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Mustafa Rasuli | Photography |
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| First day in Afghanistan | 3/16/2002 | |
| I’m guessing it was at about 4 in the morning when my uncle starting waking everybody up. He was calling everybody to prayer. Get up it’s time to pray he would say. I turned over and was thinking whether I had the energy to wake up and fell asleep again. I guess they took pity on me since I had just come and left me alone after that. I woke hours later. I gave my watch away in India so I had no clue what time it was. I woke up still feeling pretty groggy and tired, but I did not want to waste away the day sleeping. I got up and went downstairs. I knew the routine because I had visited my uncle in Pakistan and knew my way around these limited settings. I filled up a pitcher with water and washed my hands, feet, and face. I dried my face on my shirt. I had already changed into traditional afghan clothes the previous night. The traditional afghan clothes consist of a longer looking dress shirt with baggy pants. I walked upstairs and entered the same room as the night before and said hello to all present. I sat for a while and was asked if I wanted breakfast. I was feeling pretty hungry so I say yes. I talked with my uncles for a while, all the time staring out the window at the mountain not more than 200 feet away. I was staring at what is called the TV tower, one of the first places American bombers pulverized, also one of the Taliban bases. I told my uncle I was going to take the day off today and see as much of the city as possible. We sat for a while longer and then Abu and I left. I put my camera over my shoulder and we went on our way. We walked down the same way I had driven the day before to get to the house. My cousin talked while I tried to soak in as much of the settings as possible. As we turned left down the dirt and rock road with all the potholes there was a mosque that one of my family members from my mother’s side had built. We continued down the road. People were walking by staring, I would say hello and smile. Children would stop to look at me. I was perplexed. I wasn’t sure why they were staring. I was wearing the traditional afghan clothes, I had a beard. I am pretty sure now that it was my hair. I had been growing my hair now for about 9 months and it was getting pretty long. I looked around and tried to spot anybody else with long hair and didn’t see anybody. So we continued walking and I saw little shops on this road, people selling gum and cigarettes. Large metal doors on each side of the street, doors to the courtyards of people’s homes. The road had a slight slope to it and there was a stream of dirty and smelly water running down. We finally made it to the main road and turned right. I was again amazed by the number of taxis. Yellow taxis with white doors. There were so many people on the streets. I heard the clanking of metal and hammers. I looked and there was tin/aluminum shops to the right. They were making water containers. Most of the water in Kabul is from wells and these container hold enough water to last a day of washing and cooking. We continued walking. There was so much dust and sand flying all over the place. People walking, the streets littered with little shops. People were cleaning out the sewage systems, that were probably decades old. I later found out that the UN was paying people 2 dollars a day to clean them out. I was still being stared at and I noticed that nobody had long hair so I was pretty sure at this point that my hair was giving me away as a foreigner. I said hello to as many people as I could, If they were looking at me I’d nod and say asalaamakum, smile and usually they would smile and say walakumasalaam back. After walking for a while we entered a different bazaar that was the fruit/food market. I would liken it to a supermarket where every single product is sold by a different person, but out in the open with no order whatsoever. Men and kids were screaming out rates and gimmicks. We crossed the street and went towards the left. We finally got to the city known as Microyan. It is as I’ve heard one of the more posh places in Kabul. Posh in the sense that the building are standing and that they have bathrooms, maybe. We walked to Jamel’s house and checked to see if he was home. There were apartment buildings, maybe 10 stories, in every direction, with large spaces in between. Children were all over the place playing amongst themselves. We got to Jamel’s house and he wasn’t home, so I said hello and we walked out. I wanted to pull my camera out but I didn’t because I didn’t want to draw to much attention to myself. On our way across the field we ran into Jamel. He was on his bike, we told him to go and drop off his bike and come with us. While he was walking to put his bike away I took my camera out. Two little girls had made a makeshift swing and were playing. It was such a beautifull sight in a city of destruction. I had just purchased a 300x zoom lense so I was pretty sure I could take a good shot from far away. I pulled out the camera and was going to take a photo when I was spotted. All of a sudden children started pointing and screaming to take a picture of them. I told them all to stand together and took a photo. The two little girls playing on the swings were blocked by the army of kids. I put my camera back in the bag and the three of us started walking. We walked back to the main road and were deciding on where to go next. They named some place and I said whatever, I don’t care as long as it has a good view of the city. The taxi driver asked for way too much so we just walked. I spotted a “tappa” or small mountain in the distance and told them I wanted to go there. They argued at first that it was too far, but I wouldn’t have any of it. It seemed like a nice spot. In the middle of the city it would provide a good view of everything. We walked and walked and walked. Through the city again and into the area where all the embassies are. As we neared the tappa I asked if there would be any mine problems. They assured me that most of the area had been cleared long ago, but you still never know. I saw other people walking up and down so I figured as long as we stuck to the trails we would be ok. We started walking up and it seemed a lot steeper as you were walking. Jamel and I were distancing ourselves from Abu. He was bigger than the two of us, so the climb was that much more difficult. We stopped halfway up and I took a picture of the three of us using the timed photo on my camera. We went the rest of the way up and entered a clearing at the top. The width of the clearing was probably about 200 feet and the length was about 2 football fields. We walked to the other side of the mountain top and stopped. We had picked up some “kino” oranges on the way. Of course this was my idea, because I knew that once we got to the top I was going to sit and soak it all in. After the long or not so long climb I was really hot, so I took of the jacket and sat on it. We sat there and ate some Kino, when two Military police walked up. The came up on my right and stood there. I said hello and asked them to join us. They kneeled down and I gave the two of them a kino each. We talked for a while and they asked me why we were here and what we were doing. After quenching their curiosity….. they told us to continue and walked away. I sat there a while longer, took more pictures. The city looked so beautiful from our height. We had a birds eye view of everything. There was a pool to our on the top of this hill, which seemed pretty amazing. I couldn’t believe swimming up here, it must have been a sight to see when it was functioning, but like everything else the water was drained and the pool itself didn’t seem in good condition. It was an Olympic style pool with 4 different levels for diving down. Feeling pretty courageous we decided to go to the top. When we got closer the kids playing were climbing down. They warned us to be careful and we started climbing up the stairs. The stairs however were missing stairs, so we had to climb using what was left of the stairs. We made it to the top and the view seemed that much nicer. I took a 360 degree photo of Kabul. 16 different photos that when put together would give a better view of the city. The diving platform started shaking and Jamel who did not go all the way up and Abu who was sitting next to me said we should probably get down. So we climbed down and made our way back to the house. I was sitting outside the house again, watching people walk by and kids playing right next to the graves. From the second floor a boy’s voice called out and said “hello” in English. I said hello back in Farsi. Then a young girl no more than 12 years old asked in Farsi “shuma kho kharegee nasteen,” translated, your not a foreigner right? I called back and said in Farsi no I’m Afghan but I’m from America. She sat there and smiled from behind the metal bars. Then she asked me to say something in English, so I asked her what I should say, she said say anything. I thought for a moment and called back and said “you are a very pretty young girl,” she smiled, giggled, covered her face with her hands and turned her face. I turned back around and walked up the mountain a ways. I stayed for a while and walked back to the house. Inside we had food again and sat and talked and had tea. People would come and go to see my uncle. A little later when everybody slept I took out my laptop and started writing. Jamel sat up with me in the room and the two of us talked for a while. Jamel is a good kid. He works hard in the house making sure that all the guests are taken care of. He and I made dinner that night and our bond of friendship was solidified that night when he sat up with me so I wouldn’t be alone to type up my diaries. |
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