Kabul's Kids II

 Yesterday we spent much of the day on the road driving through Kabul.  We were lucky enough to catch kids on their way to school and coming home after school. All these pictures were taken from a moving vehicle so pardon the quality.  Its difficult to get out for a stroll on Kabul streets and meet folks but hopefully these photos will give you a feel for the city and its people.

 

We started off our day with a smile and a solid "Thumbs Up" from this young fella on his way to school.

 In parts of town you may find garden plots like this one.  This plot is situated close to the Kabul River which runs through town and thanks to steady rains and snow melt actually has a considerable amount of water flowing through it.

 In contrast to the mostly brown landscapes and smog that I see from my camp, most of the young girls and women are dressed in very bright and beautiful clothes.  Note the ever present dust kicked up off the road.

 On each trip into town we see fruit and vegetable merchants by the side of the road.  This man is selling lettuce today.  We've seen a number of strawberry merchants as well using carts similar to these.  They arrange the strawberries with the pointed ends facing up and it looks very nice.  They splash water on them to keep their produce moist.  You can see some water flying onto the lettuce in this photo. They look fresh and healthy but we don't eat them.  The gastronomical consequences are too severe.

 Water is drawn from communal pumps like this one located on the side of roads.  Communal dumpsters also dot the streets but make for lousy pictures.  Those bins fill up quickly and overflow.  Goat herders bring their flocks to pick through the garbage piles and eat up any scraps of food.

 

 This little man was pushing this wheelbarrow down the street backwards at a very quick pace.  In fact he was running with it.  

Its not all pleasure trips through Kabul.  I actually do have to work.  Here I'm giving a seminar on money laundering to a group of Afghan police officers.  My PowerPoint needed to be translated into Dari and I instructed through a translator.

Thanks for checking in.

Ken.

Kabul's Kids

Before I deployed to Afghanistan I had the pleasure to visit the staff and students at Westglen Elementary School in Edmonton, Alberta.  With the help of two wonderful assistants I was able to make presentations to all of the Westglen classes. I really tried to give the students some idea of what it was like to be a kid growing up in Afghanistan.  We looked at pictures of schools, teachers, and students in Afghanistan.  We drew some comparisons between schooling and education in Afghanistan with their experiences in Westglen.  My goal was to demonstrate that despite horrible poverty and insecurity the kids in Afghanistan share many of the same interests as the kids at Westglen. Although they may live far away from each other kids in Kabul are not really that different from Westglen kids. It was an effective lesson in equality and empathy, for all of us. The Westglen students had many good questions and observations.  One young student told me that it made him mad that kids in Kabul didn’t get the same chances that kids in Edmonton had.  That my friends is the wisdom of youth.  

It hasn’t taken me long to find practical examples in Kabul of just how similar kids in these two cities really are.  I’ve seen many groups of kids playing soccer and cricket in vacant dirt lots, schoolyards, paved streets, and even in a cemetery.  I’ve also seen kids skateboarding, playing tag, and riding bikes.  I’ve been driving through Kabul when school lets out and I’ve seen the kids walking home. 

  

Skateboarding with friends in Kabul.  Note the security checkpoint and the barbed wire on the walls behind these boys.  Along this stretch of road boys and girls as young as 6 work selling trinkets and souvenirs to Westerners. That is what the 2 girls in the background were doing when I took this photo.

There are no green spaces in Kabul where kids can play.  But kids will usually find a way. In this photo a group of boys are playing soccer in an empty dirt lot.  

However, I’ve also seen how poverty affects the young children in Kabul.  This is where the similarities end and the reality of life in Afghanistan is clear for all to see.  There is a particularly bumpy stretch of dirt road not too far from my camp where traffic needs to slow down.  Almost everyday, standing in the middle of traffic is a woman with her young son.  I think he is maybe 5 years old.  She holds out her hand hoping that drivers will stop and give her some money.  Her young son sits at her feet in the dirt surrounded by dust and exhaust.  When it’s raining he sits in the mud on a rock at his mother’s feet.  They are there for hours at a time almost every day.  Tonight after dark, while driving home we stopped for a very young girl, maybe 6 years old, who was standing on the side of another very busy road selling eggs.  Traffic was very slow because the police had a checkpoint in the area.  Even though it’s against the rules I cracked open the door just wide enough to hand the girl two American dollars.  Believe it or not $2 dollars will buy 18 large loaves of naan bread in Kabul. That is enough bread to feed a family for a week.

These are sad things for us to see everyday but it helps all of us to recognize how fortunate we are.  So on those occasions when I see Afghan kids at play I stop and watch them for as long as I can.  It reminds me that kids are kids the world over and they ought to be playing, not working the streets.

This sentiment is shared by the staff and the students at Westglen.  As part of their “Go Global” theme they have decided to reach out to the kids in Kabul in a meaningful way.  In the coming months I will be fortunate enough to do my part to “bring” Westglen to Kabul and help facilitate Westglen's interaction with a group of Kabul’s kids.  Please stay tuned and check back in to see how Westglen truly lives up to the school’s motto: “We’ve Got Character”.  

 Here is the link for the finest elementary school in Edmonton: Westglen Elementary:  http://westglen.epsb.ca/

Thanks for checking in.

Ken.