NGK Fellowship: Destination Afghanistan

Hey all,

I know it has been a while. I just recovered from a horrible episode of “more than travelers tummy”. After 2 days of feeling listless, faint, and avoiding ALL food, I saw a doctor who prescribed some serious doses of antibiotic. He thinks I had some sort of food poisoning. Well after the third day, I am back as new! Eating recklessly again! I figure it can’t happen twice in a row…

As my internship draws to a close, I want to share two of the many lingering thoughts/observations which I have had for a while.

They put the l-o-v-e in brotherly love

First let me start by saying living in the US “corrupts” ones interpretation of tactile affection. Here, it is customary to see men walking hand in hand, not because of their sexual orientation, but as a sign of affection and friendship.

To date, I am still amazed by the affection displayed in the office every morning. Let me also add that it is always between and among men, and not between men and women. Okay, with that said, here is what happens every morning among the men in the office. One walks in, says his “Salamalekum or Subahare”, then they hug with a kiss on the cheek, or one puts his head underneath the other’s chin, almost nuzzling…I am sure my description is not doing this justice. Anyhow, if they don’t hug+kiss on cheek, or nuzzle, then give a heart felt embrace. A hug does not adequately cover this action, embrace is more involved.

Yet, I don’t see the same public display of affection among women. I see the occasional handholding, but nothing “heartfelt’. Understandably in a society where all women once wore burqas, there is a sense of “decorum” and subtlety that women must undertake when in public.

Double-standard-mannequins

So in my first week, given this “decorum” you can imagine my shock. After obsessing that my sleeves weren’t long enough, and covering my head in 30 degree (Celsius that is) weather, I am surrounded by “scantily clad” mannequins. First there are mannequins in pretty much every store that sells clothing, which are most stores. Then, these mannequins:

a)don’t have their heads covered! Ubiquitous, uncovered heads peaking from glass store windows

b) the mannequins have sequenced gowns with short sleeves, or spaghetti straps!!! I mean spaghetti straps in a town where women still wear burqas and you hardly see women without a shawl + long sleeves.

My question is who wears these clothing and more importantly to WHERE do they wear them? The unsatisfactory answer I get is that women wear these clothes to weddings. Traditionally during weddings, all the men celebrate together in a different venue from the bride and all the other ladies. So, I guess these fancy short sleeves, spaghetti strapped gowns would be worn to girls’ parties. Somehow, it doesn’t justify having soo many stores with these “indecent” mannequins; even though, I know that there weddings occurring every week. I am still searching for a “more satisfying” reason…

At about 9:30 am, the building began to “rumble”. It felt like that house was on a railway and a HUGE train was passing by. That description is the only frame of reference I have for explaining what I experienced. Hassina and I just remained in our seats (I was holding on my desk) in an “about to get up position”. I think we weren’t sure if we should run out of the house or stay in. Frankly, I was doing whatever I saw Hassina do. The rest of the staff briskly left the room, not sure why….leaving Hassina and I, half in our seats, half ready to run out of the building. Meanwhile in my mind, I was calculating the number of steps it would take to grab my passport and my laptop a.k.a Czarina—my one prized possession. Fortunately, it last for probably 45 seconds. “Afghanistan lies on the southern fringe of the Eurasian plate.” (http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/Afghan.pdf) As a result, it collides with the Arabian Plate to the south and Indian plate to the southeast. After the really short quake, I couldn’t help but think that the Afghanistan is not just plagued with the aftermath of 23 years of war, bombs going off everyday, but earthquakes as well! Almost too much to contend with all in one place…

I WROTE THIS ABOUT A WEEK AGO….unfortunately, the predictions that the violence is coming close to Kabul came true about three days ago—with three bombings in one day--. However, for the time being all is well.

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