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Mustafa Rasuli | Photography |
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| New.. Back walking the streets of Kabul | 2/15/2003 12:04:10 PM | |
| It’s been a while since I’ve kept any sort of journal. It’s weird how when you write a journal you have to reflect every day on what you’ve done and what you spent your day doing. I don’t know maybe I just wanted to live life without having to reflect too much. But I’m back in Afghanistan. This is like my fourth time back and probably the most difficult of all. I leave behind a beautiful fiancé whom I think about every moment. For any of you that have been engaged you must know how I feel to not be able to see and sometimes even talk to her for months at a time. That is a different story though and I won’t bore you with my personal affairs. Afghanistan has changed every time I return. There is always an air of progress with a tinge of fear. It’s hard to describe to anybody who has not been here to experience it themselves, but I think I can explain. There is always the fear that things will go horribly wrong and there will be firefights on the street, but then when you walk the streets of Kabul and you see people from all over the world, and you see SNOW on the mountains you can’t help but feel happy and excited about the year to come. There was a damn in a place called Qargha, which I have taken photos of. That used to be about a mile in length in each direction and from what I saw it must have been very deep. Due to the last five years of drought, it’s completely dry. The rains and snow this year will Inshallah raise the water level enough to meet the demands of the spring crop. It has been a major issue if not the most serious issue in Afghanistan. I arrived on the first day of Eid and I made my rounds to family and friends that I have made wishing them a happy Eid. I am against tradition to a certain extent, my driving force is comfort, but I have to say, in a place like Afghanistan it serves to increase the family bonds and the bonds of friendship. I’ve decided that this time around I’m going to travel taxi-less. Although possible in a small city like Kabul, it is extremely tiring. I decided to walk because I wanted to see the people. The other day I must have walked about 6 miles. I would walk and watch the people all decked out for Eid. Taxis flying by and splashing pedestrians. Men, women and children crossing the street, hailing taxis, ducking in and out of stores, three or four friends walking shoulder to shoulder and chatting, and the occasional old man with fiery eyes watching the world turn around him as he sits quietly crouched in a corner somewhere. The city and mountains are covered with snow. I can’t describe how unbelievable cold it gets here in the night time. My first night here I hadn’t expected the bitter cold to pierce the five layers of clothing I was wearing. I wore my undershirt, a t-shirt, a sweater, another pull over fleece sweater, and I had my blanket over me. Needless to say I didn’t sleep without my socks on, although I hate to have to do it. The night passed but I couldn’t help but think of how the nights were spent for those poor souls that had just returned from 23 years of exile in Pakistan and Iran, and were living in nothing more than plastic tents. I at least had the five layers of clothes and a blanket. I’ve seen kids walking with nothing more than a shirt and pants and slippers on their feet. I immediately think about myself and all the clothing I’m wearing and I can’t help but sometimes feel like giving away every article of clothing I have. It’s a mix of guilt for being lucky enough to live a comfortable life and a bit of sadness mixed in. I would say that the most important thing that I’ve gathered from my travels is humility. You can’t help but think of how lucky you are when you see how other people live. There are young guys, 19 and 20 years old that have had no education, that have not seen a day of comfort, that have never been to a blockbuster movie, that haven’t ever had a slice of pizza, and that work from morning to night to make enough to buy some bread and eggs if they are lucky for their family. I would have to say though that the standard of living in Kabul is on the rise. I’m not sure about the rest of Afghanistan, but definitely in Kabul. I remember years ago thinking that if all the money funneled to NGO’s based in Pakistan would only be funneled to NGO’s based in Afghanistan, that that in itself would have a good impact on the economy. I’ll tell you one more sad story. The other night I was walking through Shari-now park to get some tea with a friend of mine. And somewhere in the center of the park there was a small fire blazing. I was freezing myself after walking who knows for how long and walked up to the sun burnt man crouched in front of the fire. I asked if we could join him and we sat next to the fire warming our hands. At first I thought he was just enjoying a fire before going home. My friend asked him a couple of questions and we gathered that he had been spending the nights there in the park. He was looking for work and didn’t have any family or a house to spend the night in. I want to reiterate that it was freezing cold. I sat there in silence as he played and added small pieces of wood to the fire. He would gather pinecones and whatever else he could burn before sundown and that would keep him warm for a couple of hours before the fire died down and he would succumb to the bitter cold. I sat in silence and watched him. He was missing part of his left arm. I couldn’t tell from where it was missing. I finally left the comfort of the fire, but the fire inside of me had been ignited. |
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