Football changes everything...

So, the Euro 2012 is over, and Italy did not win the final over Spain. No doubt that Spain was the better team, 4-0 speaks for itself. Of course I would have liked Italy to win, since I am here in the country as a guest, but honestly, since Sweden didn't even make it from the group I don't really, emotionally, care. Somehow, however, I started to think Italy would not make it when I saw how the people here started waving flags and driving around in cars with big flags hanging out and definetly not when I saw a flag-vendor having pasted a obituary over Spain, like the ones you see on walls everywhere here. Then I thought, this is taking it out too much in advance, it can never work out... And it didn't!
However it was an interesting game and Spain played very well!!
It was also quite interesting to see all the flags having been removed when we drove back home and the streets were surprisingly quiet... small things change a lot of things here.

Spouse on the house

I have kept a souvenir from South Africa, that I find so funny. It is a beer coaster from the hotel I stayed at in Johannesburg. Ok, it was a cheap hotel by the airport where I only stayed for one night because the transfer to Kruger left too early to make the arrival from Cape Town the same day, but still the text on the coaster: “Free love on the weekend” makes you wonder what kind of hotel it actually was. On the rim of the coaster you can read: “Book a room from Friday to Sunday and qualify for our amazing Spouse-on-the-house rate”.

Have I actually spent a night in a Love Hotel?!? Should I regret I was only there on a Wednesday night? Maybe I would also have gotten a Spouse on the house if I had been there on a weekend?!

The World of Nose Spray

As I have a tendancy, or maybe even tradition of catching a cold whenever I go on holiday, I have been thinking that I could almost write a guide book over decongesting nose sprays. It seems to be one of the first things I just HAVE to get, and still I always forget to bring it from home. If it wasn't for the fact that they have an expiry date (or that they finish) I could have had quite a decent collection of nose sprays from all over the world.
To be honest I guess the contents of them are probably pretty much the same, but the packing and the way they sell them differ. I can say the strange bottle that did not have a spraying function, that I bought in Rio, was not a hit. It made me feel like drowning. The one I bought here in Cape Town feels very much like the ones you get at home, but the lady selling it was very helpful. She insisted I should try it already in the pharmacy and helped me taking the outer packing off and almost offered to help me spray it too.
Here of course it was very easy to ask for what I wanted, but I have noted that even in countries where they don't speak much English this is a very easy thing to explain, sometimes you don't even have to say anything...

Thoughts from my hotelroom

It is funny how fast one can get used to things. After having travelled on my own for a while and being very happy with that and having a good time, I was quite sceptic about getting company by a friend from Brasilia that came to Buenos Aires to meet me. It took about a day and a half getting to terms with having company, but now, when my friend have left, it feels very empty all of a sudden. It feels boring to be on my own and I don't feel like going out and do anything. Ok, part of the explanation for that can be that it is very cold and windy tonight and I send all my warm clothes with my friend to Brasilia so therefore I really don't feel like going out. Normally, going out in the evenings alone was always the most boring part of travelling alone, but now it feels even worse, but if the sun is shining tomorrow I am sure it will feel better.

Another thing that is strange, ironic and typical is this thing about not being able to shop when one really wants to shop. If I am not supposed to buy anything and especially if I don't really have the money to shop, then I always find a lot of things that I want, but if I really plan to buy something I won't find anything. Like in Cusco. The first day I passed through the markets and saw a lot of things that I liked, but the last day when I still had too many soles that I wanted to get rid of I didn't find a thing that I liked. Yesterday when many shops were closed due to holiday I saw a lot of nice things in the shop windows here in Buenos Aires, but this afternoon when I went out for shopping I found nothing. I did however bought a red leather jacket in the morning. Happy! And I have the whole day tomorrow.

One of the reasons it is difficult to shop here is that it is so completely wrong season for me. All the shops are full of light spring and summer clothes, which feels very strange for me going back to the Swedish autumn and winter in a week. Actually it feels strange even if I consider how it feels here right now. Having spent the last six months in constant sunshine and over 30 degrees, it feels strange to think it is spring, going to summer, when it is 15 degrees, cloudy or even rainy.

I really hope the weather will be better when I come to Rio on Thursday. I so look forward to a couple of days on the beach. If it will be cold and rainy I don't know what I will do, maybe I then go back to Brasilia one day earlier to get all things ready and have more time to say goodbye to people...

