Land of the Mulberries
Southern Afghanistan may as well be run by the Taliban...I suppose in a way it still is. 
According to news reports the Taliban now hold four provinces in the south again and Kandahar is among them. Our drive to Kandahar was once again filled with amazing scenery. Mountains like I'd never seen before. The colours all seemed so odd because the mountain would be brown and all of a sudden there would be a black blotch right on the side of it, making it look like a huge shadow was falling on it. The mountains also looked like water had passed over them, the curves were all round and soft, like waves. In the middle of all this vastness a mini sandstorm tornado deal appeared. It was awesome to see and drive past it. It was also awesome to get caught behind a Canadian army convoy that crawled along the road, slowing down our progress toward the city. You can't pass a convoy because they'll shoot you for it. No questions asked. What was even more amazing was driving behind the convoy at a snales pace passing poppie fields. No one can tell me that the military folks didn't see any of these fields while driving 30km/hr on a daily basis down the same stretch of road.
Kandahar: Finally. We arrived in the city of our ancestors. A city filled with burqa clad women and turban wearing men. A city were all the buildings still look like they are falling from being bombed and the roads are mostly unpaved. The most surreal experience was driving over a million bumps toward our uncles house and then realizing that we were in the middle of a graveyard and the bumps had been graves. They built homes right on top. There isn't enough ground space for all the dead in Kandahar.
Fear reigns the lives of the city's inhabitants. No one was to know we were foreigners for fear of being kidnapped and held for ransom.
Children were being abducted on their way to school, so of course everyone keeps their kids at home and out of school. Women, apparently, were being kidnapped by taxi drivers and taken to be sold as slaves. No one knew a woman this had happened to but it was enough that people were saying it was happening for men to forbid their wives from leaving their homes. Afghan women, in the south, lead their lives within the confines of their courtyards, often not leaving the walls of their homes for months. Going outside is also not the most comfortable experience in Kandahar. You have to wear a burqa. We were dressed in hijabs that covered everything except our eyes and we were still harrassed with comments like "the Taliban will be back again soon." To be more equal opportunity, every monument had a women's day which means that on that day only women are allowed in to walk around uncovered. Uncovered means your face is showing but your hair is still covered.
The visit back to the hometown wasn't all a walk in the park. Yes, we saw some amazing sights like the Elephant rock that greets you as you enter Kandahar or the thousands of Pommegranate orchards just outside of the city or Dala Lake, one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen in my life. Dala was amazing to see because it was off-road. There were no signs leading to it and the road toward it is unpaved. It's a little oasis with a huge lake right behind a series of mountains. Walking around the area we discovered some bombed out buildings, piles of rocket shells and a graveyard. We didn't walk much further after that because it dawned on us that there may be mines in the hills near these relics of war.
Getting sick was also part of this trip. Most of it involved us having upset stomachs but my sister's toe got a nasty infection after visiting Dala. The remedies for her particular ailement involved a cooked onion being placed on the puss-filled-blue toe, then someone poked it with a needle without disinfecting the needle or the toe, this was followed by someone wanting to put leavened dough on it and of course, our favourite go to: vaseline. The infection kept getting worse and taking her to a doctor would have probably made things deadly. 'Doctors' in Afghanistan don't really have proper training. My cousin works at a pharmacy that prescribes the wrong medicine to people all the time. The sick hardly ever go to get their own medicine. Someone in their household does it for them and describes the ailements to the 'medical professional' (in some cases a 17 year old like my cousin with no schooling whatsoever).
Everyone in our family has an ailement of some sort. High blood pressure, angina, diabetes and asthma to name just a few. Everyone has also lost at least one child to sudden infant death syndrome. It's quite sad. My cousin still blames his family for his daughter's death at 2 months old. She was fine when he left for Herat and dead when he came back. He's sure that she was sick and no one went to the doctor to help her. Quite sad. He's one of the most outspoken people on the Taliban I've ever met. He HATES them with a passion and has no problems calling a Mullah that is a Taliban supporter a few choice words. Coincidentally, the mullah in their neighbourhood was a Taliban supporter and urged people to give them money to help their cause. My cousin is also convinced that it was this guy that posted all the bills in the neighbourhood warning people to take down their cable antennas or else they would face the wrath of the Taliban. A threat not to be taken lightly. Some of the stories we heard make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The kind of torturing and killing that happens here can give you nightmares for a lifetime.
Before I forget: if you want to see pictures of Afghanistan you should try this gallery site from some dude's trip there in 2004.
