Will: first week in Kabul

We are now officially resident in Kabul having been registered by a transsexual dwarf in our local post office. She-err-he-sat behind a desk with an air of absolute authority in an office full of men all trying very hard not to look her. I saw her as I entered the office. She was wearing a karakuli hat; a hat normally reserved for tribal elders. She looked at me and I lowered my gaze, taking in her tiny men's sandals underneath the desk. I was still feeling a little delicate having just had my hair cut. The barber shop banter had been going quite well until I asked the barber's son, "When you grow up, would you like to become a son-of-a-bitch like your father?" What I had meant to say was, "Would you like to become a barber like your father?" Unfortunately for me, the word that I head learnt as barber, 'dalok', is now used as a fairly serious insult. In revenge, I was ejected from the salon with a hair cut that is somewhere between Gary Barlow and Gary Rhodes and managed to draw more attention in the post office than the transsexual dwarf.

Despite this mild setback, we have made a good start here. Lucy has made astonishing progress both in researching the gemstone industry in Afghanistan and in learning Dari. This is a bit worrying for me. I am supposed to be able to speak this language but the first words I said to the cook this morning were, "Me go pancake." Even more worrying is the fact that I was asked to translate for Grahame, one of our architects, as he taught some students from a local college how to make energy efficient structures from mud. We mixed 40 barrows of mud with 7 sacks of straw in an 8ft square pit by rolling up our trousers and trampling it all in. The students however had other ideas. Most of them live in a hostel and did not want to have to wash their clothes. More seriously, the students found it almost impossible to entertain the idea that a mud mason might actually have something to teach them. There is a great deal of snobbery here. Should the students return to their villages being able to construct a building that not only requires less maintenance but is stronger and warmer than existing structures, their status could be significantly improved.

My work here requires me to coordinate a programme of restoration and urban regeneration in a quarter of Kabul's old city. It was once a thriving commercial district and home to some of the city's finest houses on the banks of the Kabul river. But the area has suffered from years of decay, warfare, and ill-advised urban planning and had been condemned in a previous east German master plan. We are conserving some of its most significant buildings, including a beautiful 19th century serai which has three courtyards and will eventually house the Institute for Traditional Afghan Arts and Architecture. I am also developing our community development work. The community is a pluralist mix of sunni and shi'a landowners, tenants and squatters, most of whom are too poor to afford the subsidised medicine from our clinic. There are high levels of TB, Hep B, and malnutrition; human and household waste is emptied in the street or dumped in the river; and much of the housing stock is on the point of collapse. We are working with the community to install drainage, sanitation, sewerage, and waste disposal and have set up a school. The community development work also extends to a village north of Kabul where Turquoise Mountain is working with the potters's community to produce high quality tiles based on traditional designs which will be used in restoration projects and exported to international markets. For more details see www.turquoisemountain.org


Istalif is a beautiful village of mulberry and fig trees nestled amongst the foothills of the Hindu Kush. Much of it was destroyed by the Taliban but people have begun to move back and the potters are throwing again. The village is renowned for the deep turquoise lustre of its pottery and traders come from far and wide to buy whole kilns of Isalifi pottery for sale throughout Afghanistan. On this occasion, I accompanied one of our international potters into the mountains to get GPS coordinates for various sites where betters sources of clay have been identified.

Lucy: Arrival and settling in to the fort

Salaam from Kabul!

I am writing from the office of Turquoise Mountain which looks out over the western part of the city. Now it's the afternoon, the dust has been stirred up enough to yellow the air and partially obscure the mountains that surround us. The sun is shining however, and it is hot! In fact, the weather so far has been lovely - warm sunny mornings, with a cool breeze that gets stronger with the heat to produce the dust clouds that fill the afternoon. Admittedly, Kabul isn't a very pleasant place to drive through when it's hot, dusty and smelly, but the fort where we are living is a real sanctuary. Since we were here two years ago, there are trees, plants, flowers and grass all growing in the courtyard where our bedroom is. It is also home to a peacock and a peahen, baby pigeons, Pahlawan the dog, and apparently a centenarian tortoise called "The General" who doesn't seem to have appeared from his hibernation this year.

It is Ramadan at the moment, which presents its own challenges for the nationals working at the foundation. An early start with a pre-sunrise meal gives them enough strength to start work. While the non-muslims in the office wander off to the kitchen for cups of tea and biscuits during the morning, the rest are left trying to keep their mind off food and the thirst that comes on easily because of the dusty air. Lunch is eaten away from those who can't have it. Muslims have to keep their fast until 6pm, but fortunately they are given time off from 2pm to go home and rest. That means that come the afternoon, the office falls quiet, except for the international workers who can't seem to stop working, even into the evening. Will is doing his best to catch up on a rapidly expanding job description, so he may well have to join the worker ants in the evening for a while.

While Will has been working I've been resting, but I've also gone on a few visits - I went with some colleagues here to a clothes shop yesterday to buy some shalwar kameez outfits (trouser and tunic combos with a matching scarf). Although I was sceptical at first, I now love my new outfits as it's just like wearing pyjamas! I also feel more comfortable out in the city as I fit in better. The tunic comes right down to my knees, and the headscarf swathes me in material to cover my head and most of my upper body. Dressed like this, I visited the Kabul museum today with Helen who is a visiting woodwork advisor here. There isn't a huge amount in the museum but we studied what we saw with great interest, as they are some of the few artefacts that remain having been rescued before the Taliban destroyed them back in the late 90s. The scars of Taliban destruction could still be seen on some of the buddhas which had their noses chopped off and on statues of animals that had been reconstructed after they had been smashed to pieces. It gave a very small glimpse of the vast pre-islamic heritage of this country with buddhas, pagan statues and royal jewellery dominating the collections.

The next week will bring lots of new experiences and surprises, i'm sure! Until then...