Swedish in Buenos Aires

Had a nice day strolling around in Buenos Aires, doing the tourist track strolling through Recoleta, San Telmo with the fair and then La Boca and Caminito. Nice.
Something I didn't expect though was the most common reaction people had on hearing that I come from Sweden. I mean you do get to hear some different things and some more often that others, but here was a very specific for Buenos Aires/Argentina. I don't even remember how many times I have been told the story of how the Boca Juniors got their colours. Apparently they had difficulties choosing colours for the new team and they made the agreement to pick the colours of the flag of the first ship to enter the harbour in the morning and apparently it was a Swedish ship, hence the Boca is since then playing in blue and yellow (gold). I might somehow have heard that story before, but not the way that I remember it, but now I have heard it more times than I can remember..

Flying Thoughts

Once again I am amazed how slow the check-in at Brazilian airports can be. Not because there are so long lines, but the handling at the desk is just so slow. They all seem to have their first day at work and every passanger seems their first ever, as if they necer did this before. Some of the passengers also act as if they never travelled before, eventhough I don't think that is the case.  And then the Brazilian's love for talkin!!!! How is it possible that the question whether you want a aisl or window seat can take minimum of three minutes to answer??

Another thing that I have been thinking about while flying lately is all the signs and texts ON the plane telling you to "No Step!" or "No step beond this line". The lines on the wings I suppose are to direct people in case of evacuation after an emergency landing, but if you have crashed/done an emergency landing does it really matter where on the wings you step?! But then there are those signs in various places on the body of the planes, there I find it harder to figure out why you would want to step there.

Global Shopping

When I was in Ethiopia last year I bought a dress that I haven’t used once since. One of the reasons I haven’t used it is that I haven’t found any shoes that goes with it. It is a somewhat special dress and requires special shoes. I have had a quite clear idea of what kind of shoes I would like, but just haven’t found any, even though I have been looking for them, more or less actively, ever since. So, last weekend when I ended up in one of the shopping malls here in Brasília I all of a sudden saw two pairs that might fit on display in a shop. I went in to try them on. With my poor skills in Portuguese I did only manage to get the shop assistant to understand that I wanted to see one of the pairs, not both and the ones she took out were not great on my feet. And as they were not very cheap I did not want to buy any without being sure that they would fit to the dress.

But since then I have been coming back to those shoes in my mind. As I have the dress with me here, I took it with me today and went back to the same shop. The other pair matched the dress perfectly! Almost on the verge of being an over-match, but having looked for so long I could not not buy them once I found them. They did not have them in the size I asked for but strangely the smaller size fitted, so I bought them. I find it very amusing that I now have an Ethiopian dress and Brazilian shoes that look as they were made for each other.

On the other hand I would be surprised if you could not find shoes here to go with anything. There are a LOT of shoe stores here and there are shoes in every colour and shape. I might have to send a suite case full of shoes home.

I've got a Samba Problem

I realise I have a samba-problem! Not only because samba is difficult, which it is, but I also have a more general dancing problem. I love dancing! But I prefer to dance on my own, in my own style. I have never liked or even understood the point in this couple-dancing, where the woman is supposed to follow the man, whether he is a good dancer or not. Why is that?! That is so old-fashioned!!
Here I totally accept that everyone dances “better” than I do, and I also realise that people are only trying to be nice when they try to teach me how to dance and give me lessons. But that doesn’t mean that they all are great teachers. Most of the times they just make me feel very clumsy and useless as a dancer and that is really no fun, when you are out for a good time with your friends. As they realise I am a beginner and foreigner they slow down the speed and fall back to the “one-two-one-two” and “look at my feet” but to me that only means I get completely stiff and loose contact to the rhythm of the music and it all gets very much worse.
As long as I am allowed to dance on my own (or with a very good dancer) it is all just fine, but when things like these happen I rather don’t dance at all.

This is nothing new. I hate “ballroom-dancing” back home in Sweden too and at weddings or parties where that kind of dancing might be expected I always come up with excused for not dancing when someone asks me to dance. Here that seems very much ruder, especially as I don’t know the language so I can make myself understood. And here at least I like the music and like to dance to it, as long as I can decide for myself when and where to move my feet!

