When it rains, it reeks

As mentioned before, Afghanistan is having an unseasonably dry and warm. Which, while more comfortable for this fair-weather expat, is not good for water supplies later this year. Last night however, rain dances were answered and a deluge of rain fell upon Kabul. And rain in Kabul means snow in the mountains. Unfortunately, along with this favorable weather event, comes a slightly inconvenient living event.

At 1am last night I awoke to a really, really unpleasant smell. It smelled mostly of gas fuel which is always alarming. Out in the hall the smell was worse, and it was also downstairs making me wonder if it was coming from the oven. It was not fortunately. I ventured out into the rain, woke the guard up and we investigated the three floors of the guesthouse but couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from. So we opened doors and windows and I went back to bed. In the morning, the smell was less but still there - however my trip to the bathroom made the source clear. The rain had obviously backed up the sewer system at some stage and this gas was coming up through the drains and toilet. The peculiar thing is that it did not have the normal (thank goodness) sewage smell but truly more of a natural gas smell.

At any rate, the plumber has been called and fortunately, the bathroom still work okay and it's warm enough to keep the windows open. So with any luck, we'll be back normal atmospheric order soon.

Pulikhumri revisited

I have spent the last week up in Pulikhumri in Baghlan. This is the city reached from Kabul by way of the Salang Pass. Fortunately for us, there is no snow currently in the pass, and strangely hardly any traffic the morning we came up. However, this lack of snow could mean very bad things for agriculture, livestock and the general water supply. This winter has been unseasonably warm and dry. Generally in January, it is very cold and even Kabul gets a lot of snow. Instead, it has been about 20 degrees above average, and far warmer and drier than it was in November.

One of the reasons we made the journey up to Pulikhumri is that in our two larger program provinces we are implementing a winter feeding project where a one month ration of concentrate feed and de-worming services will be provided to livestock most at risk during the later winter months. The thought is, if the snows don't come, spring will be a very difficult time for livestock as well, because lack of water means lack of grazing land, so this additional feed will be beneficial no matter what the weather brings.

While we've been here, we've had a chance to go out and see a few projects around town. It is a nice change from Kabul where we hardly get out at all. However, much like Kabul our presence receives a lot of attention, though in this case it's more from curiosity than any negative interest - or at least that's what I tell myself.

Tomorrow we drive back to Kabul. And while it has been very nice to have a break from the big city (and fortunately missing the unrest), it will be good to return to my little piece of space and my routine. Stay tuned! Next stop is Jalalabad for a program quarterly meeting next weekend.

Afghan weddings

So I've had a few conversations with Afghan male colleagues about weddings. Many of our staff are of the marrying age, this coupled with the amazing number of huge, glassy, gaudy wedding halls that line the main roads of Kabul, make it a fascinating topic.

Weddings in Afghanistan are a huge, expensive affair. And I'm guessing when cost of living conversions are used, they are far more expensive than American weddings. Just now, I have learned that my guard (who is also a program staff employee) is saving money to be married in four months around the time of the Afghan new year. He says that it will cost him $12,000. His engagement party cost $6,000. However, the thing to remember here is they have to invite everyone, because everyone has some family connection to each other. And in this country, your relationships mean and influence every part of life. As he said, for everyone one person he invites, four people show up. He estimates that at his wedding will be 700 from his side and he guesses that his fiancee will have about 300 people. And that is normal from what I've been told.

Re-entry

I've been slacking heavily on the blog entries. I guess the longer you are somewhere, the less it seems like there is to report. Two weeks away on Christmas vacation was good but also surreal. Despite 30hrs of travel in each direction to help adjust to the change in...everything...bouncing between Kabul and Portland was a hard transition. The two places are different in every way imaginable. I think going to Virginia and back was easier because VA was unfamiliar whereas I know Oregon inside and out. At any rate, with sinus infection firmly in place, it took a good three days and many hours of sleep for me to get "used" to being back here.

So, since I'm coming up with less to write about, I figured it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty details. What is a day like in Kabul. Well, today is the weekend (Friday) and it is a quiet day at that. In some ways I was looking forward to it, because I've noticed the downside of having one's office in one's living area, is that you have even less alone time. I live for 4:30p when everyone: colleagues, office staff and the cleaner, go home and I have the place to myself again. As it is, people are coming and going all the time and even my room has frequent visitors as the cleaner goes in to clean and get laundry and the guards enter in the afternoon to fill and light my heater. It has been an adjustment.

