A civil servant's salary

Because my group will need to work longer hours than the other departments, I am negotiating with one of our project’s main donors to give them what is commonly referred to as a super salary. The highest paid person on my staff currently makes $230 a month. The lowest paid, makes $80. It is believed that anyone who works for the Government supplements their meager salaries with kickbacks, but at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, there is very little in the way of kickbacks. Rent inside Kabul proper ranges anywhere from $50-$300 depending on what type of housing needs you have (i.e. number of rooms), but if you want luxury items like running water, or the occasional use of a generator, that monthly rent rises. Those prices are for Afghans only. For foreigners, Afghan home owners have found a good way to make a living. They rent out their larger homes and charge thousands of dollars in rent. For example, my compound which has a generator (occasionally), running water (unless it it too cold), 12 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a guards shack, costs $4000/month. The owner is allegedly holed up in some nice place in Germany, and lives off what he makes in rent. The typical Afghan meal of rice (pilau), beans, some meat (normally mutton), cauliflower, and a whole lot of oil, typically runs about $1.00 depending where you eat (that is usually from street vendors which is where most locales get their food). A bottle of water will also run about $1, so it is easy to see why everyone drinks tea instead. It is easy to understand why so many children are in the streets yelling “bakshish” (give me money), or for some of the more enterprising youth, they’ll yell “bakshish! Dollar! Euro!”