Unethical Employment?

A layer of dust instantly covers everything in Kabul – my face, my laptop, my books.

The flies are aggressive, they land on you and will hardly be shooed away: “Get lost, I was here first.”

Each day I go out, I "employ" two of the beggar kids Anayatollah and the Map Kid at one dollar a day. Their job is to keep all the other beggars away from me (I can't claim credit for this idea). It works well. They joke with everyone that they are our bodyguards. My seven year old bodyguards.
Probably unethical, but I have an easier time.

Universities

We spent the last three days interviewing various professors and students at a few different universities - private, national, and religious.
Everybody was incredibly encouraging, helpful and generous with their time. We could not have been made more welcome.

It's exhausting and fascinating.

Many of the students are confident - they'll stand up, state their opinions, argue, come back with new ideas, although not many of the female students speak, even when I try to encourage them.
What strikes me is the diversity of opinion and hopes for the future. Many say they want democracy, others an Islamic Democracy (whatever that is), others want a theocracy.

Sabira (our fabulous indefatigable research assistant and translator), a Professor, and Mike and I visited Khatam Un Nabein, a new madrassa and university that will have amazing facilities. The professors stressed the compatibility of Islam and democracy ("anybody who sees them as incompatible is mis-interpreting Islam and/or democracy).
Every night we re-write the questionnaire, based on what we hear.

Some ideas that have surprised me:

Almost all students believe that the Americans aren't winning because they choose not to (they want to remain in Afghanistan for their own strategic purposes).

Some felt that not winning was a conflict between superpowers - Britain* and the US, who each pay the Taliban to kill the other's troops.

Most don't want NATO to leave now, just to win.

*the idea that Britain is still a superpower is surprising enough on its own.

Kabul University

We had a few meetings at Kabul University.
Talking to the professors in some departments there is just like talking to European professors. But they are dressed more formally (suits and ties), so Sabira and Mirweis marched us off to the tailors to get suitably suited and booted. Finding something without too much sparkle was a challenge (I wasn’t sure what to buy, except I guessed it shouldn’t be too sparkly). I settled on a shalwar kameez, red pants and white cotton top, made to measure in less than a day, and very cheap. Although I realized later the fabric is completely sheer, it doesn’t matter since I’m blanketed in a shawl the whole time anyway.

English Language Center

We visited the English language center where Sabira's sister, Tahira studies.
It was genuinely humbling to see the lengths that some people go to get an education.
We visited one small classroom. It was noisy (construction outside), hot, over-crowded and the teacher hadn't turned up.
The students work during the day and study at night, but they still sat and debated in English the sentence "Failure is an incentive."
Tahira is the prefect and keeps the students (and teachers in order). She wants to study in the US.

Western Kabul

Moved to a new guest house is Western Kabul, and it feels much more like a neighborhood. On my first trip from this guesthouse with Mike and Sabira, armed guards were hiding behind the barricades, combat ready.
“Let’s step to one side,” someone said. It turned out to be a drill.
I wander around this neighborhood a little bit on my own, the people in the stores getting to know me.

Secure walk

The guesthouse would only allow me out for a walk with a security guard (bit embarrassing at first). Went to the famous Chicken Street (tourist tat, sans tourists), and not a chicken in sight.

Mike, my co-researcher arrives later. I'm excited about our project: we plan to investigate what kind of political and economic system university students want, and whether their opinions and values change with education. How do students see their place in society and their country’s place in the world? Does education increase inter-personal trust? Does education change how people feel about other countries? Many people tried to discourage me from coming, and I know it's a bit dodgy, but understanding what students want and how they relate to other groups and nationalities has the potential to contribute to stability.

Sightseeing in Kabul

I hired a car, the driver spoke no English and I speak no Persian, but we communicated well. Kabul...brilliant so far (for comparatively rich foreigners...).
Kabul seems like a huge market town, where all kinds of people converge. Blond people, Asians, Central Asians. Different tribes, dress, faces, and it's been like this for thousands of years.
Many women in light blue burqas, with faces covered by grids, others in shalmar kameez, others in jeans and long tops (I needn't have been so paranoid about what to wear).
The hills surrounding Kabul are like ugly Xmas cards.

I saw a little girl in a gold sparkling dress herding brown flop-eared goats around a busy roundabout; donkey carts; human carts; a minx in a blue sparkly outfit posed amongst her dad's melons for my camera; everyone likes having their pictures taken (I haven't taken pictures in years).

M., a friend of a guy on our project, his fiancee, and his father took me to a Sufi restaurant, basically middle-eastern. They were incredibly nice. I couldn't really relax, worried about doing the wrong thing (a swift g&t would have helped. The guesthouse does sell wine, but I haven't drank any. M's fiancee was very glamorous, tight pants, tight top and a diaphanous black, slightly sparkly shawl.

I get to dress up like Mary in the school nativity play every day. It's a nice change as I always had to be the narrator from nursery school onwards since I could read when I was born (according to my mother). Although I'm sure the scarf thing will wear thin quickly.