In Mazar again

If I felt there was a different feeling being in Kabul this time compared to the last time, that is nothing compared to the difference it is being in Mazar this time. This time we don’t live at the camp, but stay in a hotel in town. And we rent normal cars with drivers and are not dependent on the military for transport and hence also not on their security restrictions. That is so nice! It gives you so much more freedom.

Today we even took a walk in the streets and in a market and I finally got to see the blue mosque. Still from the outside the gates, but closer than the 500 metres as last time. It is truly beautiful!


We actually got behind the gates too and saw the famous white pigeons. A grey pigeon that lands on the mosque is said to turn white within seven (?) days because of the purity and the holiness of the mosque. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that they keep loads of white pigeons just behind the mosque... While posting this picture I noticed that I had also captured the man laying in the middle of the picture. We saw him when we were there and wondered if he was actually dead. It is not so unusual that people sleep in the streat or in parks, but this man was lying in a somewhat strange position and in the blazing sun, which is unusual. Maybe he lay down for a rest while there was still shadow, but by the time the sun turned the man had died.... well, I don't know.


Walking in the market was nice. Of cause you get a lot of attention and my colleagues noted that the men stared at me. I did my best not to care or to even notice and I am quite good at it.


An old man was selling knives in the street, I believe we were good customers.

There are more burqa clad women here and I suppose the people in general are less used to westerners in the streets. On the other hand it is nice to meet the women without burqa, they look you in the eyes and I can meet their gaze and often they smile back and say salaam. That is nice!

The place were we are staying is also very different. It is a hotel, but it is a little more like the guest house we stayed at last time and very far from the five star Serena. But I like it! It feels much more genuine, and the internet connections are far better than at Serena. Who would have guessed that?! The hotel restaurant is obviously the only (or one of the very few) hangout for internationals in the city. So at dinner we had almost the whole young, international NGO and UN-crowd of Mazar at the table. Here you also can drink alcohol, which you can not at Serena. It is funny how much you can long for a cold beer. Especially in the heat and dust here, it is ca 40 degrees and very dry and dusty. We were all really looking forward to having a cold beer in the evening, but then it turned out that they were out of beer as the transport from Kabul was delayed. Speak of disappointment!! The wine was also out so we had to drink gin tonic…

The flight here was also very different. Although it is very dry and the predominant colour of the land is sand, it is still much greener than in March. From the air you could really see where there is some water. In the valleys where there is a small stream of water it is green and all of a sudden some of the villages that I spotted the last time make sense. But still, many of the villages are incredibly isolated. We heard today that some villages are cut off from the rest of the world for five to six months during winter! I don’t understand how people survive here.

Before we left Kabul I met with the same driver that drove us the last time, which was a very nice surprise. It was good to see him again, we chatted for a while and then he invited me for dinner with his family on Monday evening. That is of cause very sweet and I am very flattered and I was actually thinking that it would be nice to have some more time to talk to his family. At the same time it feels a bit weird. I don’t know if it was just me he invited or if I should ask the others. And I don’t know if it is wise, safe and what I should bring or what to wear etc etc, but of cause I can not reject such an invitation!

Tomorrow we are going on a field visit together with the ministry for energy and water to some villages at the Amur, where they have some flood prevention projects. That will be very exciting. I will actually get to see the Oxus that I have read so much about.

After that we are invited to the camp for midsummer celebration, so some midsummer I will get after all…

By Different Standards

The last couple of days I have been to quite a few meetings at different Afghan ministries, universities and NGO:s It is very interesting to visit Afghan institutions. Often they have rather spacious offices, partly because they don’t have that much furniture. Although all the offices I visited had desks, chairs and laptops. Often it is very difficult to find the person you look for, even though you have an appointment. There are often no signs or listings on where to find people. Fortunately there are always a lot of people around to ask. Unfortunately the often have no idea about where to find the person you look for. Sometimes it is a little difficult not to start laughing. Not at the persons themselves n. b.!! They are all very nice and friendly and helpful and, I am sure, doing their best under very difficult circumstances. What makes me want to laugh is the enormous difference to offices in Sweden and how absurd it somehow seems. In every office you meet a lot of people who just seem to linger in the hallways. Often they look as if they had been sleeping in the street, a bit dirty and rugged, some limping, many missing teeth or having very black teeth. Some of the old men in beard and traditional clothing look as if they would be hundred years old and you really wonder what they do there. Maybe many don’t really do much there, maybe they just do linger.

On the other hand there are a lot of people doing different kind of services. It is a huge difference between the people you meet in the corridors and the ones we meet in the meetings. The ones we meet are all better dressed, healthier looking (although some of them also miss teeth) are well educated, often abroad and speak good English. You also notice a very big difference in hierarchy. The guys (they are all men!!) that we meet seem to have an army of office attendants. Whenever they want something they just call, or even ring a bell! And immediately there is someone at the door, ready to bring some more tea, get some documents or make a copy. You will not find any like that in a Swedish office!

When you ask someone for the way to someone they often point in some direction only for you to meet someone there who sends you back. Often they even choose to walk with you, even though they don’t know where to go, they just walk with you and do the asking for you. So not only do the traffic situation often make you come to late to the meetings, the walking around on huge office areas delays you even more.

The Kabul University area was also huge! But it was actually very nice. It is the greenest place I have seen so far in Afghanistan. It is in a huge lush park. Of cause the buildings are quite run down and the equipment and furniture is really nothing like we are used to, but the area was very nice. The professor in geology that we met was contemplating the situation of his country compared to what he had seen in Europe (Germany) and disapprovingly wondered how long it would take for his country to get to 50 or maybe even 30% of the level we have in our countries. He looked a bit sad when he said that and I can understand him and felt that there was nothing we could say to cheer him up.

