Zoo story

Some days ago there were rumors going around Kabul about another “successful” operation near Kandahar: lots of civilians had been killed again. First it seemed that NATO agrees to take responsibility for couple of deaths. But now they accept officially that they have been killed 12 innocent persons. But afghans talk about 30-80 deceased.
Next morning we decide with Andres’s colleague Stephen to go to the Kabul Zoo. I am a little bit frightened about the last news. Maybe some citizens of Kabul will take revenge on us? Fortunately it seems that nobody looks angrily at us. At least not in open.
I enter the zoo with some prejudices, because I have heard sad stories about Kabul Zoo. Reality seems sunnier: the old and uglier part of zoo is in ruins. Last summer we visited Riga Zoo in Latvia. The gardens look quite similar. Lions, bears, macacos and antelopes live in a large slab of land surrounded with water. Old star of Kabul Zoo, lion Marion, is now dead. But instead there is couple of new lions. Six bears climb on stumpy logs.
I was a dedicated aquarium keeper at home. Before we arrived to Kabul I sadly gave away my old scalars. It is nice to see the new aquarium house in the zoo: the aquariums seem to be clean and tropical fish are in good condition.
It was a chaos in Riga Zoo. It seemed that every person packed some kilos of sausages in their bags to be hurled at lion. Nobody feeds animals here; they seemed to be more relaxed and follow their normal habits.
It is Friday, last day of long Eid holidays. Officially Eid lasted for three days, but nobody worked on Thursday either. There are lots of families at the zoo. It is interesting to see that some women raise their burkas to have a better look at the animals. Some patrons ask me to take photos of their children, who are smartly dressed. There is other entertaiment as well: you can buy coloured eggs to knock against each other in a sort of game. Stephen puts his skills to the test: how to drive a toy car on the mini-rally course.
One huge swing is installed as well. Stephen and our driver Massoud persuade me to try it. It is a mistake: there is no possibility to fasten itself, there are just some metal benches inside. I grab the metal edge of the swing, press my foot under the next bench and say my prayer not to fall off the swing. Fortunately the flying lasts only for a few minutes. I reel down with shivering feet.

Koop Island

A fantastic album from Swedish jazz due Koop. I implore you to buy this album. Amazon

PikaPika

Is gonna be big.

Walk around the lake

On the third day of Eid we go to walk around Quargha lake. There are four of us: the initiator of the walking Viiu, me, Andres and his colleague Stephen.
It is quite hard to reach even city limits: all streets are so crowded and the stream of cars is endless. It seems that all four million residents of Kabul are on wheels.
Last time we went to Quargha lake was in springtime. Now there is little water left : the level of water has dropped some meters. Actually, Quargha is important water reservoir for Kabul, constructed during drought years of 1999-2001. There are far too few lakes in Afghanistan – deep turquoise color has magic power to attract the residents of Kabul.
We start our walk from Kabul Golf Club. Kabul Golf Club is quite different from a normal golf club.There is no grass in the hills and the golf players are followed by their jeeps and armed bodyguards as well.
We pass main tourist area: there are lots of shelters covered by colorful fabric. Some afghans are waiting for customers near butcher stands and cold drink boxes. Even little harbor for rowing boats is situated on the shore.
Soon we can enjoy just glittering water and dark clouds coming closer over mountains. I only can see a bunch of houses in the distance and some jaded old trees hold their dramatic positions on the top of hills.
Along the shoreline there are lots of deep holes – those are mud brick “factories”. Mud is mashed to the shape of a brick and stowed into regular lines. Afterwards sun will dry the bricks; it is a very common building material for local houses.
We meet some locals: father with his curious children is walking around the lake as well. Crowd of boys wearing their new Salwar Kameez’is (traditional cloth for afghan men) are playing with glass balls. And aggressive shepherd girls who ask me money even for taking photos of goats and sheep. To punish them for their behavior, I secretly take an image of them.
After one and half hour our walk is finished. As we step over the doorstep of our house, something extraordinary starts outside. Thunderstorm and hail are coming down at the same time.

Eid mubarak - happy holidays!

Our landlord’s wife sent us some interesting homemade sweets with raisins and nuts. It is a local tradition because of the end of Ramadan. I cook a pizza and navigate slowly through the garden – because there is no city power and our garden is without lights – to their door. Our landlord seems to be satisfied with my baking. Actually, he has told me a number of times how much he likes pizza.
Today there is the first day of Eid holidays. There has been the feeling of upcoming holidays for some weeks already. Numerous ladies are shopping because there is a tradition that everyone must have new clothes for Eid. There are some other traditions as well: relatives are visiting each other, a lot of eating and gifts for poor people.
Today I go to ramble around the streets with Viiu, our friend who is working for Swedish Committee fo Afghanistan. She lives in Sweden, but she was born in Estonia. During Second World War many Estonians fled over sea in little boats. Many of those boats wrecked, but 6-month old Viiu survived. Until recently it was our only possibility to talk in Estonian: there are our military forces in Lashkar Gah, but no other civilians. Just one month ago the first Estonian diplomat arrived here, but unfortunately he was sent to the south as well.
Today the city is quiet and peaceful: shops are closed and streets are empty. First time I see that there is no sign of life even in “tourist trap” of Kabul, Chicken Street. Only some dusty carpets hang on a mud brick wall. The families wearing beautiful new clothes pack themselves into cars. Boys are running around, brandishing their new toy guns. Innocent bangs are being heard when boys are testing the maroons.
Eid Mubarak – happy holidays, we say to passing people. Almost all answer politely, too. Only beggars seem to be working hard: it is best time for asking alms.

