"Kandahar Chronicles is the ongoing story of the day-to-day life of an MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) Field Logistician based in Kandahar Afghanistan. You can email the author your questions and comments here: carlos@citizenlab.orgWednesday, February 25, 2004Kandahar Chronicles #75 - 24/02/2004Today I left Kandahar. I packed my bags and threw them in the same land cruiser that brought me in from the airport nine and a half months ago. I said my goodbyes and left them all. I left the guards who allowed me to sleep well at night and the drivers who showed me the hidden streets of the city. I left the men who cooked and cleaned for me whatever my moods or messes. To my logistics team with whom I shared so much. Goodbye cats, Horse, Footsak, Froid and the rest. I said goodbye to my brother Jaweed, who couldn’t look me in the eye but had tears in his. To the expat team, who would only have time to wave before returning to their desks to deal with the always increasing workload. Goodbye to the Coalition and the Taliban, enjoy your war. With my Canadian passport allowing me freedoms unimaginable here, I left the IDPs to scratch out an existence in the dust and send their kids to school through the minefields. Goodbye to the medics to deal with chest infections, malnutrition and the shredded bodies of curious children. posted by @ 02:38 PM EST [more..] [Karma: -2 (+/-)] [7 Comments] Monday, February 23, 2004Kandahar Chronicles #74 - 21/02/2004I'll never drink again. Most of the NGO expat community was over last night for my goodbye bash and I didn't get to sleep until three a.m. We had organized loads of food, drinks and the barbeque from ICRC. We set up the cushions in the centre of the house compound, spread a few candles around and evrybody settled in while I ran the grill. Marinated chicken and steaks like hockey pucks. There were about fifteen people all together from Italy, UK, Serbia, Bosnia, Germany, Canada, Nepal, USA, Norway, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland. It was nice and relaxing, not the usual MSF dance scene we were famous for in the past. However, this being Kandahar, curfew crept up and people started to drift off in twos and threes. Email addresses were swapped, promises made to stay in touch, "Take care, this place will get crazy again. Who knows, the aid world is a small one, we'll probably meet in some other dusty war zone." Then they were gone. After months of working in deserts, exchanging theories about window shaking explosions and sharing cool drinks, another Kandahar chapter has closed. posted by @ 01:52 PM EST [more..] [Karma: 3 (+/-)] [1 Comment] Kandahar Chronicles #73 - 19/02/2004 A frantic week of handover to the new logistician has left me with a sore throat, a headache and a feeling that everything will be just fine. Misha is an organized guy that already seems to be able to face the challenges ahead of him. At first I had a strong,protective feeling over the logistics staff. "Make sure Sharif leaves by four to get to his classes. Amadullah can't do any heavy lifting for a week until his arm is better. Hyatullah needs the money to pay for his English course...and Wadud likes two sugars in his chai." Okay, maybe not the two sugars one but I've realized how well I know these men and their ways and how close I've become to many of them. For Misha, I've run him through the main points of the job and told him to trust in his staff. They know the work and the place can operate without us. Nine months is a long time and it is impossible to micro-manage for that long without becoming exhausted. It's almost time to let go and it is difficult. Shit,I forgot to tell him about Hamid's dentist appointment, and Ghulam Nabi needs a chain for his bike... posted @ 01:49 PM EST [link] [Karma: -1 (+/-)] [No Comments] Tuesday, February 17, 2004Kandahar Chronicles #72 - 16/02/2004-- Guest Entry from Doctor Hamil -- I am working in Afghanistan for a bit more than 3 month as a medical doctor and to start with a good thing I fell in love with this weird country. It definitely must be a she, when I look at her gorgeous body I feel like drinking it. But unfortunately I don’t have the opportunity very often as we are restricted in our movements to the necessary ones, which means for me to see the hospital, some other NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) compounds and the way to the airport, not to forget our own nice compound that doesn’t always appears to be that nice especially after staying inside for a couple of weeks. posted by @ 