The News and the Reality

It is quite a strange situation to sit here in Kabul and hear the news about the violence in the southern part of the country. There are the hundreds of imprisoned Taliban that escaped prison in Kandahar the other day and there are the Afghan and international forces stepping up their offensive on Taliban strongholds to the level it almost sounds as outright war and there are news about people fleeing their homes in fear of the fighting. And here I sit in the capitol and it feels absolutely calm and safe. I was not nervous or afraid in March when I was here, but I felt the atmosphere was tenser then, now it feels more relaxed. This time I have not visited so many UN-organisations as last time, which might be one of the reasons why I find the situation more relaxed than last time. I haven’t had to pass as many as rigorous security checks and have met less nervous international staff.

I know it can be very deceptive. There have obviously been more serious rumours about attacks against Serena again, but here I sit looking out my window over the sun setting and casting a beautiful light over the hills. All I hear through my open window is the hum of the generator, some birds and in the distance the sounds of the city.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Mazar again and we will have to leave rather early which is not very great. As movements early in the morning is normally recommended to avoid. And the road to the airport is of cause a strategic target. But I am sure it will be no problem. This time we won’t be staying in the camp in Mazar, which is good. That means we will be able to see some of the city and hopefully we will also be able to go on some visit to the field.

Fancy Kabul - Fancy Germany

Well I continue to investigate the German-Afghan connection.

Maybe not in a very serious way, because there are of cause many serious connections too, but they are far less fun to write about. (Although the German police officers staying at the hotel seem very nice and the professors from the Kabul University faculty of Geology we met with today, seemed very happy to have a cooperation with the University of Bonn). I like much better to write about the fun, weird and unexpected.



Already the last time I was here I noted all the old German tourist busses cruising the streets of Kabul and I believe also the roads of the rest of the country. Today, just outside the university, I saw a lot of them again. One of them had the olympic rings painted on it. We laughed and asked ourselves from what olympic games those were. Then we realised they, and the bus, are probably from Munich 1972!! I had to make a picture of the bus!

When I arrived to Kabul i noticed I had forgotten to pack a hair brush. I thought it must be possible to buy on at such a fancy hotel as the Serena, but they had none. Of cause they offered to send someone out to buy one for me, but I felt that was asking a little too much. I just could not see myself sending someone out to buy a hairbrush for me. But after having tried to untangle my hair with the weak plastic comb provided in the hotel bathroom for two days, I realised I have to get a hair-brush or I will either look like a troll or have no hair at all at the end of the week.

Today we had some time after the meeting and anyway had to go into the Safi Landmark (another bubble, by the way) to get some money from the ATM. There they had a lot of cosmetics shops so I went in to one and asked for a hair brush. The first one he offered me was light blue and had terribly sharp brushes. I realised that would probably make my scalp bleed and asked if he hadn't any other. He said he would get one and sent a young boy out of the shop to get one. I suppose he just went over to the shop next door and that they are all cooperating and therefore it would be no point in going somewhere else. After a couple of minutes he came back with two brushes. The one was a round brush and that I didn't wnat. The other was actually rather fantastic. It was baby pink, with some gold details and golden brushes!! I could not really see myself buying a gold and pink hair-brush, but I also could not see myself sending the guy away again, after all the extra effort! And I do need it and only for this week. I don't really even need to take it with me home, so I bought it.

Back at the hotel when I wanted to try it I noticed what was written on it. On the golden ribbon it says: Dancer professional!! Wow! I have a dancer's hair brush!!



Further down on the plastic handle it is written in white letters: Fancy Germany.

I am stunned! I don't have an explanation for that one!

But now I know I will definitely take it with me home and it will be a treasured souvenir!

Life in a Bubble

So, I am back in Kabul again. Somehow it feels both different and familiar at the same time, I can not really tell why. Ok, it is summer; it is warmer, greener, but also dustier. Statistically the security situation might have worsened, but I think it feels more relaxed. Maybe because it is my second time, I don’t know. I feel more relaxed and interact more with local people. Being here with a bigger delegation also makes it different, everything takes more time and more time is needed for coordination and briefings etc. It feels less efficient.

The biggest difference though is that we are staying in a very fancy hotel. We wanted to stay at the same guest house as last time, but it was fully booked. Then there was another hotel that was the second choice, but that too was full. Due to the security requirements and general standard then there are not so many choices left. Therefore we are staying at the Kabul Serena. It is VERY nice!


The view from my room.

The rooms are very big and comfortable; the service excellent, the food delicious and it has all facilities of a fancy hotel (pool, gym, spa, beauty salon etc). But somehow and quite honestly I can not really enjoy it. I find it feels very strange to live like that in a place like Kabul, with the immense poverty just out side the walls.


The pool area.

In here it is a completely different world, you really live in a bubble, in here you don’t even hear the noises of the city. You don’t hear the muezzin, the traffic and all the people shouting and yelling, although the hotel is right in the city centre. I also get a guilty conscience for living here. I feel I waste too much water in a country fighting draught, even though I try to be sparse. I feel bad about the constant supply of electricity because I know it is from a generator running constantly and I can see the dark cloud of diesel fumes coming out from it all day and night. Ok, the guest house as well as all who can afford it have a generator because of the poor electricity supply, but in the guest house the generator was not running constantly and I could tell when the normal power fell out and the generator started, here you never notice any black outs. Of course I hade a nice shower with hot water also in the guest house, but the flow of the water was less generous so it made you remember how scarce water is here and made you automatically take shorter showers. Here the water flows everywhere. Of course it is comfortable, but it feels wrong and it makes you almost forget where you are. I honestly would have preferred to stay at a more low key place.

Freezing in Dubai

So now I am sitting waiting for a long time at the Dubai International Terminal 2 again. It is no hit! There is really not much to do. We landed at terminal 1 shortly after one o’clock (night), took a taxi and are now sitting on hard wooden chairs waiting for the check-in desk to open. The flight is scheduled for 07:30. God knows when it actually will leave. It is now 04:00.

It is so ironic; Outside it is steaming hot, but inside it is freezing cold. I am wearing all my warm clothes and still freezing. Ok, we know you have AC, but can you please learn to regulate it?!?! Ok, it might also depend on the fact that I haven’t slept for ages. I am considering joining the Pakistanis and Afghanis who are waiting outside the terminal. Sometimes I wonder why I do this. Have I reached a point where I have had enough of travelling?!