Estalef jai-e besyar maghbul as

“Istalef is a very beautiful place”, is written in my dari language workbook published in 1977. It was a touristic place known because of it’s beauty and traditional pottery.
Story about Istalef is good enough to represent typical story of an afghan village. Once it was surrounded by lush orchards growing grapes, roses and wheat. Timuride emperor Babur wrote about its beauty and colours. Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, used Istalef as a vacation spot.
In the 1998-2002 Taliban ruled Istalef: the trees were cut down and thousands of the villagers left their homes behind. Nowadays someone can hardly find more than ruins. But some families are beginning to return: they build up their homes and kilns, trying to continue their traditional pottery business.
I drive to Istalef with Ester and Shoshana, employees of Turquoise Mountain Foundation. Young ladies have to fulfill a hard task. They have a meeting with villagers to discuss how to find some gifted students for TMF craft school. But they are quite sure that the elder of village already have some names in the students’ list – his closest relatives...
The translator advises not to speak about the choice during the meeting. “Just concentrate on introducing the school,” suggests the afghan. In Afghanistan you must proceed very slowly, almost gingerly.
Istalef is situated in the hillsides with great wide scenery onto Somali plain. There is a hidden little teahouse in the middle of the grove. And the next moment I see something truly unusual in Afghanistan: a group of oriental tourists is stepping down the staircase along the hillsides...
Ahead there is the villagers’ meeting place: under the shed there are some carpets. Even some flowers are planted around. It is interesting to see how two fragile westerns ladies, wrapped in veils, hold speeches to a large crowd of afghan men. Their talk is politely, respectful and sustained. I think that special oral skills gained in Afghanistan are useful, especially in politics.
After school introduction, most lucrative moment arrives for the local people. Foundation gives away to every person present a bag of glaze. Some of the glazes the potters use contain lead, which is very dangerous. The foundation is trying to encourage to use lead-free glazes.
Before the guy can heave the heavy bag, he must leave his thumbprint on the list. After procedure long steam of villagers waddle towards their houses. Only some of them have a donkey.
Before we leave for Kabul, we stop at the village bazaar. Only for few dollars I buy some pottery. I really like the simple form of the bowls and vases. The deep blue or green color is very impressive, too. The experts say that basic shapes and designs of Afghan pottery have changed a little in 5,000 years. Unfortunately the materials used are low quality: it is hard to find an item without a defect.

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Paint vs Paint

Which do you prefer, sony's super budget follow up to Balls or Orange's slightly simpler take?Sony:Orange:

Minutiae of living

When we came back to Afghanistan, we had long list of necessary equipment for dark and cold wintertime. We started out with looking for generator, inverter and stoves as urgently needed items. And our list ends with things for entertainment like guitar, Sat-TV and exercise machine.
And, of course, we started from the easiest end. We bought the only exercise machine what seems to be too strong enough not to crumble the first day. And we got satellite-TV: for four dollars per month we can see channels as BBC, CNN, Discovery etc.
We bought the radiotelephone too. Now there is possibility to have dial-up internet connection using Afghan Telecom. Connection seems to be tricky: I need to move the radiotelephone quite a lot because of the poor signal caused by metal mosquito net in the front of the windows.
Far more serious is electricity business. We bought a little inverter (700 W) with one battery (100Ah), which is enough to keep my laptop and telephone working during daytime.
There is city power for some hours in the evening and in the early morning around two o’clock (because Moslems have to eat before sunrise during Ramadan). Our landlord supplies our house with the electricity during the remaining evening hours in the late evenings. He has a inverter with ten batteries which are powerful enough to have lights. But we can switch on our refrigerator or water heater only when there is city power.
We don’t like the generators – not us, but our landlord as well. But is seems there is no choice. There is less and less electricity with every day and soon there will be no possibility to charge our inverters.
Yesterday we visited Kim to see her alternative solar energy system. She has two solar panels on the roof (a 75 W) connected with batteries (7*100 Ah) and a 2-KW inverter. She has the transformer which switches automatically between solar or city or generator power. The system is good enough to provide lighs and refrigerator. Only the water heater can’t be run by this solar power.
We liked the solar system a lot, but the cost is too high, ca 4000 dollars. For the unstable country like Afghanistan there is always the question of balance.

