Ramadan, Eid and Beggars.

Where have you been?

You may well ask of your intrepid blogger who, frankly, has been leading such a boring life in Kabul that I ran out of things to say.

BUT, you wil be pleased to know I escaped the prison, sneaked off to Istanbul for a weekend and now, returned, sit before you revived, refreshed, half a stone lighter (I will come to that, but you are warned it is not pretty) and full to bursting point with old tat and nonsense. So, are you sitting comfortably?

First, I want to get out of my system to squash court situation. As you both know there is only one squash court in the whole of Kabul and this is the concrete walled and floored court at UNICA. Now, I realise that it could be argued that a bad squash court is better than no squash court, but this one has a floor as slippery as a icew rink on a slippery day AND membership s $60 per month. Even at $2 to the £1 that is £30 per month to play squash on an ice rink, PLUS $8 court fee. I ask you is that fair, is that reasonable, is that humanitarian, is that a UN rip off!! No wonder they have such huge expenses accounts, that is nearly half my monthly allowance.

Let us wind the clock back two weeks to the last week of Ramadan. Ramadan, I am sure you all know is the Moslem month of fasting from sunrise to sunset. At the end of Ramadan is the festival of Eid, which is similar to the Christian Christmas. Families get together, lots of food is eaten, presents are swapped and everyone is happy for 3 days. So, as Eid is a holiday I had arranged to meet Sarah in Istanbul, her flying in from London and me from Kabul. We had arranged flights so I arrived 1 hour before her at Istanbul International, but I am getting ahead of myself here.

The week before Eid, I went shopping in downtown Kabul with my trusty assistant Dr. Najeeb as guide and chief adviser on the cost of stuff. Anyway we went shopping to get a pressie for Sarah. Dr. N was so sweet, as he insisted on buying her a present as well. Anyway, I digress. As you can imagine there are a lot of beggars in Kabul, and as always some more deserving than others, so I checked with Dr. N and the going rate is 10-20 Afghanis is a reasonable contribution. (For comparison, bread is 3Afs so 20Afs represents nearly 7 pieces). This all went well, although begging is very aggressive. As I got back into the car a woman positioned herself in the door of the car, stopping me from closing the door until I paid up, so I gave her 20Afs. She looked at it, screwed her face up, shouted at me, tore it up and threw it on the floor in front of me. I closed the door and we drove off.

That evening was the end of Ramadan and the night bfore Eid. In Kabul, there are only 2 bars with alcohol. Many restaurants where you need to have a meal but only 2 bars where you can simply get a drink. Fortunately, one of them is about 500 yards away in the next street. Now, I have told you before about how dark it is and that the electricity goes off and anyway there are no street lights and there are high walls everywhere and it is very quiet on the streets and that we are supposed to travel everywhere in armoured cars and not walk anywhere for fear of kidnap and being shot/blown up. So when we walk round the corner to the bar it is quite an adventure, especially if a taxi slows down beside you to see if you need a ride and you cannot see if it is a taxi or a kidnapper. Anyway, it adds some spice to a very boring existance. The point of this story is that to celebrate Eid people let off firecrackers. Now this would be OK, except that it is very nerve wracking when you walk round the corner in the dark and people drop firecrackers from balconies above you so they go off right behind you. Curiously, Afghans seem to think it is funny!!There I got to the point in the end.

Well, I seem to have written quite a lot and not got to the excitement of the trip to Istanbul, so I will hold that back for you.

Will write again soon.