Where The Streets Have No Name

Well, I don’t think Brasília was the city that U2 had in mind when they wrote the song Where the streets have no name, but it could very well be a fitting description of Brasília. Ok, there are a few streets or roads that do have names, but addresses here are more likely to be something like SQS 403, SHLS Q 716, SHN Q 2 Bloco E or SES Q 807, Lt 29 which happens to be the address of the Swedish embassy. I will not go into details on how to read this, as I haven’t quite figured out all the details about it, although I have started getting the logic behind it. In fact it is probably absolutely über-logical. I will simply quote Lonely Planet again, this is how they describe it:

For example, the address for Pensão da Zenilda is SQS 704, Bloco Q, Casa 29. That means it’s in Super Quadra 704, bloco (building) Q, casa (house) 29. The first digit in the address (7) shows the position east or west of the Eixo Rodoviário (the main north-south arterial road) – odd numbers to the west and even to the east, increasing as they move away from the centre. The last two digits (04) show the distance north or south of the Eixo Monumental. So Pensão da Zenlida is four blocks to the south of the Eixo Monumental and four blocks east of the Eixo Rodoviário (1, 3, 5, 7)

That’s super logical isn’t it!? Adding to this are a number of acronyms used in addresses like SCLN/SLCS for Sector Comércio Local Norte/Sul, SBN/SBS Setor Bancário Norte/Sul and SEN/SES Setor de Embaxiadas Norte/Sul and so on. These acronyms are frequently used on road signs etc. That will be a challenge when I start to drive myself here, as if the traffic wasn’t already a challenge.

A Trip to the Mall

Having finished my first, rather intense work week and considering that it is my birthday tomorrow, I decided to treat myself to some shopping. I was recommended a shopping mall a bit outside city and asked the guards at the gate to order me a taxi to get there. It was a quite nice mall and I found just about what I needed (two pair shoes, two tops and some practical things for the apartment). It was nevertheless very exciting to go shopping without being able to speak Portuguese. It is really striking how few people here speak English. Today I did not meet one single person. Most of the time its works quite ok though, although every time I wanted to pay with my credit card they asked something that I never understood. I thought it sounded like “cash or credit?” but it didn’t seem to make sense. Then I thought they asked whether I would sign or had a pin code, but no, it didn’t seem so either. I felt so stupid, but it worked. What made things a little more complicated was that I managed to sit on my credit card so the card got a knick that made it work less in the readers. In the ATM it did not work at all, so I am really happy I had cash enough for the taxi home. I have to contact my bank to have them send me a new card.

Well, talking about the taxi drive home. That was another exciting thing. I had a number for the taxi company, but kind of assumed they would not be able to talk English so I tried to ask for help from an information desk. I showed them the number, said “taxi” and offered them my mobile and pointed to the gate and used all English/French/Italian words that I thought would make sense. But no, it didn’t help. They just sent me to another exit. I thought maybe they meant that there was a taxi stand at that exit and went there, but no, there wasn’t. So then there was not much left for me to do but trying to call myself. First I thought it went quite well. I managed to explain that I wanted a taxi to the specific shopping mall and the specific gate and also gave my name. Then I had expected to get something like a time estimate or a number of the taxi or something like that, but I just could not understand what the operator said. Somehow it seems the harder I try to understand, the more tired I get and the less I understand. After a while she just said “boa tarde Susanne, boa tarde”. That left me wondering if that meant a confirmation, like “good evening Susanne, your taxi is coming any minute and soon you will be at home and have a nice evening” or if it meant “just piss off and have a nice evening whatever you like to do, I don’t give a damn”. Anyway I decided to trust it worked and sat down and waited for a taxi to come. But at the same time I felt I could not just sit and wait for something I didn’t know would come, so when I saw a taxi standing at the parking lot I just walked over and asked if it was free. It was. So to the taxi driver who was possibly sent to the shopping mall on my behalf; I am so sorry and hope you got another customer who gave you a really decent tip.

To be able to get home in any situation I have learned how to say the address in Portuguese. I thought I did a good job and the driver seemed to understand. I could also follow the drive and see that he was driving the right way. But then at a crossing in the embassy quarters I realise he wants to drive to the Swiss embassy. Ok, this is a rather common mistake so I will not blame that on my pronunciation. I am just very happy the Swiss embassy was rather close to the Swedish. Honestly I had no idea where the Swiss was and was just happy to see the sign for the Italian in the same crossing and knowing that the Italian is just next to the Swedish it was not so difficult to point the right direction. I really have to learn Portuguese. Although it will make my life here less exciting. 

City Planning and Planned City

While driving around Brasília I cannot help wondering how they were thinking when they planned this city. “Ok, we are going to build a completely new and modern capital. Hey! Let’s build it in the shape of an airplane!!” Some plans are obvious and somehow makes reasonably sense. Like I can understand that you put all the administrative and representative buildings in one area and the original plan of having commercial centres in every residential block makes sense, although it might not have worked out exactly as planned. But why putting all hotels in the same area?

