Today is Friday which of course is the "day off" in Afghanistan and just like everywhere else in the world...folks have to shop. I thought I would post several pictures of what it is like to shop in Kabul. It doesn't matter where you are in this city, there will always be stalls along the road full of merchandise for sale. Doesn't matter what you require, you can buy it on the side of the road. Everything from meat, vegetables, oil, fruit, wood, etc. Seriously...you can buy anything you would ever need. I just love watching the activity on the streets as we drive along. It is so interesting to see a small child of 5-6 walking with her parents on the side of the road, holding a chicken by the legs and it has blood still dripping from it. A couple of moments earlier the chicken was in a cage, then was butchered and handed over to the customer. "Fresh chicken" takes on a whole new meaning here...back home we would probably sent the kid for counselling.
There are several large "western style" grocery stores in the city, however most locals don't go there because the prices are higher and they tend to be targeted by the Taliban because of the western shoppers. We have had two attacks on stores over the last several days. The attacks are always the same...one or two suicide bombers will rush by the armed guards outside the store and if they are able to get inside, they will throw hand gernades and start shooting shoppers. Then the police or soldiers arrive and start shooting at the bad guy, who will then blow himself up killing everyone around him, which unfortunately is usually the police trying to stop him.
My shopping of course is much less dramatic (and perilous) as all my shopping is done inside one of the many Coalition compounds and once again, everything you could possibly need can be found at one of the camps. Yesterday myself and Wendall (our trusty Advisory NCO) went shopping for bedding for our in-coming crew. We had just found out that the camp they will be staying at doesn't issue bedding...so, we had to buy 11 sets and guess what color the sheets are?
Green of course.
Dave, I must say as soon as I saw the pictures it reminded me so much of shopping in Mexico. You know the little both and shops set up all over the place. I would be a little hesitant buying one of those chickens. If I am looking correctly that looks like fresh meat hanging there in the hot sun of Afghanistan. Great pictures though.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Kath
I am getting like my Mother, the first thing I noticed was the baby has no hat! Great pictures Son, one sure does get a feel of things. Remember years ago in England, chicken hanging outside, plucked and all, but still had their heads on. Those kettles would make great camping ones........Shopping sure takes on a whole new meaning...........
ReplyDeleteThe chicken story puts things in perspective...it can be hard after seeing things like that and to hold your tongue back home. Biggest thing happening in Calgary at the moment, some parents do not want scores kept for soccer games for kids under 12...it hurts their feelings if they lose....folks here live in such a fragile bubble....hey were there fries with that chicken?
ReplyDeleteNicely done Dave
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you have gone straight from snow to dry and dusty again. just think of the cost savings with immediate chicken delivered to your table. No refrigeration, no health and safety, just a short chop chop.
when we were at Vanuatu, we were on a beautiful beach and there was a stall that offered fresh crayfish. Once you handed over your $10 they went to the waters edge, pulled out the still live cray from the craypot and popped the cray into the boiling water and hey presto, half a fresh cray, it was $20 for a full cray. the tourists were loving it. The sound of the Crays was lost somehow but they must have been fresh and from the purest parts of the ocean.
The boys were playing their indoor soccer last night, and the other team asked for a time move from 4 to 5.30, we unforunatley agreed. It comes game time and we had 4 and they have 8 and it supposed to be 5 a side. So we rope in another kid to play a second game and our boys lost 8 goals to 1. Was there any mercy from the opposition, no way. Did Heckle and jeckyl argue with each other after the game, absolutely.
I went to an old high school reunion last night. It was 30 years since i went to that school. we had 65 kids in my year and 3 of them are dead that we knew of. Not a great strike rate, and that was as far as we knew from the 6 of us that showed up. Just standing around with the BBQ and a drink, talking (mainly rubbish) about how good we were at sport etc back then. Very funny evening. we would still be there talking except the humidity turned into rain at it was 11pm.
Funny weather we are having, 25 degrees overnight and 28 degrees during the day, and so humid. The sort of stuff that the tropics are made of, not good for an accountant staggering around in a suit.
You may have heard about the large cyclone that hit the Qld coast a few week ago. I think that there has been about 4 different cyclones in the last month over the northern coastlines. Not hugely damaging, but a shit load of water. Darwin has had something like in excess of 50cm of rain in 2 days. Once a cyclon touches shore, the winds start to drop in intensity and then you are left with a huge rain storm. The unusual thing about the QLD cyclone was it was still a cyclone 500 km inland. After a day or 2, Melbourne got the tail end of the rain whipping through, no wind but 30cm of rain in a day. Just huge for our part of the world.
Got to go, some one is outside playing with the power supplies.
Keep smiling
Daz