International Women's Day (IWD)

One of the big campaigns I am gearing my team up for is IWD, and one of my main objectives is to get them thinking of innovative (by Afghan standards) ways to reach their audience. For example, Afghans love to print up pamphlets and posters or to put up billboards. Here’s the problem: over half of the country is illiterate. On top of that, it is estimated that at least 30% of the female population is shut-in; meaning their husbands/fathers control what they see and listen to and forbid them to go out without an escort (usually themselves). By the way, all numbers are estimated as Afghanistan hasn’t had a census since the early 1970s. Most of these figures come from the various province heads (of which there are 34), and there is no organized media measuring organization here so you have to trust that when a TV or radio group says they are the most listened to, that they are. Trust isn't something you do easily here.
Back to the way we are going to reach our audience. In the first brainstorming session, the staff came full of ideas for posters and billboards. When I asked them about how we reach the illiterate they looked perplexed. Since I am here as a capacity builder, I should not be plying them with ideas, but rather guiding them on how to get their own (so they can function without me). All I wanted was for one of them to think of radio as a means to reach the audience, but since they kept coming back to print, I had no choice but to offer an extreme suggestion to nudge them to a middle ground. I brought up “Afghan Star”. It is the hottest show on TV and when it is on, all work in Afghanistan stops. It works like “American Idol”, with people calling in their votes. I suggested we, in conjunction with a radio or TV station, run a version of the show, but call it “Afghan Mother Star” for the most inspirational mother. It was at this point that my plan backfired. They loved the idea. They put all things on hold while they sussed out which TV or radio station would be the best to work with on it. And here I was just hoping they would come to the realization that perhaps billboards weren’t the most effective use for our marketing campaign. Since I cannot stomp on their enthusiasm and I given them a few days to think about it and t talk to their friends about it. Standby. Afghan Mother Star might be coming to a cable channel near you.

(this is a photo of the press office. Going from closest to furthest from the camera: Yari, Abbas, Hasseb, and in the background Gity and Solma)

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!”

A local cure

Regular readers might recall that I have mentioned problems with Afghanistan’s water filtration process (there isn’t one), so it should came as no surprise that I was hit with yet another round of Massoud’s Revenge (so named for the national hero Massoud who was the leader of the Mujahedeen who helped topple the Soviet occupation and lead the fight against the Taleban .. he too was a war load, but I don’t mean to disparage the dead) .. anyhow, as I lay sick in bed, between bouts of sweats and chills, Sharif, the sweet guardsman of our compound came in to my room offering a local cure. Please keep in mind that as a good Muslim, Sharif should not be alone in a bedroom with a woman who is not his wife (for fear of angering Allah), so he was risking his soul to help me. Also keep in mind that Sharif’s English is about as good as my Dari, so in order for us to communicate, it involves a lot of charades (which when you are sick, you don’t really feel like playing). Here is the cure for a stomach bug: a third of a cup of sugar (unrefined because who has time to refine anything here), 3 lemons (pictured above .. these lemons have paper thin peels and are a hybrid of limes and lemons), and tepid water. Mix it all up and drink it down … BUT make sure that before you take this potion, you are done with your retching.
It has been 12 hours since my first potion and I am feeling much better! I do hope Allah forgives Sharif.

When I return home, I will NOT:

Eat lamb for a year.
Drink black or green tea for 2 years.
Sleep in a sleeping bag under my bed covers.
Wear a hat to bed (unless I am camping).
Wear three layers of underclothes (unless I am camping).
Go camping.
Stoke or start any fires.
Eat semi dried grapes-raisins.

The big barf of 2007

I woke up this morning and didn’t feel that great. I pulled back the curtains to see it was barfing again … big time.
The pictures are of the compound where I live, my driver and one of the guards trying to put chains on tires (this would help explain why Kabul’s roads are as bad as they are), and why my clothes never seem to get dry!

Bubakhshin (pardon me)

No one blows their nose in public. To do so is considered offensive. On any given day, you will hear a symphony of sniffling. Also considered offensive: wearing colorful hats (and not scarves) as an adult. whoops.

It's barfing

The Dari term for snow is "barf". I'm not kidding. It hasn't barfed here since the big barfstorm on Christmas because it has been too cold. But there is still plenty of barf on the ground. This morning, it was barfing. Not big barf but sprinkly barf. I guess I should be happy that the temperature is warm enough for it to barf .. maybe winter is finally coming to an end and I can see another season.

Nightlife

There isn’t a huge nightlife scene in Kabul. The bars are attached to restaurants (of which there are 8), and there’s one disco (kind of hard to get your groove on to Afghan music), so most activities take place at private compounds (that word makes it seem grander than it is .. really it is just a guesthouse with an unarmed guard on duty). In order to occupy our time, there are a number of “game nights” to choose from. Typically the hosting house provides the liquor (if there is any to be found), and participants bring the snacks and mixers (things like Pringles but they are made in Pakistan so they are called Ringles). Here is a sample of my social calendar: Monday is trivia night, Wednesday and Sunday is low buy-in Texas Hold ‘Em night, Tuesday is big buy-in poker night (I don’t go to this), and Saturday is Scrabble night. The rest of the week gets filled in with the occasional restaurant outing and plenty of DVD watching (since we are so close to China, we get newly released movies very quickly .. although you have to watch them with Chinese subtitles). The above picture was taken at one of my regular poker nights, and “buy-in” refers to how much it costs to get a seat. The big buy-in night is $100, the low buy-in night is $10 (otherwise known as piddly poker).

Media Monitoring

One of the things I am training my staff to do, is media monitor. What this means is that they are to go through published/aired reports from TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the internet and compile a comprehensive report to give to the Minister on a daily basis. I told them they are to look for important stories about women. Here is a sample of what I got:
Day 1 of media monitoring: stories about Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. I explained that yes, these are women and they are important women, but that I want them to look for stories that are important to women HERE.
Day 2 of media monitoring: a roundup of headlines from the US. They assumed that by “here”, I meant in the office (and since I am an American, they assumed I wanted them to give me stories affecting me) . So, again, I learn that translation is key and that unless you want them to take you literally, you have to explain everything.
It is now Day 6 of training and they have improved. They backslide occasionally, but for the most part, their selections are now more Afghan-centric.

Poppy for dummies

I have not tried poppy/opium, but it is one of the most available drugs in Afghanistan. The poppy trade has financed many a war-load, and here, there are many. It is illegal to grow, sell and/or use, but it’s unclear how strict the fines are. Users, sellers, and farmers were sent to jail (regardless of the quantity) during the Taleban regime, which is weird considering most people really got hooked on it when the Taleban were in charge.
Poppy comes from the poppy flower. A special sickle looking knife is used to cut the stem and collect the back tar like substance that is in the stem. That tar/ash thing is the actual drug. If you rub it between your fingers, it will look like you have been handling black ash. There are a number of ways to use it, but the preferred method seems to be mixing it with your tea. Here is the catch and why I write (for those of you considering trying it) … if you mix it with warm water, you have to drink only warm liquids for a good 8 hours afterwards. If you have something cold, your stomach will distend and it will (allegedly) feel like your stomach is trying to disassociate itself with the rest of your body. I am told this is a horrible feeling. Many Afghans do use poppy regularly during the winter months, but a very small amount. While it is still a narcotic even in small quantities, it (again, apparently) makes your body feel warm. Having gone through an Afghan winter, I can attest that feeling cold sucks.