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Challenges for Business in Remote Afghanistan

This is a pho­to stu­dio in the remote province on Bamyan, in cen­tral Afghanistan. Since they are far away from major cities and the cap­i­tal Kab­ul, they have devel­oped skills that can help them fix prob­lems of their equip­ment and machines that they are using with­out hav­ing to trav­el and bring their bro­ken machines with them. For exam­ple, this pho­to stu­dio own­er fix­es his own pho­to­copi­er and print­er when there is any small prob­lems with it. If they need to…

Hindrance to My Progress

After spend­ing a week and a half in Bamyan city and train­ing Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents, the pro­fes­sors and a few work­ers from Shuha­da aid and relief orga­ni­za­tion in tech tools and map­ping and Crowdmap­ping pro­grams and appli­ca­tions, it’s time to go back and par­tic­i­pate in the Islam­abad Inno­va­tion Lab ini­ti­at­ed by Internews in Islam­abad, Pak­istan. I was invit­ed to the inno­va­tion lab by the Internews, Afghanistan. We have pur­chased tick­ets and our flight is on Octo­ber 24th, 2011. The actual…

Heading Back to Kabul

Today is my 11th day here in Bamyan. It’s 8:35 in the morn­ing and a beau­ti­ful day here. I have packed every­thing and sit­ting on my bed in my hotel room. I am leav­ing for the air­port in half an hour. When my col­league and I were com­ing to Bamyan we booked round trip tick­ets with Part­ners in Avi­a­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Tech­nol­o­gy (Pactec). They have flight to Bamyan on Sun­days and Wednes­days. The prob­lem is that I am going to…

From Bamyan with Love

This is a con­ve­nience store own­er right across from Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty. Drink­ing tea in his “Love” glass.

Shahr-e-Gholghola-The City of Screams

From the plaque: Shahr-e-Ghol­gho­la (“City of Screams”) is a for­ti­fied urban site dat­ing from late Sas­san­ian (6th c. AD) through to the Ghorid peri­od (12th-13th CC.). The citadel on this hill site was the heart of the Islam­ic city of Bamyan fol­low­ing the decline of Bud­dhism here from the 8th cen­tu­ry AD. Shahr-e-Ghol­gho­la is believed to have been destroyed by the Mon­gols under Genghis Khan, who invad­ed it in 1221 and mas­sa­cred all the inhab­i­tants. The site’s name is said to…

Presentation to BU Staff and the Students

BU Staff and the Students">

When my col­league­U­na and I arrived in Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty (BU here­after), we met with the deputy chan­cel­lor of the uni­ver­si­ty in the after­noon since the chan­cel­lor had been to Kab­ul for his health check­up. As I explained in my ear­li­er blog, we did a needs assess­ment sur­vey of BU back in April of this year and then we were able to raise some funds for their inter­net, solar pow­er and com­put­er labs facil­i­ties. We arrived here on Octo­ber 12th, 2011.…

Inventory for Bamyan University

This is from Thurs­day at Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty. We are mak­ing an inven­to­ry list for the equip­ment that we have brought with to the uni­ver­si­ty in our Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty project (more details in my pre­vi­ous blog). Pro­fes­sors Joya and Motamid are help­ing me with it. Pro­fes­sor Joya has got his mas­ter’s degree in Edu­ca­tion and Lan­guage Learn­ing from Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty. I love work­ing with Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty staff. We were send­ing all these equip­ment from the cap­i­tal Kab­ul through Par­wan to Bamyan which…

Kabul Attack Building

One month ago less than a dozen of Tal­iban attacked Kab­ul city. Look at all those bul­let marks on one of the build­ings that they hid in in the first pho­to. They were fir­ing out of this build­ing. This build­ing is still under con­struc­tion. It’s already very pop­u­lar all over the coun­try and world­wide. Nice name for the build­ing. Kab­u­lAt­tack Plaza! They don’t need to rename it or do fur­ther mar­ket­ing for it :-). Here is an inter­est­ing link: Taliban…

Watch Out! You are hiking in Afghanistan

When you are hik­ing in Afghanistan, don’t always rely on the white paint­ed rocks. You should use your own bomb deters, too. Una and I were hik­ing at this sup­pos­ed­ly dem­ined area near the Bud­dha in Bamyan when we saw an unex­plod­ed bomb half buried in the dirt. Only the tail was stick­ing out and I almost almost stepped on it. It was twi­light and I gave the near­by police a shout. They did­n’t both­er to come at first. Then…

What is democracy?

I was in Dara-e-nur dis­trict of Nan­garhar yes­ter­day. It’s a very remote dis­trict in the mid­dle of nowhere. All moun­tains. I saw this guy who was rid­ing on his motor­cy­cle along with three oth­er friends. I asked them, “why are you four peo­ple rid­ing on one motor­cy­cle?” They said, “it’s democ­ra­cy.” You do what you want and feel like doing.

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