It is also something of an irony to hear them play Swedish music at the airport with all the flights to places like Kabul, Luanda, Peshawar, Kandahar, Bagdad, Teheran, Kish, Mashad, Gheshem. For the first hour we were sitting here they played only Roxette.

I hope we won’t have as much delay as last time as I have a meeting already on Sunday afternoon and I really feel I could do with some sleep before that meeting.

However, this time I think I will really try to get a stopover here in Dubai on the way back and this time it might actually work out…

Über-international

Somethimes you need other peoples comments to get perspectiv on your own life. That happened to me today (actually even twice).

I was telling a friend of mine, that while passing Dubai on the way back from Kabul, I will to try to catch up with a German, who I met on the flight from Stockholm to Milano a couple of weeks ago and who is living in Dubai. My friend then replied by coining a new expression and said that my "über-international" way of life should be able to compensate for the miserable place where I live at the moment. Maybe she is right. I am not sure. But I kind of like the expression.
Über-international.

The Great Game

Anyone who takes an interest in the historical and political development of Afghanistan will come across the expression The Great Game or The New Great Game. It refers to the fight between Russia and Great Britain over influence over the region in the 19.th century or the struggle for power after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 respectively. The person accredited for coining the expression is normally Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim, although it was actually the British Captain Arthur Conolly and Kipling only made it more well-known.

Therefore I felt obliged to read Kim and I did a while ago. It was indeed interesting and exciting although the fact that it was written in rather archaic English made it a little hard to digest for me. However, I am now reading another book on the same theme that I can highly recommend to anyone interested in the matter.

It is Peter Hopkirk’s book “The Great Game; The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia”. This is not a novel but is the story about the real players of the Great Game, such as Arthur Conolly. It is more exciting than any spy or agent story. I don’t even think you have to be very interested in either history, politics or military or diplomatic matters, although it contains very interesting details on all those areas. It is truly enjoyable reading and I think you can enjoy it also simply as a fascinating agent story. It is also a proof of that fact often supersedes fiction.

Welcome Afghanistan!

Finally I saw on the cluster map in the margin, that someone in Afghanistan have been reading my blog. That makes me happy! Welcome!

While I was in Afghanistan myself I thought that me logging on to the blog would leave some traces, but it did not! But now finally someone there has found my blog. Please feel free to leave a comment!

I will be going to Afghanistan next week again so maybe soon there will be more posts from Afghanistan on this blog.

Italy

Just felt I wanted to post some pictures from my trip to Italy last week. Sorry for the poor quality, but as I currently do not have a camera, the pictures are taken with my mobile phone.


Florence



View from the dome



Ponte vecchio



The famous David (or at least a copy of him, believe the real one is now inside)



Green Rome

Time of Change for Zimbabwe?!

I only want to send a word to the brave people of Zimbabwe!! My heart is with you!

The news from Zim these days are deeply worrying, but also somehow exciting. Maybe this it the time for change!? I just hope Mugabe will not hit back hard and brutally as we know he is able to. Can not the old man see his time has come?! The time to step back and let his poor people free!? The country and the people deserves better!

More reading on Afghanistan

I feel there is actually no need to further promote Khaled Hoesseini's books as they are already rather well known and well read, but for anyone who is interested in Afghanistan and women's situation in Afghanistan in particular, I can recommend the author Siba Shakib. I am not quite sure about the English title of the book, but judging from the Swedish and the German it should be; To Afghanistan, "God only comes to cry." It is very special! Beautiful and cruel at the same time.

The language of the author is also very special. It is very beautiful, creative and fascinating. I read the book in Swedish as I kind of assumed that it was originally written in some language I do not understand, and that a translation into Swedish or English would not make a difference. Later I found out it is originally written in German! That made me want to read it again, in German, just to read the real words of the author and see how they translate. The only time I ever felt anything like that before, was when I read The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy. Then I first read it in English and was completely fascinated by the language and felt an urge to read it in Swedish as well, just to see how that text and those words could be translated. Havning thought of The God of Small Things while reading Shakib's book, I actually was not very surprised to read that Siba Shakib thanked Arundhati Roy in the postscript of the book. Rather a little proud that I noticed the likeness; I mean, I haven never thought of my self as any kind of expert on literature... I simply like to read, and I like languages and words.

The Kite Runner - The Movie

To night I watched the movie made from Khaled Hosseinis best selling book The Kite Runner.

I was a bit worried at first that I would get dissapointed, which is always a risk you take when you see a movie made from a book you liked. But I did not get dissapointed, not at all. I did also not get surprised, the film is true to the book. I can recommend it!

Maybe it is a bit confusing if you are not at all familiar with the recent history of Afghanistan, but I think you can still appreciate it. I saw it togheter with a friend who neither read the book nor is too familiar with the history of Afghanistan, but she appreciated and liked it too.

Me, Myself and I...

Yes I DID go to Afghanistan!!
And on request I am now posting some pictures of me wearing a shawl/head scarf. However you will not see me wearing a burqa, although I did get one, given to me as a gift, but I did not wear it. But I learnt that in Afghanistan they, at least some, actually call it "buqra"!! I wonder how and where we got it wrong?! I also tried to find out why almost all burqas/buqras are light blue, but without success. I believe they simpliy think it is a nice colour.




With a tank in the Pansjir Valley, next to Massouds tomb.



With some more military paraphernalia, outside the camp in Mazar.



On TV-hill, with Kabul in the background.



In front of the bombed-out royal palace in Kabul.



At the market, in one of the villages we passed on our trip up the Pansjir Valley.

Germany in Afghanistan

It is sometimes funny to see how things from one place show up in another place where you really would not expect it. For example I was quite surprised to find the lorry from Skara in Pisco, Peru.

Maybe less surprising, but still quite funny were all the German tourist busses in Kabul. Not tourist busses in the sense that German tourists were travelling to Kabul by bus, no these busses had made their journey on their own and were now in use as transport between cities. The funny thing was that they were still in original paint with the German company name painted on the side or “Ferienreisen” in large letters all over. The best ones were the ones that had had to be repainted by one reason or another and when doing that the Afghans who most likely did not know any German at all spelt it all rather, well let’s say, creatively….

