First, a word about photos. Yesterday was first serious snow fall since I’ve been here. Today, Cynthia and I (in our backless clogs) traipsed thru a foot of snow with our escort Munir (that’s him standing in front of the ruins-he is from Lowgon province just south of Kabul where he lives with his parents-he’s 23 -and commutes- this is extraordinarily brave since Lowgon is completely controlled by the T) to Daramulan Palace built by Amanullah in the 20’s emulating Europeans, now a bombed out shell with a great view.
The photos from yesterday: Jamila and her son (she’s the cleaning person at my housing complex); Padre Ken alias geography prof- he had the padre coat made in India to make him seem religious-too bad it’s the wrong one (Cynthia won’t even use the Word- she says, ”you know that word with ‘x’ in it like Xmas; X’s are a big problem here as many NGO’s are x and that means they’re always quoting the bible . etc which then leads to the question how can it be said they are not prostletyzing which is the reason given for the young women murdered near her last month)- I have Ken standing next to the Farsi poster stating “G-d is Great” in my office; men selling grapes on the road to Istalif- they package them in cylindrical adobe (?) cases; a wishing tree at the sacred spring in Istalif; ; kids ( my fav photo subject) in Istalif; a shopkeeper there decided I should have a black ‘’ T’ turban- thing is you need to be descended from Mohammed to wear it; sunset from my old room; Cynthia and the Bookseller of Kabul; Zuhra and Kevin having lunch as first guests in my new apt.
Kabul reminds me of various places I’ve been before that may surprise: Rio de Janero! Yes, because it’s surrounded by mountains and all the poor people live on the real estate with the view because there’s no water or elec just like the favelas; Kabul is dirty and ugly now (except when the snow covers the gray mud momentarily) though various conquering kings from the single digit centuries chose to live here bec of it’s extraordinary beauty –river mountains, every kind of fruit tree- ok they don’t rock out to the samba (I have heard they dance and hope to find out myself soon) but the people are upbeat with great humor, the women hide themselves in burkas but from the waist down they are all flash and high heels;
The Navajo Reservation – last weeknd we went to Istalif (see photos) a mountain village north of Kabul favorite summer haunt of said Kings (you may be wondering, I thought she was restricted? –my friend Kevin is always stretching the envelope with Glyn the head of Security; sometimes he just lies and says Glyn said it was ok but usually he at least asks; this weekend he planned a trip to Heart – I chickened out mostly bec of weather but there were 7 suicide bombers on Thurs in downtown Kabul – Richard Holbrook was scheduled to make an appearance yesterday and the T wanted it known that they needed to be part of the conversation- it was kind of like a snow day, school was canceled for suicide bomber day ( the flight to Heart ended up getting canceled bec of weather);
Hawaii! The doves cooing outside my window every morning.
Having my first dinner party tonite to celebrate Valentine’s Day – Kevin, Cynthia and Seamus (American Studies Prof. (Baktash -read letter 1- called to wish me Happy V day -my heart melted)
I have been teaching for about 2 weeks and love my students. The most challenging is my World Lit class with 5 students. One of my students went to UC Davis – she is beautiful, smart articulate well-spoken – a treasure. We read Derek Walcott’s poem MIDSUMMER - I ‘d only given it a superficial reading before I presented it to the class and suddenly I was in way over my head when she asked me a question (like what the is this about?) Lesson learned but I am making it up as I go along, choosing work, reading it and then wondering if it is(culturally) appropriate- there are so many issues- like you can’t get into Afghanistan if you have an Israeli stamp on your passport- (I have chosen Elie Weisel’s NIGHT); and what about anything to do with SEX. ( men don’t have girlfriends here or if they do they don’t acknowledge it – eg Munir who accompanied us to Darulaman Palace doesn’t have one but he may get married in the spring!??)
In my writing classes with mostly men and a smattering of women , we have lively discussions about what is going on in Afghanistan (topics they have chosen to write about include everything from security and suicide bombing to returning Afghans and infant and maternal mortality.) I’m looking forward to reading their essays. Almost all of them have spent most of their lives in Iran or Pakistan.. I don’t ask who has been in refugee camps.
Last week I substituted for an ESL class and all but one of the more than 10 students were young women who all came from provinces outside Kabul and wanted to be doctors, lawyers, journalists.
Our university has an exchange program with Kyrgystan- Zuhra is presenting a class on International Law via video conferencing- but Russia just paid the Kyrgs $2 million to close the US base there so who knows
One cultural prohibition is getting angry-Afghans do not display anger and we all know how accomplished Americans are at this so it’s a great learning – for all of us to control our tempers. This has been a HUGE problem with occupying troops who yell at people all the time- promoting huge hate vs Americans.
Though I’ve written about several adventures we’re mostly cloistered, ironically just like Islamic women – this afternoon we went to a kind of mall that was all fabric stores (I stood in front of a gas heater my first week here and my brand new down coat went up in flames so I’m hoping to Patch it ) in a part of town I’d never been in, no other westerners, everyone stares at us- in another country we would only be a curiosity but here where people are more poverty stricken than anywhere except Africa there’s money to be made on the likes of us so the game here is wiley and many are on short fuses. Cynthia who’s been here a year and is burnt out and sometimes bitter says it’s Lord of the Flies
In a recent interview, this is what the president of the university said about who should not come to teach here:
Dr. Athanasios Moulakis: Many people would consider Afghanistan a hardship post, even if security were not a major concern. This excludes many routine applicants. For the sake of the institution but also for the candidates’ own sake we need to filter out two sorts . . : The desperate and the do-gooders. “ Hmmm.
No comments:
Post a Comment