Day 11 Around the Houses

My 8 year old son Jacob asked me today what is Afghanistan like? I guess it must be hard to picture what it is like in Afghanistan, so a good question from an 8 year old.

The first thing is that despite a war between soldiers of the Afghan government and lots of other armies on one side and insurgents/terrorists/armed opposition groups on the other life seems to carry on. The roads are busy with cars, motorbikes, yellow and white taxis, chinese solid iron bicycle and lots of traffic policemen trying to take charge of the chaos. There are lots of little shops and shacks selling anything from tins of Fanta to decorations.

The main roads are quite good and have tarmac but the side roads are muddy and rutted. There is a lot of construction going on from apartment blocks to ubiquitous 'wedding halls' which are giant glass structured edifices that appear to be 10 stories tall, sometimes with a shopping mall below. They have very large signs and are set back in gardens. As you might guess there is a lot of money in Kabul just now - I guess the symptoms of a war economy, an aid boom and the profits from the opium trade.

In terms of 'the war' the evidence is there: policemen carry machine guns, restaurants have two sets of locked metal doors so that you are locked in an ante-chamber before going in, where a man with an AK47 frisks you before letting you through the second door. There are armed Afghan soldiers as well as policemen in the centre. All important buildings have concrete blocks in front of their large walls to prevent car bombs and suicide attacks.

The people show the diversity of the Afghan heritage, some look like they are from Pakistan, some look like Iranians and some look Chinese. They are 99.9% Muslim whatever their ethnic group. There are lots of Mosques and every so often the call to prayer blasts from loudspeakers in the Minarets, the only sound that competes with the stray dogs barking.

What else? Helicopters flying overhead in pairs, mountains in the distance surrounding the city, every house and property is demarcated by a large (dunno 12') wall with a gate. Stray cats and dogs, dust everywhere except when it rains. With the rain the dust settles into mud and the city brightens up as the grey-palour of constant dust is washed down.

The most striking is the sense of space, buildings and properties have large grounds and the main throughfares are very wide. I'll see if the weekend will allow for some photographs.