Driving through the southern embassy sector you find some embassies that seem to be placed completely randomly and others according to some plan. For example I find it hard to see a plan behind having Lebanon, Mexico, Hungary, Indonesia and Slovakia next to each other, whereas it is easy to see the logic behind placing the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland) as neighbours as well as having Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay and Argentina together (although I don’t see the logic in putting Serbia next to them!!). However, some locations are so surprising or unexpected it is hard to guess if it is by coincidence or if someone put them there by will, just to annoy or provoke them or maybe force them to cooperate. Hence you will find that Greece and Turkey are next door neighbours, as are Netherlands and South Africa as well as Russia and USA.

Something's happened

Something has happened. I can not exactly say what or why but maybe it takes at least a week to see and live what is around you in a new environment. What has happened is that people all of a sudden see me and I am feeling a part of the city in another way. My friend has all the time been going on about the sensuality of Rio, how people interact, flirt and socialise in a very warm, loving and sensual way. I was pretty sceptic to say the least. Ok, I have seem him interact with people that way, but hey he has been here before and he knows people. And the fact that I felt invisible and that no one flirted with me, whereas he got all the attention, I at least partly blamed on the fact that we mostly mingle in the gay areas of Ipanema. But then today something happened. All of a sudden people see me and give me appreciative smiles and comments and are very flirtatious.

Today I went for a short shopping round. I put on a dress that I like, but actually never have used. It is simply too tight, too short, too everything, but I thought it might work here. It obviously did. I got a lot of positive attention. So this is the carioca-style!
One of the things I wanted to buy was a bikini. There are lots of them, but that also means difficult to choose and some are also very expensive, which might make sense if you live in a country where you can use it more or less every day of the year, less so in Sweden. Anyway I found one shop with a big selection to reasonable prices. I started browsing on my own but quite soon a young salesman came up to me; introduces himself as Bauer (don’t know why most Brazilian men I talk to have German names), asks for my name and starts talking. He does not know many words in English, but those he knows he uses well. He is just so cute and so charming. He starts showing me what bikinis he thought I would look good in and really takes a close look at me to find out what size I need. I know it is his job, but the way he looked at me made me blush, goddammit!

When I find one I like he takes out another, more or less the same but in more bluish/greenish colours. I tell him I like the first one better as its colour are “happier”. He agrees but then tells me that the blue one will look very good with my eyes and smiles his most charming smile. Man! You just sold a bikini! When I had decided for myself he asked me if I wanted to buy something for my husband. It was just so charming and nice, nothing pushy and sleazy about it. I smiled to myself and walked out with two bikinis and had spent far much more that I had planned to. Bikinis that I most probably never will use anywhere outside Brazil! But it felt good.
Then it continued that way the rest of the day, in the juice bar, in the street at the beach. Something’s happened.

Business diversification

Today I discovered that not only the grilled-cheese-vendors at the beach may double as drug dealers, so do the kanga-vendors. When the man trying to sell kangas to me realised I was not interested he could offer me both marihuana and cocaine. Very diversified and flexible business!

Iceland

Last Saturday I was on a somewhat different businesstrip. I went as an observer on an exercise with the Swedish Natonal Air Medevac (SNAM) to Iceland. That meant we had to gather already at 05.15 at the airport and then flew to Iceland, where according to the exercise; a tourist bus, with a lot of Swedish skiers, had gone off the road and down a hill side and now there were a lot of badly injured people that needed transport back to Sweden as the local hospital was badly strained. The SNAM is a normal Boing 737 from SAS that in six hours can be rebuilt to an ambulance aircraft able to transport 6 intensive care patience and six less but still badly injured persons, about 30 relatives or lightly injured persons and a staff of nine doctors and about 15 nurses. Very impressive I must say!



As Akureyri is on the northern coast of Iceland we had a nice flight right across the island. Looking down reminded me of flying over Afghanistan. So empty. Just the barren mountains with snow covered tops and some streams between them. But apart from that I guess there are not many similarities between the two countries. I still remember how an Icelandic journalist told me about the amazment of president Karzai when he met his Icelandic counterpart. Learning that Iceland had no neighbouring coutries and had never been to war he concluded that it must be a happy country.



It is almost hard to believe that Akureyri is the second largest town on Iceland, outside the Reyjkavik area. With only 17 200 inhabtants!