12:23 PM EST [more..] [Karma: -1 (+/-)] [1 Comment] Kandahar Chronicles #71 - 15/02/2004 I’m sitting on a dusty window ledge looking through a warped windowpane with a notebook on my lap. Behind me, a policeman fills in paperwork that will extend my Afghan visa for another thirty days. Below me, the hustle of Sheydan Chowk, the main roundabout in central Kandahar. Martyrs Circle is dominated by a white and blue structure covered with Pashtu script. Surrounding it is four green cannons left by the British a hundred and fifty years ago. Cannons and martyrs, the imperialist powers legacy to Afghanistan since the invention of gunpowder. Construction continues on the central arch structure and probably will until those who wish to subjugate these people realize the futility of their enterprise. From Alexander to the Persian Shahs, the Sultans of Merv, Bohkra, Samarakand, the British Raj and the Red Army, Afghans have fought and died. Their cities have been occupied but the people never vanquished. posted by @ 12:19 PM EST [more..] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments] Friday, February 13, 2004Kandahar Chronicles #70 - 11/02/2004Today we were like boys with mechano sets. I spent the better part of the day hauling heavy boxes from a storeroom and packing it to the delivery room of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Ward (OGW). Once we had the room full of enough boxes, we ripped them apart and stood looking at the spilled contents. Delivery beds, surgical tables and trays, wheeled stretchers. We rubbed our chins for a minute and jumped in. It was a bit like the afternoon after a girlfriend had dragged me through Ikea all morning. I watched in silence for a minute while Wali, Rohullah and Sharif yelled at each other and started bolting pieces together without any sense of order. I finally interjected and forced them, against their will, to follow the instructions. “Insert small bolt A into hole 6 on cross piece C and tighten with supplied accessary tool 2. “ Okay. “First be sure to attach self-tapping structure bar 3 to external frame D and tighten.” D’oh! When there are ladies giving birth on these tables, I don’t want to hear any shouting about how tough child birth is. posted by @ 01:26 PM EST [more..] [Karma: 3 (+/-)] [No Comments] Tuesday, February 10, 2004Kandahar Chronicles #69 - 09/02/2004Today I faced a room full of men, two thirds of whom were about to lose their jobs. We have made a decision to resume operations in Zhare Dasht camp but with a reduced presence. Instead of one Basic Health Unit (BHU), with a night shift, and two Health Posts (HP), we will start operations with only the day shift BHU. This means that out of a total of thirty-two guards and cooks, only eleven will still have a job by the end of the meeting. I looked at their faces as they waited for me to begin, nervous smiles and quick nods as I looked over the room. Poor men with families to support looking at me, an uncertain future personified. Good men who I worked with through sandstorms and diphtheria, roasting heat and Taliban threats. In nine months with MSF, through numerous bomb blasts, wild automatic weapons fire and too many malnourished little babies to count, this has been the worst day. posted by @ 11:37 AM EST [more..] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments] Kandahar Chronicles #68 - 08/02/2004 The Zhare Dasht explo mission. A rather dramatic definition for a trip I’ve made too many times to count. I jumped into a land cruiser with Jan Peter, Wali and Dr. Maboobshah and with Jawed and Sadiqullah in another we took off for the IDP camp. We want to get the medical services running again so it was time to get up there and do a security assessment. In thirty minutes we arrived at our first destination, the compound of Commander Habibullah Jan in Senzari village. Habibullah Jan is security responsible for the area around the road leading to Helmand province west of Kandahar. His private army patrols the tracks and valleys of this region, often coming into conflict with destabilization forces. He was holding court in front of his compound with a group of elders as a smartly uniformed guard with a handlebar moustache waved us in. I’ve seen him many times but this was the first time that I would have an opportunity to speak with him. posted by @ 11:36 AM EST [more..] [Karma: -4 (+/-)] [No Comments] Friday, February 6, 2004Kandahar Chronicles #67 - 05/02/2004What a day, what a day, what a day. I’m shorthanded in logistics. My purchaser, log assistant and storekeeper have all