31 January 2008 – My first 7 Days
I have seen very little of Kabul so far as we are not permitted to walk anywhere. (Well - not completely true. I am allowed to go to the little grocery store around the corner -- about a 3 minute walk -- if I am accompanied by a man or a guard. ) In the morning, we are picked up by a UNHCR armoured jeep -- there are shuttles beginning at 7:30 a.m. and continuing until 9:00 a.m., we spend most of the day in the UNHCR compound, we have lunch in the UNHCR cafeteria -- we pay $50 for the month for this, which is not a bad deal) and in the evening we get a shuttle back to our living quarters.
I live in a large house (UNHCR Guesthouse "C"harlie - with four other people. We are two women -- an Italian, Monica, who I have not yet met as she is on leave; and three men - one Ethiopian, one Iranian and one Spanish. I have my little room (small is good because it is easy to keep warm with a little electric bar heater) and my own bathroom (once I learned where to turn on the tap, I found I had scalding hot water, which is very nice). Because it has been quite cold - around minus 10 when I first came. Now it is much warmer - around zero or higher in the sun. I have much appreciated the fleeces and the thermal undies I bought -- Maia - thank you in particular for this. Houses and buildings are largely heated with kerosene stoves called bucharis -- which are not too bad, though you get quite groggy from the burning kerosene. At the office, in the room I am currently working, there is also a nice large wood burning fireplace which has been in constant use since I arrive. I love that. We also have an endless supply of tea via large hot water thermos -- and wherever you go you are offered tea. For my accommodation, I pay $35 per night, and with that I also get a cleaner who makes the bed and does the laundry. There is a cook as well, but I have not "bought into" that set up because I prefer to cook for myself in the evening and not have two heavy meals a day. As well, I am developing quite a little social circle, so I am often out for dinner.
Out for dinner means going to someone else's guest house - because, at present, all restaurants are off limits to us. You may have heard that, on 14 January, there was a suicide bomber who blew himself up at the Serena Hotel (the one large luxury hotel in Kabul) - killing 8 people -- one person who I knew quite well from my Kosovo mission among them. Hence, the entire international community is on special alert status. Today - in fact - there were two suicide bombers in the country. One - at 7:30 in the morning - blew up his car (accidentally it appears, by going over a bump) with I believe only one death - though that is one too many. We also just now got word of a suicide bomber who blew himself up in a mosque in Helman Province, in the south of the country, killing 16 people including the Deputy Governor of the province. So precautions are, indeed, in order.
But we can go to the homes of other as long as they are MOSS (Minimum Operating Security Standards) compliant and travel in armoured vehicles. As it turns out, I seem to know quite a lot of people here. There is my good friend Babs from Darfur who is working with Turquoise Mountain, an NGO that is run by Rory Stuart - who wrote the book The Places In Between - about his walk from Herat to Kabul in the winter of 2002 - quite a feat. I have not met him yet but may do so as I am going there for lunch tomorrow (tomorrow being Friday and our weekend holiday). There is Dara and Sonja and Fran and Jason -- who I was friends with in Kosovo. I have seen two of them so far and going out with one to a "Happy Hour" tonight at the home of someone from the British Embassy, I believe. There is Geralyn, who I worked with in Montenegro - who has invited me to a Latin Party tomorrow night. And, I had an email from the No.2 person in the Canadian Mission who heard I was coming and is inviting me to lunch or dinner in the coming days. So you see what a whirlwind of a social life you can have in Kabul.
On a more serious note - the work is fascinating - and the situation very complex. But I am enjoying riding the learning curve. Today I did my first memo on responding to a situation of 450 families displaced from Nuristan by the Taliban -- regarding what type of assistance they need and how to get it to them. Amongst other things, its a question of learning the players, the mechanisms, the modalities. What is good is that I have been made to feel very welcome by the head of UNHCR and all the staff - and that makes things easy. This week, I also went out with the Kabul Regional team to visit 10 IDP families (my first real excursion out of the office) living in Sub District 5 of the city; these are Hazaras (who support the govt) displaced from Uruzgan in the south by other Hazaras (who support the Taliban). Fortunately, they are in fairly good accommodations and not in great need - though displacement is always a shock. I did see a little of the city as we drove on this mission.
The city is surrounded by mountains, now mostly covered in snow. There is one high hill with antena for telphone and TV in the center. Many of the houses stand behind tall walls with barbed wire on top. Much of the buildings are grey-white cement, though there are also palacial compounds, particularly in the neighbourhood in which I live. I am told that there are very interesting and colourful things for sale - carpets, jewelery -- in the stores on Chicken Street. But that is off limits to us. So, at the moment, everything is quite grey. In the streets, you see mostly men - and they are largely wrapped in blankets around their shoulders with scarves covering their mouths because of the cold. You see an occasional woman, most wearing the blue bourka. One comment of made by one of the Hazara IDP women we talked with -- a woman of about 45 -- was that, in her village, she never wore a bourka. But, here in Kabul, her 18 year old son has insisted she wear it whenever she leaves the compound. We do have quite a few women working in our office -- all very competent. They wear head scarves - but they also drive in UN vehicles - so I don't know what they do in their home settings.
OK - I have written more than I intended to write. I go shortly to a security briefing which we get every Thursday afternoon. I just wanted to let you know that I arrived, I am well, and I am very much enjoying this new adventure. Next week, I will be going to Kandahar for a few days -- but I will be well protected there, as here. I will, however, keep writing - and do feel free to write back. Its great to hear from you, especially in far flung places.
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