Getting out of the plan was quite amazing, the airport was very beautifully situated at the end of a bay of the sea, between the green hills.



The SNAM team.



Even though it was only from a distance I am glad that I saw some Iceland-ponies.





While the "patients" were made ready, the rest of us got a short bustrip through the town.



So; the "patients" are all onboard and ready for the transport back home to Sweden.

Too Fast Service??

Flew to Copenhagen over the weekend.
On Thursday I got an SMS from SAS telling me that I now check in via sms. All I needed to do was to reply YES to the sms. I did and received a confirmation, also via sms, informing me about my seat at the flight and welcoming me and whishing me a nice flight. I found it quite cool and was happy not having to line up for check in at the airport. However I felt a bit uncomfortable not to have a boarding card and as I also received an e-mail where I could print one myself I did so.
On the way back the same thing happened, I got a sms yesterday, replied and got a confirmation. Now I did not have access to my e-mail and a printer so I decided to just trying to check in with the sms.
When I came to the security check it seems it is not enough. The staff said I needed a bar code that I might have received as an mms, but I never got a mms nor any other information. They had no idea how it worked or how I should get the bar code and sent me back to ask at SAS. I went to the SAS information desk. There I had an interesting expereince! It turned out no-one at the desk knew anything about how it is supposed to work!! Apparently the whole system is very new and none of the staff had had the sms-chek-in-briefing yet! The woman at the counter said that the people working at the check in counters ought to know. But she also agreed with me that the whole idea seemed a bit wasted if I should have to line up at the check-in anyway. So what she did is that she printed me a normal boarding card, with a bar code, from the information in the sms!! Very funny!
It is amazing that they start a new service before anyone in the staff knows how it is supposed to work!

So; all I said about this during the weekend, talking about what a good and efficient service that is; I take it back!!

WC at the Airport

Out travelling again I have been once again reflecting about something that have annoyed me many times. Airport-toilettes. At every airport you repeatedly get reminded on not to "leave your luggage unattended at any time". But every now and then you might have to visit the airport facilities and encounter small tiny toilette booths where the door open INWARDS!! Not only is the booth small, 50% is covered by the closette, then the door takes the remaining 50% when you open it. So how the hell squeese in there with your luggage?? No woman can have come up with that design!

On Mallorca

There are a few places that are famous or maybe even infamous as holiday places, where almost everyone in Sweden has been at some time. Mallorca is one of them. The funny thing is that even though I have travelled quite a lot I have never been to any of them. So this visit to Mallorca was something quite new to me. Ok, it was still very far from the standard charter trip that most people go for, as I flew with a regular airline and stayed in a house that my friends had rented, very far from the most hectic beaches. Hence it was very nice.



The House


However the last night we had a hotel in Palma which gave far more of a tourist feeling. We were still not staying in the most exploited parts along the beach but in the city centre, but we went to the beach for a couple of hours. It was nice as it was very sunny and warm, but the beaches were very crowded and not so nice like the ones closer to the house, but still ok.



One of the beaches closer to the house.


However some of my friends came up with the idea to go to where the German colony is gathering in Palma. As I used to live in Germany I was familiar with the place too as you often see broadcasts from there in German TV. Ballerman 6 is it called. The most famous place is obvious the Oberbayern. It is really infamous and we just felt we had to see it, just for a short visit before going to dinner in town.

We did not know exactly where it was but started moving in the direction where it had to be. Getting closer we saw a lot of signs but still could not find it. We where all a bit embarrassed to ask the way there, but in the end we send forward the only German of our group to ask other German looking people, which was easy to find. Then we were informed that it was still a bit early for the Oberbayern, at this time they recommended Bierkönig.

We walked the suggested direction and when we turned around the last corner we were all almost chocked and terrified. Just around the bend from the beach walk there was this street with all bright neon light for different very German institutions and there were hordes of very drunk people already at this time.



I think we all felt a little bit scared and intimidated and almost wanted to turn around. But nevertheless we entered the Bierkönig and ordered beer. We did not say anything about the size of our beers so automatically we got litres! And they came with metre-long straws!?! Amazing!! We laughed quite a lot and felt rather out of place, probably most of all so the only Spanish in our group, and probably the only Spanish guest there at all. After all, the beer was very good and we were laughing a lot. I just don’t understand why hell all the tackiness and the bad music.

