Day-by-Day account – PART III

Kabul Time = +9.5 hours on EST

PART III Dec 22nd Dec 21^st Dec 20th Dec 19th Dec 18th Dec 17th PART II Dec 16th Dec 15th Dec 14th Dec 13th Dec 12th Dec 11th PART I Dec 10th Dec 9th Dec 8th Dec 7th Dec 6th

Dec 22^nd – I’ll be home for Christmas, you can plan on me After a freezing morning at the office, we caught our flight out of Kabul to Dubai yesterday afternoon at 1:30 pm (3:30 am Saturday Toronto time). Marc and I were actually the two last passengers to report. Our colleagues already at the Airport were worrying about us. The UN plane left for Dubai minutes before the ISAF German helicopter crashed in Kabul, killing 5 military personnel on board. We were glued to CNN regarding this news were we got to Dubai. I left Dubai for Heathrow at 2:15am (weird time to take off – 5:15pm Saturday, Toronto time). It is now Sunday 10:00am London time (5:00am Toronto time). Flight British Airways 93 is leaving for Toronto at 12:30 pm local time (7:35 am Toronto time) and will be landing in Toronto at 3:30pm. So, I’ll make it in Toronto after some 36 hours of travelling and 42 hours without sleeping (actually, I have been napping here and there during the last 30 hours). Dec 21^st – Leaving Kabul for Dubai We are catching our flight to Dubai at 1:30 pm Saturday, Kabul time – which is 4:00 am Saturday morning Toronto time. In Dubai, we have some 12 hours wait before Marc’s flight to Paris and my flight to London. So, we will go for some sightseeing of Dubai. We are catching our flights respectively at 2:00am and 2:15 am. I should land in London some 7 hours later – early Sunday morning at 6:25 am local time. I’m leaving London 12:30 pm to land in Toronto at Terminal 3 at 3:30 pm on Sunday afternoon. Friday night, we had an impromptu Holiday celebration at the Guesthouse with the country director, Arcan Murat and other guests. Marc and I went to work on Friday morning, but took the afternoon off to do some sightseeing with our driver who took us to Kabul University, the royal palace (destroyed), the war zone, the infamous stadium, the kennel of the UN De-mining dogs and to Chicken Street. Dec 20th, 4pm - What was once the front line Dec 20^th – The Workshop is finished Dec 20^th, 3:30pm - Dignitaries at the Closing ceremony of the Networking workshop – General, Deputy-Minister and Minister of Telecommunications. Dec 19^th Class graduation - with Minister of Communications (blue suit), Deputy-Minister (brown suit and hat), and Ercan Murat, UN Country Director (Brown winter coat) Dec 19^th – Safety and Security Basic facts about living in Afghanistan: Every day 15 people step on land mines in Afghanistan. It is estimated that 50,000 pounds of unexploded ordnance is still in Kabul– so beware where you steep foot. Extremist groups have adopted the strategy to detonate a small bomb in a public place, wait for a crowd to gather around the wounded, and then detonate a larger bomb, thus inflicting maximum damage. So, a new UN SOP is that we are no to attend wounded following a deflagration, unless they are UN workers and we can pull them out to a minimum of 100 meters from the first blast. When taking a walk, we make sure that we are back before the streets gets to busy with commuters. As a woman, and by UN SOP, when in public, I must be accompanied by two UN male workers, one of which must be local. Kabul is no longer under a curfew but at dusk roadblocks are established and Afghanis troops check vehicles. UN workers are under a UN curfew and most report to their guesthouse no later than 11pm. Our guesthouse has 10-day worth of food supply for full house – should the situation get tense, we would be asked by UN to stay put until we are evacuated. Dec 18^th – When in Rome, do like the Romans do… Every day, I’m learning new “Do’s and Don’t’s” of being in Afghanistan, such as: Today’s date: 7 December 1381: In Afghanistan, the year are counted from the time the prophet left his homeland and became a refugee. Wear the hijab: When in public, like in the car or strolling the hallways of the Ministry of Communication or during our early morning walks with the UNDP dog Loya, wear the hijab – the headscarf. At the office, and during class, I start off with the hijab but no longer pull it back up when it slides down. Take the backseat: I always take the backseat in the UN car - women here don’t sit in the front seat Don’t shake hands: I don’t extent my hand when meeting someone – As a woman, I wait that men extent their hands to greet me. Don’t eat and talk: During lunchtime, one doesn’t engage in a conversation. Mealtimes are met for eating, not socializing, and therefore are very quiet. Allow time for prayers: I need to provide my students with a longer lunch break so they have time to do their prayers before the class resumes Friday - Day of Prayer: Don’t work on Friday (kind of) Dec 17^th – No satellite link, No Socks & Attack on American soldiers I couldn’t upload my web diary on Dec 17^th - we had lost our satellite link. On Dec 17^th, the last day in Kabul for Bill and Gabriele, we went early for our morning walk. The skies were very clear, and the wind biting. On our way back to the guesthouse, we met some boys on their ways to the mosque. Most of them had no socks in their shoes. Worse, some had no socks and were wearing only plastic sandals. Dec 17^th, 6:50am - Boys on their way to an Islamic school. They have shoes but no socks or proper clothing for this sub-zero temperature. The main topic of conversation at dinnertime was the grenade thrown that afternoon to a ISAF jeep in Kabul, wounding seriously two American soldiers….