English

From George Orwell’s six elementaryrules (Politics and the English language, 1946).1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figureof speech which you are used to seeing in print.2. Never use a long word when a short onewill do.3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cutit out.4. Never use the passive when you can usethe active.5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific wordor a jargon

English

From George Orwell’s six elementaryrules (Politics and the English language, 1946).1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figureof speech which you are used to seeing in print.2. Never use a long word when a short onewill do.3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cutit out.4. Never use the passive when you can usethe active.5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific wordor a jargon

Stealing the beauty

Yesterday I spent some hours photographing the students of calligraphy and woodworking classes at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. Actually, it is my first job in Afghanistan.
While my husband Andres has been working as an IT-expert on an animal health project, I spent months before I understood that is not easy to get a job that meets my qualifications. First of all, I am not an English native-speaker. Also I don’t speak Dari and Pushtu, the official languages of Afghanistan. Secondly, I have worked as a journalist and editor in printed media. But here is more need for radio specialists, because illiteracy is so high.
Some days ago I met Rory Stewart, head of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. Former diplomat Rory walked 6,000 miles across Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal during 2000-2002. His book about Afghanistan, The Places In Between is highly recommended.
Our meeting takes place in an old part of Kabul city where foundation just started to renovate the whole quarter, Murad Khane. Rory is trying to persuade the owners of some 30 surviving buildings to accept free restoration. The remaining sites would then be rebuilt in traditional style.
At the moment the garbage is being removed from the streets. It is a titanic work – the level of the streets has been lowered up to 2 meters... I try to listen Rory, but I am too amazed about atmosphere. I just stand and admire: the yard of Great Serai and the House of Peacocks are most artistic I have seen in Afghanistan yet.
After visiting Murad Khane, Rory invited me to his office situating in the 18th Century Royal Fort in the Parwan quarter of Kabul. This fort is one of the last surviving traditional forts or qal’a within the city of Kabul. The calligraphy and woodwork schools run by foundation are currently located around the fort, too.
I show to Rory my work: the photographs of Afghanistan and some magazines. After short conversation Rory offers me a job: to take photos once a week about restoration work in Murad Khane quarter, and to photograph the students of the handicraft schools as well. I leave the fort, really pleased.

Simpsons + Michel Gondry = brilliance

House-hunting-odysseia II

We started to look for houses with the help of local real estate agents. First it looked quite interesting to see afghan houses hidden inside the walls. After seeing five houses each day we became quite exhausted. There was one principle problem: because afghan families are very big, the houses have plenty of rooms too. If I asked agent to show us some really small houses, we ended up seeing houses with “only” eight-rooms or so.

There are more problems related to renting a house in Afghanistan. First of all, you are responsible for your own security (ie you must hire guards), you must run the house yourselves (ie to manage water pump, heating, generator, etc).

Secondly, most of the afghan landowners ask for six months of rent before you can move in. We liked a lot one house in Karte Se district (near Afghan parliament Lloya Jirga), but meeting with landlord was really a disaster. He demanded that we pay him one year of rent in advance. He was not interested to hear our explanations. What can we do with a house in Kabul if we have to leave the country for security reasons? But landlord of the house was not interested to negotiate.

Khabir, who is a colleague of Andres, offered us to see a garden house that was sharing a compound with afghan family. First the idea seemed funny to us, but we later decided to see the house. When we entered lovely garden filled with pelargons and roses, it seemed like a miracle in the middle of noisy and dusty Kabul. The singing of dozens of exotic caged birds was relaxing. And little green garden house – fully equipped with not only kitchen stuff but also with local style furniture and carpets - seemed to be so cozy after those empty bleak rooms we have seen a lot previously. It was not hard to say “yes” to landlord.

House-hunting-odysseia I

There is an anecdote going around among the internationals of Kabul. Suicide terrorists are promised 40 virgins after their death. When yet another terrorist arrives to the gate of heaven, he was told: “There are too many of you. Sorry, we have run out of virgins…”

Despite the ramadan-time, recently there have been many attacks of suicide-bombers. Fortunately, some of them are not very skilled and blast themselves before they harm anybody. We heard that some of them blast themselves during the preparation. Unfortunately, almost always some afghan passengers-by are killed. They just happened to be too close.

It looks dangerous, but as the civilians, we don’t really feel that we are in constant danger. Suicide-terrorists are more attracted to military convoys or important ministries than just any internationals.

Internationals-civilians living in Kabul try to build up their own little secure world: there are lots of restaurants (but quality of food is always a subject) and some entertainment (hash-club runners, Monday quiz, even a night club).

But most important for people staying here for a long time, is the question of home. Easiest way is to live in guesthouses, but it is not a good solution to stay for a long period. After eating same guesthouse food for months it doesn’t seem so attractive. And hearing the same story – with some variations – for the third time could become quite boring…

Some internationals form their own communities where they live together in the same compound. We lived in such compound for some months: there were five houses fully equipped. We shared the garden, guards and running costs. It was a reasonable solution and good alternative to renting a separate house. Unfortunately, our compound was overtaken by another organization and we had to move out. So we started our own house–hunting-odysseia in Kabul.

Phatgnat Youth Survey

If you're between 11 and 25 please head over to Phatgnat and take their annual survey. If you're over 25 don't worry, when the report comes out you can use it to market to these youngsters!