Kabulife #3 - Work

With a big gap in my reporting due to a massive workload, the theme of today will try to explain what I do on a day-to-day basis. I'll start by describing the week that I now leave behind me (since the Afghan Saturday is like the western Sunday).

Sweden will from the 1st of July 2009 have a new country strategy for Afghanistan, and in the beginning of this week a delegation from Sida (including the General Director) in Sweden arrived to immerse themselves in the reality of this country. My responsibilities for this week was to coordinate everybody and their travels between meetings, since we cannot move anywhere without our cars and drivers. This meant some detailed work in excel and a constant accessibility and flexibility since things never turn out the way you plan when having meetings here (people just don't show up, or change their mind hours before the meeting). I have also arranged a week of separate meetings for a person looking at issues concerning Private Sector Development, with this being my area of interest. During the week, I together with this person have been trying to figure out what Sweden can do to promote the development of the private sector in Afghanistan. Which surely is a challenge, I can tell you. It has been an intense week where we have met highly positioned people in ministries, organizations and NGO's, and my business card collector is just about as full as my brain at the moment.

When things are back to normal, I work with assessing project proposals that come to us that deal with education and employment. This means that I compare the activities and goals to the aims of our funds, and commit interviews and follow-ups to make sure that every piece of relevant information is squeezed out of person with involvement in the project. When this is done, I write fancy documents describing the project in order for my 'boss' to decide on it. It is actually a very nice thing to do here, since it gives you opportunities to come out to visit places and people in and around Kabul.

Then, of course, being the youngest at the office, I'm more or less the IT-guy also, helping people with their excel issues and technical questions. It's such an easy way to make people happy.

I hope you're doing good back in Sweden with all the Snow. We also got our first flakes on the top of the mountains surrounding Kabul the other day, and I'll try to be back with a photo-special soon. Until then - stay safe!

Striving to please the thick-pocketed westerners, there are as told a few restaurants with rigorous security, western cousin and high prices. However, it is sometimes hard to copy the western service, resulting in quite a few memorable moments. Here are some happenings from my visit to a French restaurant yesterday:
- I order, and point at a red Bordeaux. I receive a white Alsace.
- When I put my first spoon of soup (appetizer) in my mouth, the main course is served and put beside me.- The red wine is then served, and looking for a good place to put the bottle, the waiter decides that the ash tray will be perfect.
- When ordering water, I get the question 'hot or cold?'.
- When receiving the water, a 1.5 litre bottle without glasses is served.
- I also only have a spoon, which makes it hard when trying to eat the main course steak.
- The person next to us orders a Lemon Tarte for dessert, but laughs loudly when receiving a plate of sliced lemons instead.

Well, I just find this hilariously charming.

I am beggin' you for mercy

A few days ago, President Hamid Karzai decided to make begging illegal. What has been the only way of surviving for millions of Afghans is now considered shameful for the Afghan people, and beggars will be taken care of and sent to big camps. However, first it is necessary to separate poor beggars from professional ones. With a culture that says that you must help anyone who asks for help, begging is one of the most lucrative 'job' available for many people. According to my driver, up to 80% of the beggars in Kabul do it professionally. Can't really blame them, but they better be careful, or be prepared to share some with the not-always-so-perfect police, if they want to continue with that profession.

Things for kings

Yesterday, I took an extra turn when I was out driving (you can see below what the car that I spend my days in looks like) to see some parts of Kabul that I had only heard about. Driving past an area totally devastated by war and fighting, built in decades but torn down in months, I finally reached my destination - The Kings Palace (Darulaman in Dari). Once upon a time, there was a king who lived happily with flourishing gardens in this beautiful palace. Now, all that was left was this skeleton on top of a mountain, reminding us of that times have changed.

