Jalalabad trip, NATO conference and more - english
Hello,
so I am posting again about how I am doing over here. Lot of things happening, so just to be quick...
Jalalabad
Last week on Friday we did a half-business trip to Jalalabad - city 2,5 hours south-east of Kabul. We had a business meeting at the NATO army base - the army is a customer of our room-mate.
You can get to Jalalabad by highway through the mountains which are surrounding Kabul. Road is quite nice with asphalt (built with financial support of EU), holes on the road are marked by big stones ... sometimes even in the middle of the road you can find some :s To Jalalabad you have to drive down the hills, going from 2200 m above sea level (where Kabul is and the humidity is almost a like in Czech) to 700 m where Jalalabad is. So you can imagine the temperature and humidity difference. Going from 35˚C in Kabul to 40-45˚C in Jalalabad with much higher humidity. Afghans call it "sauna city". But if I compare it with Dubai, you can easily survive :)
Jalalabad is very nice and green city. Roads are pawed, there are traffic signs and people do take them in account ... except traffic lights - those are not fancy here in Afghanistan yet (only in Herat they say yes). Extra from Kabul, Jalalabad's roads are full of riksha's, funny colorfull vehicles. Mike said that Jalalabad reminds him Pakistan. Maybe because the city is so close to Pakistani borders and just two hours from Peshawar. But I cannot say, have never been to Pakistan nor any other city in Afghanistan except Kabul, yet.
NATO conference
AIESEC and NATO co-organized on 11.-13.8. 3-day seminar for university students from all around Afghanistan. Theme was "Sustainable development & durable security". Around 100 students from whole country meet, saw presentations of NATO, ISAF, AIESEC and NGOs, asked tons of questions, discussed on the topic of the conference and tried to find the solutions to the development of Afghanistan.
I was helping AIESEC a little bit with the organizing on second day of the conference. I met a lot of people there. I have now new female friends - aiesecers Nehid and Zuhra. In two weeks we plan to do some girls party :).
I also made a good connection with one lady, Nadia from Canada, who is working at the moment as a diplomat for NATO in Brussels. So maybe I will visit here one day and maybe I will participate in some NATO activities. She already confirmed via email that she will think of me :)
From the organizational point of view ... well not really a great one, but not huge fuck-ups either. I was there whole Sunday and couple of hours on Monday evening. We had really yummy lunch and dinner. And of course, I was the center of attention for most of the male participants at the conference. Its not common for villagers to see white-skin person and especially not shy and very talkative girl like me. So, every delegation from every town wanted to take a picture with me, exchange phone and email contacts. So now when I decide to go and travel around Afghanistan, I dont need to worry about not knowing anyone anywhere :)
OMAR
Yesterday I was at business meeting in one NGO, Omar, which is focusig on demining and education about mines. We sold them website template design and apart from that I visited their museum of planes, rockets etc. Very interesting, see pics :)
ASMED
On Tuesday had a business meeting again with ASMED. So I hope that after the weekend, when I am suppose to send our business plan, we will see some support form their side on investors' contacts and recommendations. I am now trying to finalize the plan quickly, right now doing financial analysis and forecasts ... i am starting to be dizzy from these numbers... Jamshed is working on marketing plan and on Saturday hopefully we will have it all in one.
New house
Approx. two weeks ago we moved from Mediothek to new house, just 6 streets from work (15-20 mins by walk). We have two rooms, hallway, kitchen half with shower corner and one guest room over the garden/yard. We need to get the water from the well and heat it up on the gass if we want to cook or have a hot shower. Toilet is typical afghan on the other side of the yard. And we got a cat. Her name is Mici and she is beautifull three-coloured afghan girl :)
Dinner at our place
Last Thursday me and Mike decided to invite our collegues for dinner and tea. So they could see our new house, have a nice food and chat. So I was cooking like crazy some pasta and two kinds of sauce, prepared fruit salad ... the biggest fun was when in the middle of cooking the gas bomb got finished. Luckily enough we had a gas lamp in the house too we just changed it and it was alright :) The evening went well, we had some good chat and also watched a movie.
AIESEC IC preparation
As I am still an aiesecer, I am here as a trainee and AIESEC office is just few meters from ours, I couldn't avoid getting involved into preparation of Afghan delegation for IC.