decided, without informing me, that they needed a couple extra days off after Eid. With Safi from administration gone to Pakistan to see his family, it only leaves me and Jaweed to run the whole show. On top of this, a Certain Someone (CS) is under my skin all the time and Hamil is pissed off for his own reasons. In nine days my replacement, Michael, arrives and he can inherit all this. I’m going to be very sad to leave the guys but mornings like this make it easier. I’ll spend the weekend sticking blast film on to the land cruiser windows in preparation for an Explo mission to Zhare Dasht. I’ll drive up with the PC, Jan Peter, to assess whether it will be possible to resume operations at the Basic Health Post. I’ll be able to get the hell out of here for a few hours and get back into the camp environment that makes this job so worthwhile. Eighteen days to go (but who’s counting?) and the compound walls are giving me one final squeeze. posted by @ 02:10 PM EST [more..] [Karma: 7 (+/-)] [No Comments] Kandahar Chronicles #66 - 04/02/2004 This place is strange. After a frantic day at the office organizing everybody else’s problems, I managed to sneak out for a while to clear my head. We have donated two of our minivans to another NGO who are handling the transport logistics for patients from Zhare Dasht. I went over to their compound with three of my drivers but had to wait a while before we could move the vehicles inside their compound. The situation is tense enough here to try to avoid standing around on a street corner, so I decided I might as well walk down a block and check out the amusement park. This newly opened park, opposite the UN High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, compound, features a full size Ferris wheel, a centrifugal force teacup ride, a Viking ship pendulum ride and a go-cart track. It is about as Kandahari as a strip club but the locals seem to love it. Hundreds of men line the sidewalk in front of the gates watching hundreds more enjoying themselves inside. I bought a couple of bags of roasted peanuts from an old baba and some oranges from a cute little kid with a prosthetic arm and watched the show. posted by @ 02:07 PM EST [more..] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments] Monday, February 2, 2004Kandahar Chronicles #65 - 02/02/2004We celebrated Eid yesterday with the guys working in the compound. As it is a holiday, there was only two drivers, two guards, Jaweed and the four of us. As opposed to “Little Eid”, which is celebrated after Ramadan, “Big Eid” takes place during the time of the Haj. This is the time when millions of Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca, something every Muslim who can afford it should do. More to the point here, it is also the time when thousands of sheep are slaughtered on the first day of the celebration. I planned for a similar celebration and sent Jaweed out to buy a sheep. It was also Hamil’s birthday so as a present to him I had Jaweed also pick up a beat up game of table football that I’ve seen in front of a near by shop. I rented it for two days and put it in front of the office close to where we built a barbeque pit. The poor sheep spent its last hours listening to firecrackers in the street, the cheers of football combatants and the sound of knives being sharpened. posted by @ 11:56 AM EST [more..] [Karma: 6 (+/-)] [No Comments] Kandahar Chronicles #64 - 30/01/2004 The news from Kabul is worrying. Consecutive attacks on the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) by suicide bombers, as well as Taliban threats for more attacks in Kabul and Kandahar, has brought another sinister element to the conflict in Afghanistan. The use of suicide bombers is more associated with the war in Iraq, Israel/Palestine and Chechnya, among others. The Taliban have traditionally liked to live to fight another day. This latest trend seems to indicate a tactic favoured more by Al Qaeda, who are closely intertwined with the Taliban. Members of the military, the International aid community and millions of Afghans now wonder if this is the start of the anticipated spring offensive. The risk of being targeted, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time increases again. No matter how much distance we give the Coalition forces or how strongly we maintain neutrality and impartiality, we realize that it is again time to reassess our movements. posted by @ 11:54 AM EST [more..] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] [No Comments] |
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