According to news reports the Taliban now hold four provinces in the south again and Kandahar is among them. Our drive to Kandahar was once again filled with amazing scenery. Mountains like I'd never seen before. The colours all seemed so odd because the mountain would be brown and all of a sudden there would be a black blotch right on the side of it, making it look like a huge shadow was falling on it. The mountains also looked like water had passed over them, the curves were all round and soft, like waves. In the middle of all this vastness a mini sandstorm tornado deal appeared. It was awesome to see and drive past it. It was also awesome to get caught behind a Canadian army convoy that crawled along the road, slowing down our progress toward the city. You can't pass a convoy because they'll shoot you for it. No questions asked. What was even more amazing was driving behind the convoy at a snales pace passing poppie fields. No one can tell me that the military folks didn't see any of these fields while driving 30km/hr on a daily basis down the same stretch of road.Kandahar: Finally. We arrived in the city of our ancestors. A city filled with burqa clad women and turban wearing men. A city were all the buildings still look like they are falling from being bombed and the roads are mostly unpaved. The most surreal experience was driving over a million bumps toward our uncles house and then realizing that we were in the middle of a graveyard and the bumps had been graves. They built homes right on top. There isn't enough ground space for all the dead in Kandahar.
Fear reigns the lives of the city's inhabitants. No one was to know we were foreigners for fear of being kidnapped and held for ransom.
Children were being abducted on their way to school, so of course everyone keeps their kids at home and out of school. Women, apparently, were being kidnapped by taxi drivers and taken to be sold as slaves. No one knew a woman this had happened to but it was enough that people were saying it was happening for men to forbid their wives from leaving their homes. Afghan women, in the south, lead their lives within the confines of their courtyards, often not leaving the walls of their homes for months. Going outside is also not the most comfortable experience in Kandahar. You have to wear a burqa. We were dressed in hijabs that covered everything except our eyes and we were still harrassed with comments like "the Taliban will be back again soon." To be more equal opportunity, every monument had a women's day which means that on that day only women are allowed in to walk around uncovered. Uncovered means your face is showing but your hair is still covered.The visit back to the hometown wasn't all a walk in the park. Yes, we saw some amazing sights like the Elephant rock that greets you as you enter Kandahar or the thousands of Pommegranate orchards just outside of the city or Dala Lake, one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen in my life. Dala was amazing to see because it was off-road. There were no signs leading to it and the road toward it is unpaved. It's a little oasis with a huge lake right behind a series of mountains. Walking around the area we discovered some bombed out buildings, piles of rocket shells and a graveyard. We didn't walk much further after that because it dawned on us that there may be mines in the hills near these relics of war.
Getting sick was also part of this trip. Most of it involved us having upset stomachs but my sister's toe got a nasty infection after visiting Dala. The remedies for her particular ailement involved a cooked onion being placed on the puss-filled-blue toe, then someone poked it with a needle without disinfecting the needle or the toe, this was followed by someone wanting to put leavened dough on it and of course, our favourite go to: vaseline. The infection kept getting worse and taking her to a doctor would have probably made things deadly. 'Doctors' in Afghanistan don't really have proper training. My cousin works at a pharmacy that prescribes the wrong medicine to people all the time. The sick hardly ever go to get their own medicine. Someone in their household does it for them and describes the ailements to the 'medical professional' (in some cases a 17 year old like my cousin with no schooling whatsoever).
Everyone in our family has an ailement of some sort. High blood pressure, angina, diabetes and asthma to name just a few. Everyone has also lost at least one child to sudden infant death syndrome. It's quite sad. My cousin still blames his family for his daughter's death at 2 months old. She was fine when he left for Herat and dead when he came back. He's sure that she was sick and no one went to the doctor to help her. Quite sad. He's one of the most outspoken people on the Taliban I've ever met. He HATES them with a passion and has no problems calling a Mullah that is a Taliban supporter a few choice words. Coincidentally, the mullah in their neighbourhood was a Taliban supporter and urged people to give them money to help their cause. My cousin is also convinced that it was this guy that posted all the bills in the neighbourhood warning people to take down their cable antennas or else they would face the wrath of the Taliban. A threat not to be taken lightly. Some of the stories we heard make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The kind of torturing and killing that happens here can give you nightmares for a lifetime.
Before I forget: if you want to see pictures of Afghanistan you should try this gallery site from some dude's trip there in 2004.
posted by LOTC at 4:27 AM
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