Culture

Maybe I can change your image of Afghanistan slightly. At least mine has.

For one, it is not always hot, winters are freezing.
Not every man has a beard and wears a dress. In fact not really more than in any other land.
Also not all the ladies wear a full veil and black dress. Most wear a normal scarf around their head.
Not everyone is a bomber or extremist. Like anywhere 99,9% of the people are normal, even friendly people.

Working here for me is not much different than in any other office. It's just weird not being able to leave. In saying that, sometimes a chance comes by. Last Friday (which is weekend here) I visited NATO HQ. This is almost a small village, a tiny shop, a small coffee place, and on Fridays a small souvenirs market. There are a reasonable amount of stall, but they mostly sell the same things: old stuff, precious stones, carpets and leather. Going back there tomorrow.

Today I was given the opportunity to go to a concert. Normally I would run away if anyone mentions the word classical, but as it was mixed with local and it was outside the compound, why not?

To my surprise it was at the institut francais, considering the fact the average Afghan speaks two words English I guess the number that speak French is 'not so great'
Anyway, it was a nice reasonably big theatre. It started with a small speech (of course) and a recital from the koran. The first performance was just local music. Not bad, but I guess you have to grow up with it to really enjoy it. After that there where several pieces with an interesting mix of classical and local instrument, with different levels of success. One piece was rather quick with an interval of a man playing some sort of citar very slow, ruined the idea. But other pieces where rather good, my knowledge of classical music is as big as my knowledge of the local language. According to the paper we were handed they played 'the four seasons of Afghanistan' after Vivaldi.

In short, even though it was not Metallica or Golden Earring, I enjoyed it.

Afterwards we heard that the day before they played for VIPs and it was worse. They must have been more nervous.

A mix of suits and traditional wear to go with the instruments. The ages also varied a lot.

Outsourced

So here I am, in one of the places most people would like to be the least.

For unknown reasons the Dutch embassy in Kabul (Afghanistan) did not get an assistant controller and so is lacking capacity. This is being solved by asking people to come over on interim basis. Three of my colleagues in similar functions already came over to help out for a few weeks. Somehow also my name came up and I was asked.

What possessed you to accept? One might ask. To be honest that was also my initial reaction, but on reflection I decided that this was not such a stupid thing. Most people have an opinion on about everything (including myself). But in order to know what you are talking about, you have to experience it. As I was not planning on a posting here (1 year), this is a good opportunity to get a taste of life in a conflict area. On top of that, this is the safest way to do it. The embassy is well guarded and transport is done by armored cars, with a specially trained driver and Dutch security man on board.

What I do here is probably more boring than many other jobs you readers of this blog do, the special bit is just the location. To bore you, just a short description of my work (see also earlier blog). I look after the spending of development aid money from the Dutch ministry to, in this case, Afghanistan. So I check if reporting is done timely and correctly, budgets are met etc.

This is my living/bedroom. I also have a kitchenette, which I don't use as meals are provided for.

My daily routine I managed to arrange so far. I get up, stroll downstairs, five meters through the cold to the canteen. The canteen is just a container made to look like what I would call workingmen's or school canteen; counter, fridge, four long tables with eight chairs each, simple but effective. After breakfast I walk for another 1 minute to get via the coffee machine to my desk. Lunchtime, also not exciting, walk to the canteen, walk back. Straight after work I go for dinner. After dinner I think about going to the 'gym'. There are two rooms that serve as gym, one with weights etc, which I avoid not to look like a complete maggot next to the security guys. The other one has walking- rowing- cycling machines. Out of the three nights here I just managed yesterday to go there. That was a disappointment, how do people manage to run longer than five minutes?

For security reasons I can't put any pictures here. But this one taken from the plane shows how beautiful the country really is.

Dhaka International Trade Fair 2013

Somehow we were in receipt of free tickets to the Dhaka International Trade Fair that was held this weekend

it was like going to a cleaner, less smelly and crowded version of a market.  Lots of stalls with clothing and household goods...lots of snacking opportunities

  

 

 

 

We were impressed with the sweet "ready cake" machine - the stallholder was there to promote the machinery more than the cakes

 

Typical Bangladeshi pose - stand in front of something "interesting" and don't smile - in this case a giraffe with no splots