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…
read more »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…
read more »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…
read more »This Time in Bamyan
Back in April of this year, my colleague, Una and I came to Bamyan for a needs assessment survey at Bamyan University (hereafter BU). The university is located in the provincial center. The number of students as per last April was over 1700. Its academics are faculties of Education, Social Sciences, Agriculture, Geology. And faculties of Computer Science, Journalism and Health to open in 2012. We took a tour of BU’s old and new campuses. BU’s new campus that was…
read more »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.
read more »Car wash in Jalalabad
Generally, there are two types of car washes in Jalalabad: 1. fancy and expensive that commanders, et. al. use and 2. river and stream sides located ones that use a small gennie to pump water and hose down cars. Below is a hand pressure pump that is used to splash oil under the car so that it doesn’t get rusty. Most of the cars that we use in Afghanistan are used cars that get dumped here after they are first used…
read more »A Joyful Weekend at Sweating Man
My brother, Idris, Rahmat and I went to the Jalalagood Sweating Man last weekend. Then we played Khusai, the one footed Afghan game. It was so much fun that I forgot to take any photos. There was a flood a couple of days earlier and the water in Behsood River was all very gray because of the floods, etc. This fisherman was trying to catch fish. He caught a few fish that were literally the size of his middle finger.…
read more »Water Tank
Funny water tank on top of a house. This family lives 20 kilometers south of Jalalabad city and they have enmity with Taliban. Taliban killed a member of this family and then they went and killed several Taliban to take revenge. The family is always vigilant. They guard their house with their AK47s 24/7. It’s funny that they have this flashy red water tank. There is another house in Jalalabad that has a water tower in the shape of an…
read more »A few Moments with Baba Jan
This is Baba Jan in the beautiful district of Kama. I was out with my mapping team when we met him. We were passing by his hut he gave us a shout and offered us watermelon. We stopped and sat down with him. He asked us to wait for him to finish his hash. “I enjoy the conversation then,” he said. Baba Jan has a small store right across from his hut which is run by his 9‑year-old daughter. He…
read more »Addresses in Afghanistan
Normally, in Afghanistan we don’t have street names and street numbers. There are some streets and almost all towns with names. Funny story how streets and some towns are named but before that: I was driving outside Jalalabad city the other day and I needed directions to a friend’s house. I asked a couple of famers with their shovels on their shoulders for directions to a friend’s house in the area. In rural areas where people live in small towns…
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