This year IC (International Congress) is in Istanbul, Turkey. From Afghanistan is going Mike as a representative of PAIWASTOON and also speaker for Afghan MC to deal with Germans reg. extension. And from the MC there are two people - Amir, VP Finance and Lutfulhaq, VP Exchange.
So, me and Mike wrote down a list of things for Global Village, kicked asses of the boys to go and do shopping, in the evening we took a video of the Kabul city centre and today at 7 a.m. we went to university campus and did some shots there. When Mike finishes the video, I will definetely put a link in here. Can't wait for it.
Today I got a present form AIESECers - flag of Afghanistan and also really nice, hand made handbag :). Thank you !!!
Company appraisal
At work we have a little small box where everyone can write something nice about others, what he liked during the last week. Last Saturday at our regular weekly meeting I got appraisal from my colleagues for "respecting afghan culture and traditions". I was even told that I am "hiding" more than some afghan girls and that I look quite afghan.... which made me quite happy, because I already have enough of men's attention just when I walk on the street... everyone is turning and stare at me... sometimes almost fell down the bike or hit with the car... hehe.
I am trying to do my best to look non european but unfortunately I would have to paint my face brown and I guess the best to buy burqa so nobody could see anything... but this isn't my plan :)
And what next ...
On Friday I am going for a trip with Jamshed and his classmates from university to "camping place" some hour outside Kabul. We will be there from the morning till lunch time and for lunch we will go to the family of one of the guys. And then go back to Kabul where I will get picked up by another colleague, Waheedullah Safi, and go to his family house for dinner, plus he promised me some suprise :) so I am really looking forward. I will post some more pics and stories soon.
I also already know that Dubai trip is not gonna happen. My friend Chico, who is working in Dubai will be at that time in the Czech Republic visiting her family and I don' t know anyone else in there. So we have a new plan. Just few days before I fly home we will go to Mazar-e Sharif and Herat on the south-west of the country. I saw really nice pictures from those places so I am very excited.
There are only 3 weeks left and I will go back home. I can't even believe how fast is time flying. I would love to stay here at least one month more, still so much work to do and so many ideas flying around ... and we haven't even started meetings with investors itself.
so I am posting again about how I am doing over here. Lot of things happening, so just to be quick...
Jalalabad
Last week on Friday we did a half-business trip to Jalalabad - city 2,5 hours south-east of Kabul. We had a business meeting at the NATO army base - the army is a customer of our room-mate.
You can get to Jalalabad by highway through the mountains which are surrounding Kabul. Road is quite nice with asphalt (built with financial support of EU), holes on the road are marked by big stones ... sometimes even in the middle of the road you can find some :s To Jalalabad you have to drive down the hills, going from 2200 m above sea level (where Kabul is and the humidity is almost a like in Czech) to 700 m where Jalalabad is. So you can imagine the temperature and humidity difference. Going from 35˚C in Kabul to 40-45˚C in Jalalabad with much higher humidity. Afghans call it "sauna city". But if I compare it with Dubai, you can easily survive :)
Jalalabad is very nice and green city. Roads are pawed, there are traffic signs and people do take them in account ... except traffic lights - those are not fancy here in Afghanistan yet (only in Herat they say yes). Extra from Kabul, Jalalabad's roads are full of riksha's, funny colorfull vehicles. Mike said that Jalalabad reminds him Pakistan. Maybe because the city is so close to Pakistani borders and just two hours from Peshawar. But I cannot say, have never been to Pakistan nor any other city in Afghanistan except Kabul, yet.
NATO conference
AIESEC and NATO co-organized on 11.-13.8. 3-day seminar for university students from all around Afghanistan. Theme was "Sustainable development & durable security". Around 100 students from whole country meet, saw presentations of NATO, ISAF, AIESEC and NGOs, asked tons of questions, discussed on the topic of the conference and tried to find the solutions to the development of Afghanistan.
I was helping AIESEC a little bit with the organizing on second day of the conference. I met a lot of people there. I have now new female friends - aiesecers Nehid and Zuhra. In two weeks we plan to do some girls party :).