On leaving Afghanistan I also noticed another sign of German influence. In my passport!!
Maybe that is actually not so strange, as I know the Germans are supporting training of the Afghan police and security sector reform. But somehow one could think they could have provided them with new stamps instead of giving them old German ones. So now I have in my passport two stamps from Kabul International Airport showing entry on the 12 and exit on the 20 “März” 2008!!

Travelling from the Couch

I have just done something I very rarely (never?) do. I have just re-read a book.
When I was at my parent’s place for Easter I found Åsne Seinerstads book The Bookseller of Kabul. I read it when it was quite new and liked it. At that time of course I never knew I would go to Afghanistan, even though I have always wanted to travel to that part of the world. Now I thought it could be interesting to read the book again, after having been there myself. It was. It definitely gave another dimension to it. I recognised a lot of the things, places and situations she described. But I could also better understand something else. The author has been criticised for the way she treated the family in the book; for putting words and thoughts in their mind that she could not know about etc. That is also something that I have been thinking about when writing on my blog. Of course my blog is not by far read by as many people as her books, and my blog is mostly for showing friends and family what I am up to, but as anyone can go in there, I still have tried to show respect and to be careful when choosing the pictures to post and about not mentioning names and sites etc. That is one of the reasons I did not post any of the pictures that I took at my driver’s home and the reason I haven’t given his full name etc.

The movie based on the book The Kite Runner went up on cinemas in Sweden this weekend. I liked the book and think I would like to see the film, but still I am afraid to get disappointed. I am afraid the feeling and atmosphere I got when reading the book will be difficult to capture in a film. And the trailers I have seen on it has seemed a bit “flat” to me. But maybe I will still have to see it. Anyone who has seen it and can recommend or comment on it?!

Culture Shock!

So, now I am back in Sweden again, got back yesterday. It feels ok. My luggage got stuck in Vienna. Of course! My luggage always gets stuck in Vienna. I think I will try to avoid transit in Vienna in the future. It now has arrived in Stockholm, but will not get from there to The Small Town until Monday because it is Easter! Anyway I went directly to my parents’ place to avoid spending more time in The Small Town than is absolutely necessary.

From Kabul we flew to Dubai again, and even though we had some problems with the customs because of the flak jackets, we had quite a lot of time between our flights. My colleague’s brother lives in Abu Dhabi and works and he came and picked up together with a cousin who lives in Dubai. They took us out for dinner on the town, very nice! They took us to a big shopping mall, not too far away from the airport, by Dubai creek. It was quite some difference from Kabul! I somehow felt it a little difficult to grasp, that on the same day I had lunch in a clay hut in a dusty street in Kabul and in the evening I had dinner on this terrace in a glitzy, shiny, all gold, marble (fake!) and crystal shopping mall, overlooking the yachts in the harbour in Dubai. It was very nice. I loved the place and all the beautiful people frequenting it, but it somehow also felt completely absurd. That huge difference in wealth and lifestyle only separated by a two hours flight. Completely absurd! And as my colleague and I had not had the time to change clothes we felt very dusty and dirty in that shiny environment.

Landing in Sweden did not make the culture shock less. Here it was a snow storm when I arrived! Flying is definitely a fantastic way of travelling, but sometimes I wonder if it is not too fast. Sometimes I would prefer to let the transport take some time to let my mind adjust slowly and to digest all the impressions on the way.

I will soon post pictures from my trip to Afghanistan here on the blog. I will just have to sort them out first and get back to my own computer and the photo software I am used to. So just stay tuned!

Nauroz Mubarak!

My last day in Kabul I managed to do some more sightseeing before going to the airport. I suppose any security adviser would say that what I did is exactly what you should not do, but when it is only about me, myself and I, I like to do my own security assessments and this far that has always worked out well. I am careful, not afraid!

The recommendations was to stay away from the Nauroz celebrations and big public crowds as these can be a very soft target for insurgents, terrorists and/or criminals, but I had discussed the plans of the day yesterday with my driver and he came and picked me up a little earlier and took me to see how the Kabulis celebrate new year. Well, the few of them that were left. He meant that 25% of the people in Kabul had already left for Mazar, which is the place to be on Nauruz. So the streets were fairly empty and quite. Those who were left took it up the hills and the mountains, on all the hills in and around Kabul you could see a lot of people. My driver took me to Bibi Maru Hill.

Already from a distance you can tell that there is something wrong and weird with the hill. It is not very high and has a flat top. There are no buildings on it and hardly a road worth the name going up to the top; still you see from a distance a big diving board on top of the hill. It belongs to an Olympic sized pool that the Russians built, but that hardly ever had any water in it because of the difficulties to pump water up to the top of a hill.

During the war they found an alternative use for the diving board; as an execution site. Then I must say I think they found better use for it now.


When we came up to the top of the hill we saw a big crowd of people on the bottom of the empty pool, there was music and there was dancing, lot of kids were climbing the diving board; the pool was turned into a spot for party and celebration!




There were a lot of people everywhere; everyone dressed up in their best clothes. Between two of the old deserted, rusting, Russian tanks was a man selling colourful balloons! Quite an absurd thing!




From the hill we could look down at another party site; a cemetery! My driver, Khan, asked me if I wanted to go there. First I was hesitating. Not so much for security reasons, but more for the fact that it felt a little bit as showing up at a party you are not invited to, and being the only westerner by far, I easily attracted attention and kids quickly started asking for “one dollar, please mister, one dollar”. But I understood that my driver wanted to go there; and from the hill he had pointed out the house where he is living, so I understood that this is his home ground. That was one factor that convinced me to let him take me there (another of course my notorious curiosity). I decided not to look upon my self as an uninvited stranger, but as a guest from overseas, invited by my driver to his neighbourhood, then it felt better. That also made me able to move around more relaxed, it also meant I had someone who could translate for me and tell me what was the right behaviour and when it was ok to take pictures etc.

It was an interesting and fascinating experience, walking around among the tombstones and mausoleums, seeing people setting up their picnics between the headstones, vendors selling everything from tea and snacks to kites and toys.



