Coast of Wales - more beautiful than you would expect

Pictures from a recent trip to Wales with my brother and his girlfriend. I kind off always expected wales to be a rough and tough landscape, and was therefore slightly surprised to find lovely little seaside villages, azure blue coastal lines, and a stone beach similar to Nice! Definitely a good hint to everybody who likes surfing, swimming, biking, climbing, or simply relaxing in the sun!

Walking up the wall

Today was not the first time that I had climbed the old city wall of Kabul, but the first time that I did the entire transcend from one side of the hill to the other. And, finally, I got to know the story behind the wall, thanks to my friend Wendy. Apparently, in the 12th century, the place what is modern day Kabul had two kings. A good one and a bad one. One day, the bad king decided to build a wall. He forced all people of his kingdom to climb up the hill, everyday, carrying bricks and stones, to slowly slowly build up the wall. One day, a newly married man got sick. But since he was afraid of the king, he insisted to his wife that he will go up the wall and do his duty, to avoid punishment. The wife got worried about his health, and eventually they decided that she would go up, dressed in men's cloths, and carry bricks on behalf of him. While she was up there, the bad king passed by to inspect the progress of the wall. He started shouting at the workers, blaming them for not doing a proper job. The woman got angry, and in her anger, throw a stone at the king and killed him. From that day onwards, the woman was celebrated like a hero, and peace returned to the two sides of the city.

Interestingly enough, nowadays, it's only the female inhabitants of Kabul who seem to remember this story... ask a guy about the wall, and he will just shake his head and pretend not to know where it all started ...

Finally social?

Guess what? After years of resistance, I have finally joined in the global social virtual network called facebook. A moment of weakness during Friday morning brunch with a friend (who had already tried several times before to seduce me into this endless pool of friends and strangers) and before I even realized WHAT I was doing, I had typed in my email, created a password and send out the news to 50 people from my address book (with the results that I now have over ten new-old friends).

Though I am now part of it, I remain sceptical. For several reasons. First, the big question to me is: do I really want to be connected to the world? I actually feel quite cosy in my own little world, with a few people I really care about. The second big question: do I actually WANT to know whats going on in the life of other people? Personally, I do appreciate a bit of privacy, and try to apply the same to the people I know. It seems that we are voluntarily subscribing ourselves to surveillance. Thirdly, how much real conversation can one actually have on facebook? It allows one to get superficial information about the where and who, but how much real talk do you have? Except the occasional message? The occasional uploading of party pictures? Forth, how much personal can you make your profile? I don't like the idea of presenting myself to the world with the same tools millions of other people are using.

I do respect everybody who is happy with the way facebook allows us to keep up friendships. But I don't think that it is the way I would like to communicate to the ones I care about.

Maybe it's wrong NOT to feel a desire to be connected to all the ones I ever met. In many ways, I am connected to them, or at least those I wish to be conneted to. In my mind. Even if I do not see them, hear them, talk to them, they are there. The ones I met and care about, will always be part of me, even if I never see them again in life. And sometimes, I think, its best to remember people the way you met them, not the way they developed. Remember them and the unique moments when I was with them.

So, concluding, call me antisocial if you want, but I think that facebook is not my way of socializing :)

Kandahar Airport

Old Citadel of Hirat

Friday mosque of Hirat

Just like holiday

It doesn't always have to be the Italien Riviera, Maldives or Thailand. Sometimes, even the most unlikely place can feel like a perfect holiday destination, if you want it too.

I spend the last seven days in Hirat, and though I worked more hours than I would usually do, it still felt like holiday. What made it a holiday? Mellow evenings by the pool... a sepia coloured sand storm... ancient buildings... endless afternoon teas with colleagues and their families... dinner in thousand and one night restaurant, above the city of Hirat... an occasional glass of wine... fresh morning air (without smog!)... driving incognito (with a long black chadar) through the city and looking at the millions of interesting no-name things...cooking food in a friends place...buying a little souvenir for my little cousin...hearing the click of my camera over and over again...

Sitting in the plane, flying back to Kabul, music in my ears, Afghanistan miles below my tiny window, my head sticked to the screen of the window, I felt happy. Not overwhelmed, simply happy with where I am, what I do, whom I know. Happy for being able to make other people around me happy. For a moment, forgetting about all the bad stuff that goes on in Afghanistan, for a moment forgetting about the syssiphus act that we all perform here in Afghanistan, for a moment, just being happy to have the opportunity to live in this country.

Finally again: flying the "humanitarian way"

Somehow I missed all of it:

The quick take off
The narrow interior
The lack of on board toilets
The lack of glossy magazins
The constant bumps
The noise from the propellors,
The occasional hazard of a break away door
The every day reality of minor incidents, such as lack of cabin pressure

Somehow I missed the feeling of sitting in a shoebox 20'000 feet above the ground.
Yesterday, I finally had all of it (except the door and the minor incidents) once again. Finally, I was flying again in a small aircraft called "Beechcraft", the one I was flying with hundreds of times during my stay in Somaliland.
Since there wasn't a commercial flight to Hirat, I decided to try out the ICRC airline, which flies a 19 seater Beech craft in Afghanistan. All in all, the deal which they offer is GREAT. It's first of all for free, you are driven all the way to the airport, you don't have to cross the hundreds of security checks, you don't have to pretend you like the dry sandwhich which you would otherwise be offered in commercial airlines. As said, it's great! To top it all up, I got to know five minutes before take off that the plane will visit Kandahar first, then fly on to Hirat. Though I am not very eager to spend real time in Kandahar, I was always curious to at least get a glimpse of this city in the south, where Prison Break is reality and which the winner of "Afghan Star" and one of the bravest female police officers call their home.

Landing in Kandahar is best described with "steep". All of a sudden, peeking out of the window, I saw a tiny landing strip about 5 km below us. Uncountable turns and spirals followed this first view, until we landed - several minutes later - on the very same landing strip.
The airport is actually quite busy; though mainly military planes, there is indeed a constant take off and landing. Besides planes, there are plenty of other curious things to observe in this airport: soldiers keeping fit while running in 50° C up and down at the side of the runway; soldiers trying to keep fit by bycicling close to the run way; soldiers sweating under their heavy uniform, and all what you can see is a child like face; several plastic toilets with "crapanistan" carved into the inside of the door (must have been the soldiers on duty next to the toilet); a real retro styled airport building from the 60ties; a few gardeners removing flowers that have dried out due to lack of water; ... Not taht all that would have encoaurged me to stay longer than half hour in Kandahar, but still, interesting to at least have seen this place once!

I have tried to take few picutres, but unfortunately forgot my USB cabel in Kabul; will post them as soon as I am back.

Just in case...

Just in case you have heard of the suicide attack yesterday in Kabul, this is to let you know that I am fine. I was actually on my way to Hirat, and had just left Kabul when the attack happend. I only got to know about it when I opened my emails later in the day. Reading about the attack made me extremely sad; I also started worrying about all those colleagues and friends who were in Kabul by then, but as far as I know nobody whom I know has been at the site at that time.

When things like this one happen, I wonder how much longer I can live in Kabul without loosing my enthusiasm to support the rebuilding of this country.