Some Great Things About Afghanistan

Some great things about Afghanistan: the seats in cars are covered with homemade carpets, as are the motorcycle seats; it’s clear and sunny pretty much every day (outside of the dusty haze of Kabul and Hirat); when translated from the Persian to the Roman alphabet, any given word can be spelled about a dozen different ways; high elevation, low humidity, and even less electricity equals stunning star gazing and moonshine (not the alcoholic kind, this is Afghanistan); big sky country… really big; lots of snow in the mountains in July; lots of tea and yogurt; fresh local vegetables galore and good fruit from Pakistan and Iran; everyone wears pajamas and lots of other flowing garb; mud bricks are a dime a dozen; we work with a man who is responsible for planting more trees than probably anyone else in the country; before airplanes land in Bamiyan they have to do a pass to clear all the people and livestock off the runway; Chad's office window looks out towards two 18,000 ft. snow-covered peaks; frisbee in Kabul; carpet mouse pads; enthusiastic musicians and beautiful traditional instruments called tabla and rabab; a big greenhouse out the back door; lots of smiles.

Just to follow this up with some of the obvious not-so-great things about Afghanistan… A few people have asked about our security situation here and I’m going to give you an inappropriately brief report. First, we’ve both recovered from a serious bout of GI issues after a full round of antibiotics. This has vastly improved our personal security. Next, we live and work in some of the safest parts of the country (arguably safer than many highways and cities in the US), we’ve been very well taken care of through security briefings informed by a solid network of local and international knowledge, and we use informed caution regarding our movements. Regarding the overall situation in Afghanistan I feel inadequately experienced to pass along a briefing. It takes a lot of effort to understand the history and current political situation here; it is vast. However if you’re interested in doing some reading a few good options are: Decent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid and Ghost Wars by Steve Coll. Overall the most dangerous thing we’ve done is land on gravel runways in small planes which, despite the confidence of the pilots, seems like a small miracle every time. Now go back up and read the first paragraph again.

Photos, Etc

Finally some of our first photos. Photos include, roughly in this order, the Kabul cityscape, the flight from Kabul to Chagcharan (snow), watershed restoration sites in Ghor province (including a mapping exercise with a local shura--community leadership), a CRS staff party to celebrate the everyone’s hard work (it was a great party fueled by plenty of food, tea, and dancing, these guys were unstoppable, as was Chad), a visit to a cash-for-work project (designed to assist vulnerable communities most affected by the long drought through supporting them to do community selected projects), a hike to see the Kuchi camels, and the sites of Hirat including the glass shop, Friday mosque, rolling shrine, citadel, and mausoleum of Gowhar Shad.

We’re now back in Kabul for a few days (still snow on the mountains you can see from town, very nice). Today Chad attended an NRM workshop and I joined an NGO security meeting focused on the background and current situation of the conflicts/war that was insightful. If you’ve done any reading on Kabul, the city likely fits those images, crammed narrow streets at times with 3 ft drop-offs into drainage ditches on either side, bakeries full of giant flat breads, lots of burkas and turbans, great bikes with lots of accessories (horns, flaps, spoke decoration, etc), dust and wind that at times makes you wish you were wearing a burka, big mountains surrounding the city, lots of fortified walls, unmarked compounds, herds of sheep in the streets, and the occasional UN vehicle… definitely a lot to see.

On Saturday Chad will head to Bamiyan and I’ll return to Ghor for about a month for a short-term contract working with the watershed restoration project there (yea). Hopefully I’ll get to join Chad in Bamiyan by late July/early August. Chad learned today that a half marathon is being planned in Bamiyan for late summer and people have said I can run in Bamiyan on trails just above town, I can’t wait. ;)

The Constitution of Afghanistan Year 1382 (2004) Preamble

I have a bit of a fascination with Constitution Preambles and when I looked this one up today, I thought it was worth sharing. This current constitution is based largely on the 1964 Afghan constitution. The current version was drafted by a 9 member commission appointed by Karzai and reworked after a public consultation process. In December 2003, a Loya Jirga of 502 delegates vigorously debated the document. On January 4, 2004, the Loya Jirga ratified the Constitution by consensus in spite of complaints about the process.