I also made a good connection with one lady, Nadia from Canada, who is working at the moment as a diplomat for NATO in Brussels. So maybe I will visit here one day and maybe I will participate in some NATO activities. She already confirmed via email that she will think of me :)
From the organizational point of view ... well not really a great one, but not huge fuck-ups either. I was there whole Sunday and couple of hours on Monday evening. We had really yummy lunch and dinner. And of course, I was the center of attention for most of the male participants at the conference. Its not common for villagers to see white-skin person and especially not shy and very talkative girl like me. So, every delegation from every town wanted to take a picture with me, exchange phone and email contacts. So now when I decide to go and travel around Afghanistan, I dont need to worry about not knowing anyone anywhere :)
OMAR
Yesterday I was at business meeting in one NGO, Omar, which is focusig on demining and education about mines. We sold them website template design and apart from that I visited their museum of planes, rockets etc. Very interesting, see pics :)
ASMED
On Tuesday had a business meeting again with ASMED. So I hope that after the weekend, when I am suppose to send our business plan, we will see some support form their side on investors' contacts and recommendations. I am now trying to finalize the plan quickly, right now doing financial analysis and forecasts ... i am starting to be dizzy from these numbers... Jamshed is working on marketing plan and on Saturday hopefully we will have it all in one.
New house
Approx. two weeks ago we moved from Mediothek to new house, just 6 streets from work (15-20 mins by walk). We have two rooms, hallway, kitchen half with shower corner and one guest room over the garden/yard. We need to get the water from the well and heat it up on the gass if we want to cook or have a hot shower. Toilet is typical afghan on the other side of the yard. And we got a cat. Her name is Mici and she is beautifull three-coloured afghan girl :)
Dinner at our place
Last Thursday me and Mike decided to invite our collegues for dinner and tea. So they could see our new house, have a nice food and chat. So I was cooking like crazy some pasta and two kinds of sauce, prepared fruit salad ... the biggest fun was when in the middle of cooking the gas bomb got finished. Luckily enough we had a gas lamp in the house too we just changed it and it was alright :) The evening went well, we had some good chat and also watched a movie.
AIESEC IC preparation
As I am still an aiesecer, I am here as a trainee and AIESEC office is just few meters from ours, I couldn't avoid getting involved into preparation of Afghan delegation for IC.
This year IC (International Congress) is in Istanbul, Turkey. From Afghanistan is going Mike as a representative of PAIWASTOON and also speaker for Afghan MC to deal with Germans reg. extension. And from the MC there are two people - Amir, VP Finance and Lutfulhaq, VP Exchange.
So, me and Mike wrote down a list of things for Global Village, kicked asses of the boys to go and do shopping, in the evening we took a video of the Kabul city centre and today at 7 a.m. we went to university campus and did some shots there. When Mike finishes the video, I will definetely put a link in here. Can't wait for it.
Today I got a present form AIESECers - flag of Afghanistan and also really nice, hand made handbag :). Thank you !!!
Company appraisal
At work we have a little small box where everyone can write something nice about others, what he liked during the last week. Last Saturday at our regular weekly meeting I got appraisal from my colleagues for "respecting afghan culture and traditions". I was even told that I am "hiding" more than some afghan girls and that I look quite afghan.... which made me quite happy, because I already have enough of men's attention just when I walk on the street... everyone is turning and stare at me... sometimes almost fell down the bike or hit with the car... hehe.
I am trying to do my best to look non european but unfortunately I would have to paint my face brown and I guess the best to buy burqa so nobody could see anything... but this isn't my plan :)
And what next ...
On Friday I am going for a trip with Jamshed and his classmates from university to "camping place" some hour outside Kabul. We will be there from the morning till lunch time and for lunch we will go to the family of one of the guys. And then go back to Kabul where I will get picked up by another colleague, Waheedullah Safi, and go to his family house for dinner, plus he promised me some suprise :) so I am really looking forward. I will post some more pics and stories soon.
I also already know that Dubai trip is not gonna happen. My friend Chico, who is working in Dubai will be at that time in the Czech Republic visiting her family and I don' t know anyone else in there. So we have a new plan. Just few days before I fly home we will go to Mazar-e Sharif and Herat on the south-west of the country. I saw really nice pictures from those places so I am very excited.
There are only 3 weeks left and I will go back home. I can't even believe how fast is time flying. I would love to stay here at least one month more, still so much work to do and so many ideas flying around ... and we haven't even started meetings with investors itself.
posted by Svetlana Senajova | 2:37 PM
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