Bamiyan

I got back yesterday from a few (one more than expected) days in Bamiyan. Although there were only dustings of snow in the surrounding mountains it was bitterly cold in the Roof of Bamiyan Hotel and the main topic of conversation was warmth, and how we would have enjoyed some.

I had dinner one night in the mess hall of the New Zealand 'Provincial Reconstruction Team' which was an eye-opener. A lot of people are critical of PRTs in Afghanistan and I must say that in this case one of their most obvious outputs is complete sets of paper and plastic plates, cups and cutlery thrown out after every person-meal. I would have thought that diswashing would create useful local employment.

Our work ended on Tuesday (our project will involve Monday and Tuesday training and panel discussions for 22 more weeks over the next year) and we expected to fly back to Kabul on Wednesday. We checked in at Bamiyan airport 'terminal' (which is in a shipping container) and then learned that the flight had been canceled due to a security issue in Kabul. Back to the Roof of Bamiyan.

I find our work rewarding but the best part is taking photographs. My colleague Saboor took us to nearby Dragon Valley which had wonderful scenery and fascinating bubbling geology. I also always like walking around, photographing people going about their lives. I've posted some photos here.

Website down

My website - www.haythornthwaite.net - is currently unavailable due to server problems where it is hosted. The company says it won't take much longer to fix. I'll update this blog entry when the site is visible again.

Housing in Kabul

I have been in transitory housing since August 18 and it has been tiresome but the end is in sight. On Thursday I will move into the communal guest house I expect to live in until the end of November 2008. Unfortunately I'll have to switch rooms a final time in a couple more weeks but stability is getting closer. The first thing I want to do when I really settle down is to stick up some nice photos I've been carrying around.

I can not say that I have not been in comfortable surroundings some of the time since August. When I arrived this time in Kabul (on September 2) I moved into a nice commercial guest house for a while. Now I am house sitting a colleague's house which is very comfortable.


Colleague's house. I walk back and forth across the garden and down the driveway for exercise.



Wonderful housekeeper Ibrahim.



Ibrahim's adorable children. His beautiful wives declined - cheerfully but predictably - to be photographed.

Buzkashi

Yesterday I watched a Buzkashi game in the suburbs of Kabul. Buzkashi is said to combine elements of polo and rugby but I would add that it also simulates Kabul traffic protocols - of which there are none. I had understood it to be a team game but at least yesterday it was everyone with a horse for himself, with the consequence that the object of the game - a headless goat carcass, spent most of the time being trampled under a scrum of horses instead of being pulled around a flag and dropped in a target circle. Amidst this pack of rearing horses the bravest players reach to the ground for one of the goat's legs. The game is tamer than it used to be - knives are now banned - but it is still pretty wild. An added feature yesterday was a bunch of daredevil photographers who tended to get close to the thick of things - I have one picture of one of them running for his life once a competitor finally got free of the gridlock with the carcass. I've grouped my photos here.