Afghanistan: The name brings to mind images of Taliban soldiers, Muslim extremists, and a society suffering from more than three decades of war. It's a nation that brings fear, heartache, and misery to many people for many reasons. Being one of the poorest countries on earth isn't helping the country's already tarnished image, either. Corruption, poverty, terrorism, this place doesn't have much going for itself, but the people are nice, the mountains are unique, and just being in a place so obscure is kind of cool. And this is where I will call home for the next year. Am I crazy? Probably, but it's too late to go back to try and make sense as to why I came here. The fact is i'm in the heart of a war zone and i'm kind of liking the place. Is that odd?
The journey to this place wasn't the best thing I've experienced. After a shuttle flight to Chicago, I took a twelve flight to Amman, Jordan, then another flight to Dubai, and a get-my-butt-to-the-departure-gate marathon run through Dubai Airport to make the last leg of the trip on an airliner that had ash trays on the arm chairs of the seats. Yeap, it was a long haul, but I made it alive.
Kabul International Airport isn't a real pretty site. It resembles a ware house with make-shift wood rooms for immigration to work in and only one conveyor belt for luggage, not that there's much airline traffic coming through to begin with. Flying into Kabul, I had a stunning view of the sandy, snow-capped mountains that make up the valley the city is in. It's a dusty place, with bad air, and the building resemble mud brick houses separated by what is known among the expat community as 'TV Mountain' where all of the reception antennas are located.
I was met at the airport by Wouter, my boss for the next year for the PDI program at the American University of Afghanistan. I was escorted to my accommodation which is known as the 'Peach House' and then taken to a Korean restaurant to have lunch after being given some time to unpack and shower. The house is big and has about seven to eight rooms. Since it's summer, it's half empty. My room is quite big, by my standards, and has enough furniture to make me want to call it a mini-studio. I was then given a tour of AUAF and I am happy to say that it is a delightful little campus with lots of rose gardens and trimmed hedges.
Today was officially my first day, although I didn't teach at all. I got my cell phone and was given the classes that I would be teaching. I'll be instructing for one month at the British Embassy in Kabul, as well as at a NGO about one hour away. I will also be starting a lower-intermediate class on Tuesday that will be taught on the university. Each class is only two to three days per week for one to two hours per class. And the best part is that I'm not required to do any office hours. But, since I'm here for the next year and since there's not much to do, yet. I'll probably be showing my face around, especially since I have access to a gym, which I wholeheartedly intend on using this time around like I wanted to in Saudi Arabia.
Wouter and me had lunch in the school cafeteria today and it was pretty good grub. I had grilled chicken on skewers, an eggplant stew dish, flavored rice, and some salad. For two dollars, you get a pretty good meal thanks to funding from USAID! Thanks, American tax payers! I also got my official university ID card today with a horrendous photo of me on it, again, I intend on using the gym! It proudly displays my name and says 'Faculty', which gets me off the hook on some checkpoints if I get stopped, I guess.
My first class starts in roughly six hours and I'm wide awake due to taking a five hour nap today. You see, I'm not allowed to leave my house on foot, which makes walking anywhere for any reason impossible. Given this odd predicament, I have done nothing all day and am wide awake writing this post of stuff that isn't that interesting to most people, probably. But, oh well, it's something to do. Anyways, I have to leave the house via vehicular travel and to do that I have to get the university's drivers to come get me, if they are available. If there are not, then I have to call Golden Taxi for a five dollar ride to where I want to go. So far, that has only been to the grocery store,
Kabul is both cheap and expensive. There are lots of bakeries and local stores around, but most foreigners don't really go to these places. Instead, we get the option of going to way overpriced, air conditioned stores that cater to 'our food'. I spent eight-five dollars for groceries today and didn't really get much. I intend on shopping around the local veggie stands when I go on my outings with the university on a weekly basis. But for now, I have some food and found laundry soap, which I can hire the house cleaning guy to do my laundry for pretty cheap, or so I'm told.
Oh yeah, the first night I was here a bunch of us went out to a British restaurant in town to celebrate a fellow English teacher's belated-birthday (she was on vacation). The restaurant was a beautiful outdoor garden with a fellow playing the piano. But, since it caters to foreigners, it was quite expensive. A can of mildly cold Heineken was ten dollars! That's worse than Bahrain, which boggles this poor Yooper's mind. The gathering was fun and I just sort of took a back seat and listened to what people had to say. I look forward to getting to know my coworkers better.
Anyways, it's time for bed. That's all the monotonous stuff I have to write about now. I'm safe in Peach House and probably only have about three hours before the rooster that lives next door starts crowing. It's going to get ugly over here.....
- Jesse
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