There was also a man-driven merry-go-around.




There was something else that was also wrong with the mountain. Looking up the hill from the cemetary one could see a big bomb crater.



After a while I felt it was time to get going. I had made plans to have lunch with my colleague at the guest house before taking off to the airport, and my colleague also did not know what I was up to so I thought we’d better get moving. The Khan asked me if he could invite me to see his home and meet his family. I was completely surprised, I had not expected that. I did not really know what to answer as I realised this was an honour and I was flattered, I knew Khan was Pashtun and I had read and heard a lot of the Pashtu hospitality, but at the same time I knew we were short of time. I asked Khan how long it would take us and he assured me that we would have time, so we went there.

We drove along the bumpy dirt tracks of the narrow alleys between the mud walls that are hiding all houses in Kabul until we stopped in front of a green gate. The gate was opened by a young boy and we drove into the yard. The compound consisted of three or four connected houses around yards, one of them had a small garden. It was all very simple, but very clean and tidy. In the dusty environment I guess they have to sweep the yard, the paths and the floors several times a day. I met the mother and the father of Khan, his younger sister and a sister in law and a bunch of nephews and nieces. I immediately felt very welcome and they all looked happy to see me there. Only the sister in law could speak a few words in English and welcomed me to Afghanistan. So did the father and the mother in Khan’s translation. The women and the children all rushed up to me to shake my hand, but not the father. I knew this could be the case and I am think I did well not to expect that and also to put my hand to the chest and greet him that way, it somehow came automatically and I did not feel less welcomed by him because of this. He was a very dignified man with a magnificent black beard. Later Khan told me that he is an attorney and a member of the parliament. The women and children were all very excited to have me there and showed me in to the living room. First I was invited to sit on the floor, but then someone objected and showed me to the next room where there was a low table with a sofa and three chairs. I believe sitting there was regarded as better than sitting on the floor. The sister in law brought her six months baby and gave him to me to hold.

I was asked if I wanted food or some tea. In a combination of not wanting to cause them a lot of work, shortage of time and a fear of being served something that I could not eat, I answered that I had lunch waiting for me at the guest house and that I only wanted some tea. But nevertheless the sister came in with a jug of water, a washing bowl, and a towel and she poured water over my hands over the washing bowl so I could wash my hands. Then a big sheet of naan bread was divided between me and Khan, a big tray of rice, a bowl of meat stew, some spinach and fresh vegetables were put on the table and voila; lunch was served. I felt a little bit awkward, both because I did not really knew how do deal with this, but I just looked at what Khan did and did the same, and because the others were not eating but only watching us and also I could not help wondering if this food would make me sick, mostly because I did not know about the quality of the water they had. But I found the food looking very fresh and nice, and I though that even if it would make me sick, this was my last day and hopefully I would make it back home before it broke out. I only stayed away from the uncooked vegetables but ate from the rest and it was delicious! However, we could not stay for too long but had to go back to get my colleague and the luggage and go to the airport. Before we left Khan also presented me with one of his works, a portrait of a man framed with flower patterns and calligraphy. Very nice! Before we left I took a picture of the family, unfortunately not with the father, but Khan and the women and children and his sister also wanted to be photographed together with me.

I am so happy my driver invited me to his home and I am so happy I went there! It is so important to meet real people when one is out travelling, maybe especially in my work and in a country as Afghanistan. Otherwise it is easy that one start to look at everyone as a presumptive insurgent or a terrorist or a victim or some one in need of help and assistance, but of course the big majority is normal people like we. Seeing the preparations for the Nauroz celebrations and when Khan asked me what kind of holidays we celebrate I also started thinking about the similarities between our cultures. I told Khan that in Sweden we will celebrate Easter this weekend, at the same time as they are celebrating Nauroz, and just the way the Afghans have painted eggs and were playing egg fights for Nauroz, we have painted eggs for Easter and in some parts of Sweden I know they have egg fights too, as well as I know, eggs are en essential part of celebrations in other countries and cultures too at this time of the year. I guess it all have something to do with celebrating the arrival of spring and the spring equinox and such, and that it all goes much further back in the history of humankind than both Islam and Christianity. That makes me wonder what all the fuss is about! Why can’t we just accept that we are all humans with the same needs, hopes and wishes and try not to focus so much on what differs?

Kabul Sightseeing

Oh, today was a great day!!
We only had two meetings booked as it is a semi holyday (tomorrow it is Nawroz and the birthday of the prophet), first a lunch meeting with a NGO, then at five, another meeting. Between that I was trying to get a meeting with someone I met in Mazar, but as he did not pick up, I had a gap in the schedule the whole afternoon. My colleague had caught a cold and felt he could not attend the first meeting and asked if it was ok that I went on my own, which it of course was. As the meeting was with a NGO they had far less security restrictions and that felt really refreshing. And as the persons I was meeting was one Afghan man and a Tadjik woman it felt very natural and relaxed. After the meeting in their office they invited me for lunch in the Serena Hotel. That was also very nice. After the shootings there in January, internationals seem to avoid the place, but it was nice to see it and it is a very nice hotel, a world apart from the life outside the walls. Since the shootings they have rebuilt the entrance and now it is basically a fortress!


Kabul Serena Hotel


After lunch the lunch they offered to take me back to the guest house, but I already had other plans in mind than going back to sit there the rest of the day so I called my own driver. First I asked him to take me to the Safi Landmark as I knew there it would be a cash machine and I needed to withdraw some more money. He let me off outside the entrance and said he would park around the corner. I thought the Safi Landmark was just a hotel that had a cash machine in the lobby, but it turned out to also be a quite modern shopping mall! Very surprising! I had to walk quite a bit into the mall and then I started questioning whether this was a smart thing; walking all alone in a shopping mall to get money, quite a lot of money, that I would have to carry with me all alone again. But it felt safe and I was very aware of whom and what was moving around me. Unfortunately this made me not look into the shops very much. Had I known this was a shopping mall, I would have planned for staying on a while. When I came out I did not see the car and the driver, which made me a little nervous; I mean there are people being robbed after having withdrawn money in Sweden too! But then I saw him just a bit further down the street and walked there. Well walked and walked, more zig zaging between cars and jumping over puddles and deep ditches. Anyhow this started get me going and once in the car again I asked the driver if we could go for a trip somewhere nice and still safe.

