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09/16/2003: "Kandahar Chronicles #11 - 16/09/2003"

Bridget Jones Diary on cable. This is what we do sometimes at the end
of a busy day. We've got 35 channels, 25 in Hindi or Urdu or Dari or
some such thing. Four movie channels, BBC World, CNN for a few weeks
which then switches to Fox Sports for a while, a few others. One
Pakistani channel shows unscheduled movie premieres within a few days
of their release in Hollywood. I saw Terminator III in early July
complete with sillohuetes of members of the audience heading for
popcorn and all the cheers expected from an Arnie movie. Some dodgy
bloke sitting in a theatre with a digital camcorder and a cousin in
Karachi. The TV room is great, spacious and laid out Afghan style with
cushions around the edges. Modern MTV style Indian commercials selling
soft drinks blast out their sales pitch. I don't think this is a
typical project but then again which one is. I need a Coke.


There's four of us in here right now. Kathleen is a nurse from
Hamilton who's cut her teeth working with native Canadians in the
wilds of northern Manitoba. She gets parties going by cranking up
Shania Twain CDs. Beside her is Mattias, our Swedish Project
Coordinator, wearing his funky pants he got while on mission in Sierra
Leone. We're now watching the footy (soccer)on TV. It's nice having
another guy in the project. Finally Bertien, an expat Doctor from
Holland who I first came to Kandahar with in May. We were an expat
team of two for the first six weeks here and had some great times
getting into the job. She knew Mattias from Sierra Leone where they
worked together for six out of their nine month contracts. Hernan(do),
our Argentinian Humanitarian Affairs man is unfortunately having to
pop paracetamols to keep a fever in check and is out for the night.
He's like a nomad crossing the region armed with his laptop, a couple
of months here and a couple there.

I'll write about all their work in detail in later entries, for now,
NFL highlights on Fox.

Replies: 1 Comment

I find your chronicles very interesting and look forward to more. I hope they come as frequently as possible. I have a civilian friend here in Dallas, TX who is about to travel to Kandahar for communications work with the military (that's about all I know about it). He's pretty nervous about the whole thing although I think he will be confined to the base the whole time. In the meantime, I look forward to more of your stories.

Terry Belia said @ 09/18/2003 12:48 PM EST