June 08, 2007

Some quick news rapids, I am well and safe.

So 2 trips to Herat are planned:
- a 24 hours stay for the entrance meeting on June 6,
- Departure of the team for Herat planned the week of June 17 for two weeks.

The first stint allowed me to ascert a few things:
1) Herat airport is a catastrophe ;
2) UN flights do get cancelled or delayed ;
3) Peshawar is a depressing place (at least, the airport) ;
4) Herat is pretty ;
5) I will be staying in a 5 star hotel

Afghanis for the moment seem to be very nice people. There are in Kabul the pleasant places to take a meal - on the exterior it looks like nothing, but the garden, once one enters, is very pleasant. It is if the restaurants were to wear the burka.

Myself, I wear the Kameez (long Pakistani tunic) and a scarf on my head and shoulders, or a abayah (a long monk like dress) with a scarf to be in agreement with the local culture. But as soon as I am at the hotel, the office or in an expat restaurant, buh bye decorum.ABAYAH



KAMEEZ

Yes, the cover, it is exhausting, and somewhat unpleasant. My colleague, a girl who usually adapts well, seems to have trouble this time. It is says much. I acknowledge that the abayah is a little much, but when I am satisfied with the paki look.

Environment with the team is good, we have a lot of challenges so we really stick together.

I do not smell myself any direct threats, but I acknowledge to have seldom seen as many AK-47. It is a little distressing. This said, as these machine-guns are most of the time destines to my protection, so I try to make abstraction of it. Not always obvious.

I give the context, but I repeat it, I feel safe. NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

4 comments:

John Gerard Sapodilla said...

the girl wearing kameez looks like the sexiest in the world. Maybe those Talebans have good taste afterall.

Beaver said...

Well, considering they are making women wear the BURKAH, no, strudel, they don't.

Qalamana said...

¡Hola guapa!
I've been pretty busy lately and haven't had mcuh time to read your blog: I'll catch up asap!
Besines!

Anonymous said...

The pakistani abaïah (worn by women when they are ouside) looks much more elegant and a bit more comfortable than the afghan tchador. Being a male, I'd very few opportunities to meet women in Pakistan, anyway both my urdu and pushtu are very poor and few women speak english outside the upper classes. Then I couldn't say what Pakistani women think about their compulsory abayah.

In Afghanistan, I have (I had...) many friends, so it wasn't a real problem to meet their mothers, wives and sisters and to speak with them (luckily I speak farsi dari). About the afghan tchador, every woman I questioned told me that they hated it!