Afganistan

Long time ago - what about now? It has been a long time since I have added anything to this. Mostly because I spend most of my time reading blogs from soldiers - either deployed or have returned and I keep reading them. In my travels lo those many years ago - I was leaving India and since it was during the India/Pakistan war - the war that was over East Pakistan that is now Bangladesh - I couldn't go overland through Pakistan. I hopped on an Afghan Airlines flight to Kabul. You know what really is the most reassuring sound and words you can hear when you hop an an Afghan airplane? In a southern drawl "this is Captain Johnson and I will be your pilot on this Afghan Airline flight to Kabul! Whew. The plane had seen its better days but at least it was an American pilot. The mountains are really high - how 'bout that for understatement? - and the flight was uneventful - but the "Kabul International Airport" back in 72 was quite primitive. I just had spent one and a half years between India and Nepal - so primitive wasn't anything new but it was different. I was already prepared for Islam and was very well covered - my bra-less tank top days were long gone but I was still white and an unaccompanied female and yet no one paid any attention to me. During all of the time I was in India I was stared at from the moment I poked my head out until safely back in my room. I was the object of attention that only a huge movie star would warrent and it was constant. Here? No one even looked up from whatever it was they were doing. As I was going through customs they were ripping through the male passenger's luggage ahead of me with a fine tooth comb. I was concerned for what would happen to my one bag. Answer? Nothing. It turned out they were searching for porn - not drugs or anything of that type but pornogrphy. I guess they figured I wouldn't have any. When I got through the customs area I was on my own. Now again, I was used to being mobbed by men constantly and also the "grabbers" - kids that offer to carry your bags for a few cents - but nothing! I just dropped into this weird land - no idea where I would stay - sleep - or how to continue my journey. I asked around and found that they had a hostel that was cheap so found one other westerner who was heading in that direction and teamed up.

The hostel was bare bones - thank God I had a blanket and used my pack as a pillow. Guys and gals (I guess - I was the only female but no offer was made of another area) in the same long ward type room. No one bothered me and I had so little sense I wasn't afraid. I wandered around Kabul - trying to find something to eat. I saw no beggers - India is packed with them - no children hasseled me - no men came up and tried to get me to marry them and take me to America - nothing - just people going about their business. I found a cafe and some other westerners were eating there - as I was talking to them - some had been in India - I was expressing my surprise at the lack of subservience and beggers. I had absolutely no idea about the history of Afganistan and they were equating the attitude of Afgans to not having been colonized by the west. At that time women were going about their business in modest clothing but not all were wearing burkas. I saw girls in school uniforms waiting for the bus - a very poor country but not oppressed. The food was hard to find. I went to a market and watched as a young kid was "washing" stubby little carrots in the gutter water - pushing them around with his feet - leperous at that - and passed up on eating anything but flat bread and chai for the duration of my stay unless it was cooked to death. I found the Afgan people very helpful but they didn't look at you as if you came from another planet - just a fellow traveler on this little blue ball.

My plan was to get on a bus and take it across the country on my way to London. There was an English guy at the hostel with the same agenda so we helped each other navigate the bus schedule and get tickets. It was about 4-5 days before there was a bus leaving that would go all the way to Herat. I hung around Kabul and adjusted to not being the center of everyone's attention and tried to talk to as many Afgans as I could who spoke English. The guy at the hostel was the best because he wasn't too young and was used to dealing with foreigners. He was frustrated with the poverty of the country - especially when he didn't have sugar to off guest's chai - but no sense of begging or asking me to solve the problem. Just human to human complaining. Very different from what I had just left.

Remembering this all now makes me very sad for the country that Afganistan has become. Children never asked me for anything - ever. Now as I read the blogs from the guys who are deployed there - there is endless gimme gimme etc from everyone. I was warned to not go off into the warlord controlled areas - but I still wandered all over the city and the bus journey was accross the center with small villages along the way. As I said - I was covered up but still was free from harrassement from men. People were all polite but left me alone for the most part. More about the bus ride when I pick this up again.