Kabul Traffic

Just before I left Kabul today I saw a programme on Al Jazeera about the traffic situation in Kabul. The report said that during the Soviet time there were 60 traffic lights in Kabul and only 50 000 cars, now there are 600 000 cars but only one (newly rehabilitated) traffic light. I suppose that says something about the traffic situation. But considering that I must say it works surprisingly well!

Cultural Confusion

Today I had some cultural considerations. Before we left Kabul I met with the driver who was driving us the last time and he then asked when I would come back to Kabul. I answered I would return on Sunday and leave again on Tuesday. Then he invited me to dinner with his family on Monday evening. I found it very flattering and thanked and agreed. But we never decided on the details, we only changed phone numbers, but did not say who would call who.

At the same time as I am very flattered and happy to be invited and really wanted to meet his family again and hopefully would have some more time to talk to them and hear more about how they live and think, I also felt a bit hesitant. I know it is against all security recommendations to go out alone like that with someone you don’t really know. But I do trust him and I have been there before. But this time it would have been more planned which in a way is riskier and it would also mean movement after dark which normally is recommended to avoid. And I also did not really know how to get there and back. Last time he drove me, but I am not sure whether he has a car of his own and I don’t think he would be able to use the company car in the evening.

Anyway; now when we came back to Kabul I did not know if I should call him or not. I felt that my colleague was not too thrilled about me moving around on my own with an Afghan at night, but I mostly wondered what would be the most culturally acceptable. Was I to call and let him know I was back? Or would that be like inviting myself? Should I just wait and see if he called or would it be pushy and not correct to call an international woman? Was it very rude not to make this invitation happen? I just did not know what to do so I just did not call and neither did he. It is a bit sad; I would really have liked to visit his family again. They all seemed so nice and I even bought a small gift for them in Mazar, but I did just not know what would have been the correct thing to do.

Ok, we had some meeting quite late and after that our other driver took me and my colleague out for a small sightseeing, so I had some other nice things to do, but it would have been such an opportunity to speak to some “normal” Afghans under nice circumstances.

I managed to make some small cultural blunders in the evening as well. While we were having dinner at the Serena some high shot person dressed in the traditional clothes from the Gulf came in. You could tell he was a VIP both from his two body guards and from the way the staff reacted. For one they immediately turned down the rather annoying music (pan-flute versions of Beatles songs!). Then it happened that I went to the dessert buffet at the same time as the VIP and he started talking to me and explaining one of the desserts, what it contained and that it is very common in Egypt. As he repeated Egypt a couple of times I eventually asked if he came from Egypt. Then he told me that he was the ambassador of UAE and pointing to his clothes saying “this you only see in the Gulf”. I felt so stupid. Of cause I know, but it just came across in the wrong way. Later I wanted to tell him that I really liked the dessert and thank him for the recommendation and I asked once more what it was called. Obviously he misunderstood me and thought I asked what his name was and answered “Mohammed”. That made me fell very stupid again as I then did not know whether to introduce myself or just tell him that I was actually more interested in the name of the dessert. I opted for the latter option. After that I thought I’d better stay away and not talk to him more in case his body guards would start to regard me as an annoyance and have me thrown out.

Golf Aid?

After having been to a load of meetings with different UN-organisations, NGO:s and other stakeholders in the development and international aid community, you realise that there are a lot of different kinds of devolopment projects going on and some of them rather strange or odd. I just heard on a local tv-channel that there is a German project or cooperation aiming to popularise golf in Afghanistan! They said that golf had a 50-years history in Afghanistan, but fell in despair during the three decades of war but now there is rehabilitation going on. Amazing! That might be someting for me in case our projects would not work...


The fabolous Kabul Golf Course, Afghanistan's best; and only! I can really recommend a visit to the wed site: www.kabulgolfcourse.com


The greens are browns. Talking about extreme sport!

But actually that is not so weird as it might sound. Of course it wont help the poor people who are on the brink of starvation because of the draught, nor will it empower women or improve the childrens education, but I hope the money for this comes from other sources than development aid and will not crowd out projects on those issues too. In a way i think it is important to work on things that makes life a little more bearable for the ones who are not really starving. I belive that might give them a little hope for the development of the country. On the other hand I have absolutely no idea who is playing golf here, maybe it is only the international community...

Anyway, I heard that there are people, Afghans too, who do rock-climbing in the mountains, at the Salang pass. It makes me feel good to hear that, that there are some "normal" and enjoyable things to do and that people do it. I can not really explain why, but it gives a feeling of some normality to a situation that often seem very hopeless.