In one of the pictures, you can also see the residential house which belongs to the castle. The hills behind that were once used as a ski-resort for the rich and happy Afghans of the 70s. When the russians invaded, they made it into their own luxurious playground. Obviously, the rulers after that did not like skiing that much. Most Afghans do probably not even know what skiing is anymore. I hope they will one day. If I was to be the King of Afghanistan, I'd make sure they would. Promise!

Kabulife #2 - Housing

Here comes a brief explanation of my living standards this far in Kabul. My first experience was kind of confusing. Even though I expected the worst, I had high expectations for this guesthouse. Firstly because I had heard that it was full of life and other young expats, secondly because the rate was higher than the fanciest hotel in town (which I'll come back to later). The first was absolutely not true, and the second was absolutely not understandable. Without proper furniture, heating or breakfast, the decision to move to another place was taken within a few days.

Next stop was a few days at the mentioned hotel, Serena. Warm, luxurious, service minded, neat. It is built with the goal to remind Afghans of what Afghan handicraft and service once was, and it sure was a pleasure to get away from the Afghanistan of today for a couple of nights.

Right now, however, I live in a villa which very much reminds me of a Swedish row-house built in the 60s. It even has IKEA-furniture. If it wasn't for the 57 Bollywood-channels, I would feel like just home there. Included in the housing is a black cat which is a bit shy but pretty nice, except from yesterday evening when it decided to protest on my day-long absence by leaving a big wet mark on my blanket. Eeew.

In a few weeks, we will move in to a new house built especially for us Swedes. It does not have a very cozy look at the moment, but I am sure that the 250 square meters that we will dispose will be possible to transform into a home.

Until then, I can only dream about living in this Afghan-but-trendy house which we visited the other day. Take a look at those details!

Kabulife #1 - Food

Having spent roughly ten days in this country surrounded by mountains and rumours, curiosity among friends and family about the everyday life is growing. Because of this, I will now start the Kabulife special series dealing with nothing more and nothing less than how I get by in this bustling and security-infused city of Kabul. So, here goes:

Kabulife #1 - Food

Rice with raisins drenched in oil, some bread and sauce. That is how I got the afghan food explained to me. However, I have not had many chances to try it. Out of the 20 lunches/dinners I've had this far, only one (1!) has been afghan style. And that was also one of the most luxurious afghan restaurants around, which logically means that the food was more than ok.

The security situation here implies that the possibility to make choices is rather limited when it comes to food. If you want to eat out, there are a number of restaurants that are on our list of UN-approved restaurants, and those can be counted on your both hands' fingers. Most of these restaurants are run by people with international experience, implying that the theme of the restaurant also is rather international. Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, French, Italian... protected by guards, doors and scanners, these are your safest bets for dinner. However, for safety reasons it is a good idea to avoid eating at the same place several days in a row (all patterns should be avoided) - especially at the Chinese since these restaurants have a rumour of providing hungry, lonely, men with more than food.

When it comes to lunch, I'm pretty stuck with the restaurants within the 150m walking limit, which gives me a choice of two different restaurants: an Indian and a Lebanese. Charging just as much for a lunch here as in Sweden, I have the last few days had different kind of Paneer dishes from the Indian restaurant together with bread from the local bakery. Good taste, good price.

Then there is of course the last option - to cook yourself. This has only happened once this far, but yesterday I was invited to dinner to one of my colleagues who had made the most fantastic food. It's surprising to see what range of goods you're able to find if you just dedicate yourself to it. I'll surely start cooking myself as soon as we settle down. However, right now we are pretty much changing the place where we live once a week, which means that I won't cook for a while. It also means that I'll probably soon have some room service pizza while watching HBO at the 5-star hotel we are about to move into next. Sometimes, life here in Kabul is actually not bad at all.

Opening ceremony

Fellow readers, I have just recovered from a period of the inescapable nausea that marks the beginning of a long visit in Kabul. During this time, another beginning has also attracted attention. While waiting for more pictures and reports in this blog, take a look at this link and notice the centerpiece.

http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/10036/a/114794