He seemed to think this was a good idea and suggested the TV-hill. That is a hill in the middle of the city from where you have a fantastic view over the whole city. That was fantastic!


On the way up to TV hill.


The old city wall climbing up the hills over the Kabul river.


View from the tv-hill.


As the hill is basically in the centre of ths city you have views in all direcions.








From there we went to the Old Town, through very narrow “streets” lined with market stalls and people preparing for the holiday parties tomorrow.

I realised I was probably violating a million security regulations and recommendations, I was out on my own, in an un-armoured car, with a driver I do not know very well (but trusted!) driving in areas I don’t know, getting caught in crowds and traffic jams and also carrying quite a lot of money on me (of which the driver was aware!). But I felt safe!! I felt much safer going through the crowded market with people everywhere than driving past the heavily fortified ISAF-HQ.



On the streets of Old Kabul






The people that we met and that we had some interaction with, seemed very nice and did not mind a lonely foreign woman coming around. In the old town we left the car and entered into some narrow alley. It was rather dirty and smelly; you could see the open sewers running across the path. My guide showed me a tomb of two people, he could not really explain who they were, but I understood it as it being a man and a woman that were in love but somehow were killed and now people went there to pray and my driver, who is a trained designer told me that he and his teacher had made the decorations in the ceiling. There was also another tomb next to this one but that one was only for women so I had to go in alone.

It was all a rather moving experience. At the same time as we were there an old woman was also there. When I first saw her, she was sitting in the stair and shivering, I thought she was sick or “mad” but when she managed to get up I saw she was so badly bent she made a 90 degree angle. This is a very poor part of Kabul, very far from the Serena hotel! A young boy was handing out dried chick peas and sultanas. At first he did not give any to me, but then someone said something to him and very shy and blushing he gave me some. I said “tashakhor” and he blushed even more. My driver explained those are alms that they give out because they pray for something special. Again I was in one of those culturally and socially sensitive moments. An extremely poor person gives something edible to me, who am just so much more affluent than him, and in this case as an alms. There was no way I could refuse to accept that and also it would be very rude to not eat it and throw it away. At the same time I was thinking about the open sewers just outside. I ate one pea and one sultana as the boy saw and then on the way out of the tomb and on the way into the other I asked the driver to hold them for me under the pretence I needed both hand to remove my shoes before entering the tomb. Good eh!?

After that we went up a couple of other hills and saw a few cemeteries and I learned that those are popular pick nick sites for the Nawroz celebrations, especially the one close to the lake; Shohada-ye Salehin. This could have been an absolutely stunningly beautiful place with the high mountains in the background over the lake, were it not for the amount of dirt and rubbish in the water. We saw the old citadel and the grave of the old king and the Gazni stadium and the buzkashi ground. When I was told about the buzkashi ground I told my driver I like horses and used to ride a lot. Then he said “come, let’s have a look at the horses” and turned the car into a winding dirt track behind some buildings, I think it was stables. On the ground behind the stables there were some people practising buzkashi!!

I got completely excited! I never thought I would get the chance to see that and here I was on the training ground of the Kabul team!!


It was so fascinating! I could have stayed there a long time and watch.

Had it not been for the fact that we had another meeting and that I would not have time to go back and change clothes before the meeting I most probably would have accepted the offer made by some of the managers sitting on the side watching the game.


When they heard I could ride a horse they offered me to borrow one and one of the men was already on his way into the stable to get one for me before I could say that I will have to come back and try that. Just imagine how cool wouldn’t that be! To ride a buzkashi horse in Kabul!! I am not sure I would be able to manage one and I would most definitely not join the game, but it would have been cool just to have a try to ride one!! This was a great after noon!! I think the driver also liked it as he offered me to go somewhere tomorrow too, before he takes us to the airport. We’ll see what we can manage. It could get a bit messy tomorrow as it is a big holiday.

This evening we had dinner in a restaurant on town, which was also nice. The food at the guest house is very nice, but it is just nice to get out some too and see some other sides of the town.

Kabul Lives..

I am now back in Kabul again. It feels good to be able to take a good proper shower and to be able to close the door behind you for some privacy, but at the same time I kind if liked to be on the camp and it almost felt a little bit sad to leave, I can imagine what it feels like for those who stay there for six months.

It is a bit frustrating though not to be able to go out more. A part from our meetings I haven't been anywhere on the town. And that there are a very different side was just shown to me on the tv. I guess the program is still running, but we just had a power black out so I can not see it. Anyway, it was a program on Al Jazeera (fantastic channel!!) on heroin addicts in Kabul. Because not only is Afghanistan the worlds biggest producer ob heroin (opium) but the number of users has increased a lot the last couple of years.

I guess the life of heroin addicts living on the street is not very nice anywhere, imagine that what it looked like in a place like Kabul... It was truly horrible pictures, so depressing.

The whole trip here has been very rewarding. We have met a lot of interesting people and recived a lot of information and input. At the same time it is depressing and a bit discouraging. I never thought anything here would be easy, but still... where the hell to start?!?

Security Matters

It is diffucult to say how safe or how dangerous Afghanistan is. Generally I don't feel insecure or afraid here and all the security measures mostly feels annoying and irritating. But on the other hand, it felt a bit scary when we on our way to the airport passed the crater in the road where a suicide bomb killed seven people the day before.
And yesterday I was asked if I wanted to join one of the Swedish MOTs on a patrol to three villages together with the commanding officer, which I of course agreed to as it was a bit frustrating to be stuck at the camp and not seeing anything and would be very interesting to get out and see something else. But at the morning brief just before we should take off, we were informed about a Dutch NGO being shot at not so far away and onw person got killed. The MOT had to change their plan and go to the police instead and we stayed in the camp. It is so tragic.
Today we went back to Kabul and on the way from the aiport I was considering the modus operandi of the attackers and thought about how easy it would be for a MC to drive up next to us and just shoot into the car and, we were not in a armoured car.
At the same times it feel so wrong to isolate one self from everyting around and how can the international commonity ever win the respect and confidence of the people that way? But how can you do any proper work if you risk being killed any time? It is a real catch 22 situation..