Preamble

We the people of Afghanistan:

With firm faith in God Almighty and relying on His lawful mercy, and believing in the sacred religion of Islam,

Realizing the injustice and shortcoming of the past, and the numerous troubles imposed on our country,

While acknowledging the sacrifices and the historic struggles, rightful Jehad and just resistance of all people of Afghanistan and respecting the high position of the martyrs for freedom of the country,

With the understanding that Afghanistan is a single and united country and belongs to all ethnicities residing in this country,

Observing the United Nations Charter and respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

For strengthening national unity, safeguarding independence, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the country,

For establishing a government based on people’s will and democracy,

For creation of a civil society free of oppression, atrocity, discrimination, and violence and based on the rule of law, social justice, protection of human rights, and dignity and ensuring the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people,

For strengthening the political, social, economic, and defensive institutions of the country,

For ensuring a prosperous life and sound environment for all those residing in this land,

Finally for regaining Afghanistan’s deserving place in the international community,

have adopted this constitution in accordance with historical, cultural, and social requirements of the era, through our elected representatives in the Loya Jirga dated 14 Jaddi 1382 in the city of Kabul.

From Ghor to Herat

Today we flew from Ghor to Heart, 7400ft to 3200ft and much warmer temps. Our time in Ghor was great. It included visiting a camp of the nomadic Kuchi herders for a lunch of huge chapattis, yogurt, and sheep meat, climbing a ridge to visit their camels grazing on a rhubarb like plant, seeing a marmot (!) and snow, attending a CRS staff party with lots of dancing, drama, and games, visiting more soil and water conservation projects, and falling asleep on the roof under a sky incredibly full of stars. It was grand. After we arrived in Herat today, we explored the big city (relative to Chagcharan where a car on the road is an event) with one of Chad’s colleagues. Herat is considered the cultural heart of Afghanistan and sits at a crossroads on the silk road where routes connecting the Middle East, Central Asia, and India meet. On the streets there are carts full of peaches, oranges, giant melons, apples, plums, bananas, cherries, and more. And there are shops with pails piled with colorful spices, dried fruit, and nuts. We visited a glass shop and saw the glass-blower in action, a small man seated in front of a raging fire contained in a kiln. He expertly rolled, blew, and swung, the super-heated glass into cups and vases, an impressive art (and very hot). Across from the glass shop is the Friday Mosque, a beautiful blue and green and yellow tiled building over 800 years old. We visited after prayers but at prayer time the nearly 100x100yd courtyard is apparently full of people. From the mosque we proceeded to a shrine where you lay down and are rolled on a gravel field to determine if your intent is true. Turns out Chad and I didn’t roll that well but we generally rolled in the direction of the bush and that’s a good thing. We also visited an impressive citadel, a fort that’s been rebuilt numerous times but originally by Alexander the Great and first rebuilt after destruction by Genghis Khan in 1415. And finally a trip to the mausoleum of Gowhar Shad who is said to be one of the most remarkable women in Afghan history and was heavily involved in politics and lover of art. Today the park surrounding the mausoleum is the place where women of Herat go for picnics on Fridays.

Chagcharan, Ghor Province

Today we attended a meeting with a local shura (community council) to discuss the potential of doing watershed restoration work in their community. They fed us a lunch of whole wheat bread (huge flat rounds), sheep fat soup, and fresh, locally-made yogurt, then tea and crystallized sugar. The meal was served on a long tablecloth laid on the floor and each group of three people shared a bowl of soup, yogurt and bread. After lunch CRS watershed lead, Biparwa, discussed the project with the group, answered their questions, and assessed their interest. Negotiations went on for awhile before the group decided they wanted to move forward with the resource mapping and site selection. The resource mapping involved this group of 10 turbaned men and a few kids crowding around paper on the floor and using markers to designate springs, streams, ridges, canals, households, irrigated land, and rain-fed ag land. It was amazing to listen to them discuss and debate the details of the map. Mid-map making, a group a 6 large impressive men (more turbans, prayer beads, shalwar kameez, etc) entered the room. It turns out they were there to discuss a marriage proposal with the owner of the house. We wrapped up the mapping and the group chose two potential sites in need of restoration work. As they began the marriage proposal discussions we headed out to look at the sites with a few of the shura members. As we walked the watershed, we tasted numerous edible plants that the men showed us and I accepted bouquets of wild cumin and yarrow flowers (I could have never imagined this). The walk was beautiful, still some patches of snow in the mountains, brilliant green valleys, and hills that are reminiscent of the Missouri River breaks country. We finished the walk around 5pm and had to turn down two offers to come back to people’s houses to eat and sleep so that we could get back to Chagcharan. What a day.

