us to the apartment of MCP of AIESEC Afghanistan. We were offered by green tea, salted pumpkin seeds, stones and something else. I even do not know what was it and how it is called, but it was good :) First night we we slept at his place as it was already too late when I arrived. I was sleeping on matrace in the living room, covered by blanket and from the other side of the room was fan blowing on me. In the morning we had for breakfast coffie, afghan bread (nan) by taste similar to pita, and melted cheese (normal triangles in the box with logo of “Happy cow”). After breakfast I had a “shower”. Because in the building where the apartment is, is very low pipe pressure, i had to use a small bucket to wash myself. As well we had to heat up the water on the cooker as apparently wasn't water boiler. And what even more, I was just standing in the middle of the bathroom, having my slippers on and washing myself there as they do not have bath tubs here.

After that we went to the other part of the city, where building of Mediothek is, where our company's office (PAIWASTOON, www.paiwastoon.com.af) is based and also our temporary “apartment”. It's actually just one small room with one bed, one mattrace on the floor, one table, no wardrobe and two shelves full of afghan books, which are owned by Mediothek (those books were here to be hidden in front of Taliban and they will hopefully be one day in the library for usage).

And how does it look like in the city? Honestly, I am still in a shock from what I see in the streets, but actually, what can I expect from Asian and second poorest country in the world, huh?

Afghans are brown-skin people (as indians are), but they do not look like all the same. They have different types of faces, body shapes, and most of them are tall. Some of them, mostly the young ppl, are wearing jeans and T-shirts or shirts, as well as the girls can wear jeans, but have to have their butts covered by long shirts or dresses. They have to wear also a head-scarf. Some parts of the city are still more conservative and women are wearing burkas (long cover over all their body even with face covered, just left some net for seeing and breathing) and men are wearing traditional clothes – long shirt under their knees, trousers and some of them also turban. At the head and over my shoulders I have to wear head-scarf, but not necessarily at the office, home or in some restaurants. When we were there they were looking strangely at me .. well foreigner :), and of course we draw attention of children begging for money or selling chewing gums or whatever it was. We have even seen a women sitting in the middle of one road stream and begging for money when cars were slowing down to avoid hurting her.

In Kabul you can find a lot of contrast, beautiful glass houses, huge buildings (palaces) for big companies and other organizations, newly build or re-build schools, mosques, hotels, nice shops with clothes and shoes (men suit, nice trousers, ladies dresses), asphalt roads, relatively nice cars – could be compared to “our world”. And on the other hand you see half-ruined buildings without roof and half of the first floor and in the ground floor just build up small shops, burned schools, somehow build houses just right on the mountains where missing water and electricity supply.

Public transport works here very chaotically – there are old buses full of people (but not that as u can see in India, there are no ppl siting on the roof of the bus or so). Bus always horns, stops, some guy runs out of it, screams over the street where he is going, couple of ppl join and it goes further. You never know when and where he does stop and if maybe u dont get robbed in there. The rest of transport is done by taxis (yellow-white cars), price is a subject of bargaining. Well, basically everything apart from stone-shops is a subject of bargaining. Ah yes, and also there are people riding bikes, soviet type, and carts with dunkies. Traffic has almost no system, cars are overtaking each other but they respect each other and I haven't seen any car accident yet. There are also no zebras on the roads so people are just crossing road wherever, but cars do stop if they see them in the middle of the road. Driving is on the right side of the road, but you can find here all kinds of cars, even with the driving wheel on the right.

Streets are full of people, most of them are not-asphalted and the same the walking paths. So, its very dusty here. Luckily, Kabul is in 1800 m. above the sea level, surrounded by mountains, so there is not high humidity. Its around 5˚C more than back home. But even just this can make from all the garbage lying at the paths corners and in the drains, very smelly and disgusting thing.

Yesterday, after morning moving and short walk through the town around Hotel Kabul, we went for lunch to one of the restaurants which serve food in the garden. It was bit more expensive, but sill we paied around 26 dollars for two, which is ok. I had melon juice, appetizer was afghan bread and two different spicy sauces, and the main course was rice with little spicy spinach and almonds, and one big bottle of water. Afterwards we went to the main market (bazar) where I bought new scarf for two dollars as the green one I have doesnt fit with some of my clothes. Market was very interesting, reminding me a Vietnamese market though here the people put their products on one piece of carpet on the ground. Most disgusting experience I had after seeing meat seller – just pieces of meat, liver, dunky heads and wherever else was just hanging outside on the sun and plenty of flies around it. Ugh, i would never buy that. I guess I become a vegetarian for those two months.

After the market tour we went to nice coffee house and also we went to the top roof restaurant for dinner. And again we paid for two meals 22 dollars. I had pasta with chicken meat and sauce, Mike had vegi pasta with cheese sauce, and two pots of green tea with it. Thats worth of it, right? And I always get so much food that I am never able to finish that. Mike is telling me that I should eat it all or leave just a bit, that its impolite to leave a lot of food. So I guess I will gain some weight :s

Saturday was my first working day, I got to know our finance guy Waheedulah who taught me briefly our accounting programm. Also I had to instal Linux into my computer (operational system) so I would be able to run all the company programs smoothly. During the afternoon I heard some explosions, so of course I was immediately with fear asking guys whats going on. Do not worry :) Nothing bad was happening. Thats just that the mines in the fields near Kabul are blowned up under control of specialized companies. So, be calm :)

Our company has even its own cook :), so for lunch we had a rice with pepper, nan and yoghurt. I am rather trying to avoid youghurt, I really do not wanna get sick just right from the beginning of my stay, but I guess I will not be able to avoid some stomach problems. As I see all that food, I guess I will enjoy really a lot of rice and nan in here :) Nan (bread) is served with every meal.

At 2p.m. I and Mike went to the company meeting with one guy from internet cafe, with whom I will be probably meeting very soon regarding investments. Mike was trying to deny access to porn and gambler pages on the computers and get rid of the virus on the server. So at least I had time to write this article :)

I should also mention that its really visible economical development on Kabul. New buildings and roads are build and government is trying to move the city center outside the current one towards the university area. I guess it would be very hard to repair all these roads, paths and drains, which has been here for ages.

See pics below Czech text.