In Mazar

Now moved up north to Mazar e Sharif. If I thougt Kabul was dusty, that is nothing against what it is like here, and then we are not even in the dry season!!

I have not been able to see much of the place as we are staying in the Swedish PRT camp and having our meetings here, but we did go out on a patrol around the area this morning. It was a quite surreal experience (as most things here are!). We were walking with four armed Swedish guards, one armed German guard and a bunch of Icelandic journalists and representatives from the Icelandic foreign ministry. That of course caused quite a commotion when we came to a school. There we were invited to go in by the headmaster.

The kids went wild. So wild that another headmaster or teacher started throwing small stones on the kids to get them back into school again!!
This was a school for both girls and boys although they went at different times (boys in the morning and girls in the afternoon) but it is clear that the segregation and differntiation between the sexes starts at an very early age. The girls were clearly thought to stay in the background!! Sad...



Some kids were more keen on being in the fore ground than others. This little boy wanted me to take his picture. I did. Once.



But then he kept coming back.



And even if I actually wanted to take a photo of something else, he just showed up in the picture anyway...



In the end he seemed to be everywhere...

The Panjshir Valley

Had a very interesting day going up the Panjshir valley today.


It was really a very complex and strange feeling. The valley is extremely beautiful, it was now only starting to get a little green and we saw some cherry blossoms and other flowers, but in a couple of weeks it will most probably be absolutely stunningly beautiful.


The high snow covered mountains of the Hindu Kush in the background, the bubbling stream along the winding road, steep slopes falling down almost horizontally into the valley, every somewhat flat area covered with clay buildings and terraced fields. In the villages the road are lined with small shops and markets and people everywhere, although it is somehow difficult to understand how they can survive there.

At the same time this is one of the areas where the fighting between the Soviet and the mujaheddin was most severe. This is the land of the Lion of the Panjshir, of Ahmad Shah Massoud.


Every where you see pictures of him, on shops, on cars, on the walls of houses and it is here you find his tomb that is a site of pilgrimage for many Afghanis still. At the same time others of course see him as a slaughter.

In the middle of all the serene beauty there are loads of carcasses of old soviet tanks.


They are everywhere, in the fields and in the river, sometimes they are used as road fill or road support!

Completely absurd! And often you see men, and young children carrying guns. We stopped at a small town along the road to buy some kebab and naan and to use the facilities (that is a hole in the ground within clay walls closed off with a wooden door that was about to fall in any time). While stopping there we took a short walk for some 50-100 metres. A bit further up the river we spotted a young boy, maybe 12 years old with a gun. Then we thought it might be a good idea to turn back to the cars. But the boy was coming closer and after a while was circling around the car, sometimes pointing his gun. It made us a little nervous. Later we could confirm that it was actually an air gun, but it is really hard to tell from a distance and especially in a country where guns are so abundant. On the way we passed shops making and selling guns.

Somehow you could feel the history here. Only the names, Panjshir valley, Hindu Kush etc are so loaded with mystery and magic, so often heard of in reports of war and politics. And knowing that this is such an important pass through the Hindu Kush that already Alexander the Great used in his conquests. At the same time it is hard to imagine how any mechanised army could come up with the idea to try to occupy a country like this one.



The local holiday past time; walking and rocking the rope bridge.

One additional perspective to our trip was the two very different background of our two drivers. The one being tajik from the area, being very happy to go here and for whom Massoud seemed to be a big hero. The other one a pashtun, who also had spent some time in the area, but then fighting on the Soviet side. That was the man driving the car I was in and he seemed cool about being there again and did not mind talking about it, but it is hard to know what is going on inside and it was difficult for us to know if it was ok to talk and ask about this when they both were around. It is indeed a complex country.

First Day in Kabul

So now I survived my first whole day in Kabul!
Well I suppose that is nothing one should joke about. Already at breakfast we were told by the staff at the guest house that there had been a suicide attack at the airport road. The attack was directed towards an US army convoy, but killed nine civilian Afghans. Of cause the airport road is a popular target, that is the only road to and from the airport and that is where all the westerners go every now and then. True to the general trend this suicide attack took place early in the morning. It is horrible to say, but maybe I should be grateful that it happened today. That might make it less likely that it will happen already again in Saturday (in the morning!) when we are off to Mazar or any of the other days we will be travelling to and fro the airport.

Despite this I strangely do not feel insecure here. Of cause I don’t really believe that is in my nature to feel insecure from outer threats and of cause you can not think about the risk of you being blown to pieces any minute, but I did not feel uncomfortable. The thing I felt the most though is the stress that the insecure situation cause. Everywhere there are guards, armed with automatic weapons and you see a lot of heavily armed police and some military and there are plenty of road blocks and check points that I can imagine get rather annoying after a while. There are a nervousness in the air, everyone seem to get nervous if the car stops a little too long and if you hold a little too long outside a certain building or take up the camera in the wrong place. The most surreal thing though is actually the huge amount of those gigantic white armoured Land cruisers rushing along the narrow and crowded streets. They look so absurd in this setting they could just as well come from another planet. I am actually glad we don’t have one and as I thought we have not been wearing the flak jackets!

It is not advisable to go out to take photos in the street so I wanted to try to get some snapshots from the car, but as our driver is trained in defensive driving he does everything to avoid stopping which made making pictures very difficult. One of our meetings was a little bit out of the city, there we could stop and take a short walk and even take some pictures of the old bombed out royal palace, but still you had to be careful because there are obviously some ISAF offices near by and they might think you are photographing them. The whole area around the castle, except the newly built ministry buildings, was completely levelled to the ground. My colleague told me this used to be a part of the city, but a part that has been completely destroyed. When he was here in 2003 there were still all ruins, but they are now removed.