We’ve also spent our time here visiting 3 completed watershed restoration projects. We’re learning a ton and are very impressed with the projects and staff of CRS. We’ll continue to spend the next few days in the field before flying to Herat on Sunday.

Arrival in Kabul

Our second morning in Kabul and the jet-lag is still kicking. I’m up at 3:15am with the imam’s singing from the megaphones and an occasional rooster. By 4am it’s getting light out, birds are chirping and the praying coming from the mosque is quieter and intermittent. Yesterday we drove around the city to and from the CRS office, the university, and the city center. It’s hard to write about first impressions knowing how naïve we are. But observing from the car window as we crawled along in traffic what I’ve read over and over finally really hit me, that this is a segregated place, men in one world, women in another. On the streets are groups and individuals walking, lounging, talking, selling something, perusing the street stalls full of fruit, vegetables, sunglasses, sandals… but never together and barely seeming to acknowledge each other. It was felt good though to see how many women are on the streets, dressed in anything from jeans to suits to burkas, always with hips and heads covered but many bright faces. Hard lives are also apparent, a woman in a burka trying to sell two packs of cigarettes on the edge of traffic, street children giving us beautiful smiles and grabbing our hands to walk with us wanting to sell dirty beat-up cards.

Yesterday we received a long security briefing from an Afghani who stayed here through the Taliban years, met with well-versed men and women at the Center for Policy and Human Development at Kabul University, registered ourselves in a dilapidated office full of worn registries at the Ministry of Interior, and bought me my second piece of Afghan appropriate clothing at a crammed shopping center. We’ve been advised not walk on the streets but at the University we walked through a large and green campus with trees, flowers, and grassy areas with benches. It had the feeling of any other University, students walking with books, relaxing on the grass, conversing on the benches. There are other parks and overall Kabul is much greener than I imagined. And we can see snow in the mountains from the city, an amazing sight. There is also an abundance of dust colored buildings, walls, streets, rubbish piles, and steep hills rising from the edge of the city that all blend together.

Highlights of our travel here were meeting a group of Afghani high school students who had just studied in the US for a year and seeing the huge snow covered mountains of central Afghanistan from the plane. One of the high school girls is from Bamiyan and we exchanged emails and look forward to meeting again. She went to school in Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska and was both nervous and excited to be coming home. I told her we felt the same was about coming to Afghanistan. It’s going to take awhile to figure out how to get around here and after just one day in Kabul we’re looking forward to getting to Bamiyan and the mountains. I spent my first day in a headscarf, definitely a little awkward and always a relief to take it off once inside. Tomorrow we leave for Chagcharan in Ghor province, then to Herat, each for about a week to learn more about CRS’s programs, then to Bamiyan. We haven’t pulled out the camera yet but when we do I’ll post some photos.

Christmas Honeymoon

Thank you to so many of you for your gifts that gave us a great honeymoon.  We spent Christmas day in Java exploring Hindu and Buddhist temples.  And New Years eve on the streets of Bali with drumming and fireworks.  When it started pouring rain soon after midnight it just added to the celebration.  In between and on either end we explored steaming volcanoes, rainforest, beaches, and Yogyakarta.  We watched a turtle come to lay eggs on the beach, biked through rice fields, walked through endless cultivated hillsides, talked politics with Muslim women, experience the Balinese kecak and trance dances and shadow puppets, ate food you just don't find in Montana, smelled cinnamon and clove trees, indulged in Javanese massage, and stayed at the "Honeymoon Guesthouse" in Bali.  And Laurie got her blood pressure taken; it was normal.  After amazing travels we returned to Timor Lest and remembered that we also live on a tropical island.  We had one day before going back to work that we spent on the beach, eating breakfast, kayaking, and playing frisbee, not bad.  Some pictures over on the right.  Thank you all for your support in so many ways!  We feel so lucky to have had this chance to explore Indonesia.  Love, L&C