Today has so far consisted of, brace yourself, doing yoga, eating breakfast, talking to David, having him help fix the internet connection so I can do email and post this blog entry, go to the grocery store...and here I am. I have nothing else planned for today except more internet, watching TV, and maybe read. I may even break out some real live, with cards, solitaire. And I will eat meals and go to bed. Wow. Tomorrow, minus the grocery store and internet fixing, will be pretty much the same with some work thrown in to shake things up. I'm alone at the guesthouse this weekend which is good but also exacerbates the lack of things to do.

And that is the exciting existence in Kabul. Fortunately, this coming week, those colleagues who went home for the holidays will start trickling back into town so chances are things will pick up.

Incredible shrinking world

So my life was not terribly expansive to begin with. When not traveling to a field office, I rotated between the office and the guesthouse with occasional excursions to the ooooh grocery store or aaaaah restaurant. And lately there has been some necessary Christmas shopping - where you are followed by small boys asking you to buy a map, or a pack of chewing gum and they keep saying "madame, madame, I am your bodyguard". Not sure if it's amusing for them or if there is a monetary game at play.

Anyway, life is small. It seemed inconceivable that it could get smaller. But it has. The Kabul office is bursting at the seams - a good thing in terms of program growth but bad in that our office can't grow. We needed a temporary solution to the desk deficit. The answer took shape in the form of the Asmara satellite office. The first floor of my guesthouse has a large room which, until last week, contained a rather nice, but lonely pool table. Now, it contains my program's office. Essentially I can wake up, roll down the stairs and be sitting at my desk. And I have to say, I really like this arrangement for a variety of reasons, namely INTERNET! Because we are an office, we are the only guesthouse with internet. So, on second thought, my Kabul world may have closed in but my connection to the outside world has cracked wide open.

(Photo: Rare clear view from the top of the guesthouse over Kabul at sunset)

PLK field trip

The reason for adventurous travels through the Salang Pass was to visit our program office in Pulikhumri (PLK) which oversees operations for projects in Baghlan Province. Because of security concerns, we could only visit project sites within the city limits even though most of our infrastructure, livestock and agriculture projects take place in rural communities.

Still, it was very productive trip and a great break from what has become the monotony of Kabul. While in PLK we visited a spillway project and an old textile factory which will be the future site for a cash-for-work project targeting women. They will be trained to "weave" gabions. What is a gabion? Oh the things I get to learn on this job. A gabion is a wire cage that is used in protection wall construction to protect agriculture land and communities from flooding. Stones and cement are packed into the gabions which reinforce the wall structure. I'm sure I'll find a use for that information someday. Construction trivia pursuit? In the meantime, I'll make use of the information to generate some donor interest stories about improving the lives of women. (Photo: a folded up gabion)

Another interesting thing I learned about is devil's dung. A crop grown in the wild on hill-sides. The resin that oozes out of a cut bulb, hardens, is pulverized, cut with flour and used in very small amounts in Indian cooking (the ingredient is called asafoetida). There are also claims for its medicinal qualities. Recent articles claim it could fight H1N1. We met with several farmers to discuss how the crop is cultivated and what they need to be more successful. Devil's dung has earned its name, because the stench is a wretched cross between sulfur and rancid onions. After sitting in a room for two hours with the odor wafting about, I was nauseated and had to leave. Cooking apparently changes the smell and flavor, so I haven't completely sworn it off - how can you with a daring name like devil's dung. (Photo: resins and seeds)

Salang Pass

This past week was spent in Pulikhumri in Baghlan Province. The drive from Kabul goes through the Salang Pass through the Hindu Kush Mountains, normally takes about 5 hours with good weather and favorable traffic conditions. This trip took 8 hours each way. The pass was filled with snow requiring snow chains and slow driving. On the way over we made good time but shortly after passing through the Salang Pass tunnel (2.6 km of darkness and diesel fumes) we ran into a traffic jam of cars and trucks inching their way along the two-lane mountain road. It was a bright, sunny day but that meant ice and vehicles going up to the pass were having trouble gaining traction.

The return home, we started before dawn which combined with an overcast, snowy day meant fewer cars on the road and less ice. It still took 8 hours, but it was slow and steady and rather pretty too. And even though it was just as dark in the tunnel, with oncoming headlights looking like the dragon eyes in a cave, the air was clearer and we were thankfully able to pass through quickly.