You still see a lot of ruins in the city, but it is difficult to tell if they are destroyed by war, fighting or just very poorly built. The surrounding hills are completely jotted by small brick boxes climbing the slopes. I don’t want to think about what they would look like after an earthquake! The general impression of the city, apart from the weird security stress, is poverty, sandy colours and dust, a lot of dust, and then I can imagine this is still nothing compared to what it is like in the midst of summer. I am also a surprised to see more women without burqas in the streets than I thought. First after the Taliban fell I would have guessed all women would get rid of the burqa. Since I have learned that the burqa has a longer and stronger tradition and that quite a few women continued wearing it, for different reasons. Then I had heard I should not expect to see many women at all in the streets. So, due to this my expectations were rather low. Therefore I am positively surprised to see more women than expected and many of them very smartly dressed, in bright colours and only with a shawl thrown lightly over the hair. On the way back from the meeting out of town we passed the markets along the Kabul river and there was a heavy traffic jam that we got caught in, not good from a security perspective, but good from a street life study perspective.

Tomorrow is Friday and holyday here, which means we will not be able to hold any meetings. Therefore we have been offered the great opportunity to join some of the embassy staff on a trip to the Panshir Valley. I look very much forward to that!!

At the Airport...again

Well, getting out of Dubai was not easy! When my wake up call rang at four o clock I had just about fallen asleep and felt like anything but going out of bed. No matter, got up and got ready, met my colleague and took a taxi to the airport. Not the nice fancy airport we arrived to from Europe, but to a much smaller terminal where all the flights to nice places like Kabul, Kandahar, Peshawar, Bagdad and Teheran leave from.



Take a pick for your next tourist destination!

We had to be there two hours in advance so we arrived at five for the flight that was supposed to leave at seven. Therefore we were not thrilled to learn it was delayed until ten. We considered to go back to the hotel, but as we did not really feel sure about the flow of information we stayed. It was a long stay. First they said nothing, they it was 11:30, at 12 we boarded and then sat one more hour in the plane before take off. We taxed for so long I was almost wondering if we were about the drive to Kabul.
The whole flying experience was quite interesting. Just watching the kinds of people who travel to those places is truly fascinating and can keep you busy for a long time. Especially I was wondering about a big group of Bosnian men in their 50.s. And also flying Pamir Airways was an interesting experience, if not recommendable for people who are afraid of flying. The food was good though!

Bright Big City Lights

Haven’t seen much of Dubai, but already love it. I simply love big, modern cities in hot climates. Love Bangkok, Shanghai, Manila… and Dubai?? What the hell am I doing in the shitty Small Town??

Maybe I should try to get a stopover here on the way back…

What I don’t like however is to have to get up at four o clock in the morning again. Especially as it is now 1.30 local time and I have lost three hours and can not sleep…

Work and travel

Sometimes I find it frustrating to travel in my work. Ok, it takes me places I would most probably not go to if it was not for my work. On the other hand it makes me get a taste of places but never gives me the opportunity to really explore them the way I would like to.

More or less for fun I have been reading the Lonely Planet guide over Afghanistan, although I know we will not have time nor opportunity to be tourists. The way the guide describe things make you sometimes oversee the hassle to go there and the risks and the non existent infrastructure etc and you feel you would really like to travel the country. We also seem to get there in interesting times. Now is the last month of the Afghan year and we are approaching Nauroz, the Afghan new year. I think we will actually be I in Kabul then. According to Lonely Planet that is a time for festivities all over Kabul, the last buzkashi game of the season is taking place as well as kite running festival. It sounds so exciting. I’d love to go out to see it! But I am afraid I will be locked up in the IMF guest house or in meeting in different UN compound I could imagine trying to cover up as well as I can and try to find me a driver and a guide to take me there, but I can see the face of the embassy staff if I would mention it to them and I am not sure the consultant with whom I will be working will fancy the idea either. (Or maybe he would, he has been working in Afghanistan before.) And generally I don’t think most people would see this being a good idea, as Nauroz, as well as other holidays is also an occasion when insurgents and attacks generally increase…

Stupid people with a strange idea of fun!!

At the Airport

Airports are interesting places. Right now I am at Copenhagen airport waiting for my connection to Frankfurt, so I will see plenty of them today. I spend some of the time looking at people and trying to figure out where they come from and where they are going. The ones coming back from Thailand are easy ones. Not only because they are suntanned, but the way they dress reveals them from other holiday travellers and the final proof is the orchids they are carrying somewhere on their clothes or bags (which also proovs that they travel Thai Airways).
If someone would try to do the same thing with me, I think I am a hard nut to crack. Not that I know what a Swede going to Kabul, via Dubai looks like, but I don't think I would have spotted me. The flak jackes I have checked in and the two satellite phones and other strange stuff I am carrying does not really show.

I am not sure if I will have time to wrtite from this journey, but if not there will be a report here afterwards. Inshallah!

Entertaining Reading

The other day I was searching some literature on Afghanistan on the internet, when I stumbled on something I did not expect. I found the Lonely Planet Afghanistan, issued 2007!! That is so unreal!! The country no one wants to go to (recruiting for Afghanistan is pretty hard) and when you tell people you are going there they think you are crazy, then you find it presented in a guide book as any normal country!! I mentioned this to your security advisor as a joke more or less, and then another colleague, overhearing us, simply picks the very book up from her desk!! Now I have it at my place and have started reading it. It is great! It makes Afghanistan seem like a normal country for tourism.

Although it is sometimes a little too harsh; most of the literature on Afghanistan is mostly political or somehow analytical, but here they just show a picture of a boy and a girl in a poppy field with the text: “cutting and scraping opium poppy in Badakhshan”. Not a word on child labour or Afghanistan being the world’s largest opium producer. Or under a picture of a truck full of burning cargo driven down into a river you find a text calling it “Firefighting Afghan style”. Hmmm, when you know something about the status of the rescue services in the country it is a bit difficult to find it picturesque.

Although the book is sometimes funny. Still I have to say; I find it hard to read Lonely Planet and take it seriously after having read “Molvania”.