Dispatches from Afghanistan
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SEPTEMBER 15, 2004 - AND ME WITHOUT MY TOOTHBRUSH
Nathaniel and Kenny are already in Kabul and they are very busy, but they will try to add new posts and photos to the blog every day. They will share their impressions of what life is like for Afghans in the three years since the fall of the Taliban and tell you what some Afghans are saying about the future. Oxfam's team will visit some of the communities, organizations, and projects that we support in Afghanistan, including landmine removal, girls' education, and veterinary assistance. See what it is really like to be an aid worker in the field.
We encourage you to make Dispatches a success by sending your questions, comments, and feedback to dispatches@oxfamamerica.org. Kenny and Nathaniel, as much as they can, will answer your questions and post some of your emails on the site. Off we go!
And me without my toothbrush
Passport—got it. Money—oodles. Satellite phone—check. Laptop—yep. (Pause) Uh-oh.
I always forget something. No matter how many lists I make when I'm packing I always end up in the field without that one essential item that I meant to bring, which, if I had had it, would have made all the difference. That mystical missing item is usually found when I get home in the middle of the night, groaning with jet lag and arms full of luggage. It is inevitably sitting on the kitchen table next to a month's worth of mail with a Post-it note on it that says BRING THIS WITH YOU in bold letters. In Ethiopia last year it was AA batteries. This past February in Jordan it was dress socks. I thought I had solved my persistent packing problem by always keeping my backpack ready to go and stocked with Q-tips, bungee cords, duct-tape (thank you, MacGyver) and Imodium AD galore. Alas...
So before Kenny and I boarded the UNHAS (UN Humanitarian Air Service) plane to take us from Dubai to Kabul, the last hitch of my nearly 24-hour transit from Boston, I realized that my toothbrush, my trusty toothbrush, was missing. While my fellow passengers on the UNHAS plane were stocking up on Cadbury chocolate and cigarettes from the duty-free to bring to colleagues as gifts or for personal use, your intrepid blogger was desperately comparison shopping his way through the aisles of the UAE duty free store, frantically eyeing the clock like he was in a high school basketball game, trying to choose between Oral B and a variety of Middle Eastern toothbrushes. I settled on the "Jordan Clean."
Problem solved. I'll let you know if it gives me that minty fresh feeling that it promises (or I think it promises-the package is in Arabic) to deliver.
The UN flies twice a week from Dubai to Kabul, a flight only available to people working with either the UN or aid groups that are operational in Afghanistan. Though the flight in was relatively full, the flights out have been the busiest ones lately because many organizations are removing their staff, or preparing to remove their staff, in advance of next month's general election. Nobody knows how it is going to go. Afghanistan, a country still struggling to pull itself out of the tar pit of over two decades of bloody and crippling conflict, has never had a country-wide election like this before.
MSF, also known as Doctors without Borders, removed their staff last month after five of their people were killed in Baghdis province, 300 miles west of Kabul. Just three weeks ago, a bomb went off in Kabul at the training facility for the private contractors, DynCorps, that protect Afghan President Hamid Karzai. UN buildings were burned last week in Herat, forcing an evacuation, while in Faizabad, a city in the north, two NGOs had their vehicles and buildings attacked.
Though the Taliban has fallen and the transitional government of Hamid Karzai is in place, Afghanistan is still one of the world's poorest and most violent countries. The rates of maternal and infant mortality are among the highest in the world. Women still struggle to be safe, healthy, and heard. Many areas of the country are heavily mined and encrusted in UXO (aid-worker speak for unexploded ordnance, aka bombs that didn't go off), killing and maiming thousands every year; many of the casualties are children. Opium production is going through the roof and many countries suffer from persistent drought and hunger, the result of not having the benefit of the past quarter century of improvements in agricultural technology and practice.
Despite the horror of Afghanistan's recent history and the uncertainty of its present, the people of Afghanistan, as seen in recent polls, are extremely excited and enthusiastic about the upcoming election. They have high expectations and I hope that the international community and the Afghan election staff will meet them. But security, as so often is the case in post-conflict settings like Afghanistan, will be the key to the elections success. My fingers are crossed for the people here. You should cross your fingers, too.
This is my first time to Kabul, I think as I look out the window of the UNHAS plane at the khaki-colored wadis and desert running beneath me. I had been in Pakistan and Tajikistan, working along Afghanistan's borders immediately after 9/11 at my old job with Physicians for Human Rights (www.phrusa.org). Now I am with Oxfam, and Kenny, who travels to Afghanistan regularly, is asleep in the seat next to me.
Sleep well, Kenny—we're going to need it.
We touch down at KABX (Kabul International Airport-I don't really know if they call it KABX but it sounds cool), and we stumble out into the heat, a sweaty herd of aid workers and UN staff. We are then packed into a rusty blue-and-white bus bearing a sign that says, "Donated by the Government of Japan." The tarmac is crowded with UN planes, some small prop planes and 30-seater jets, but others are huge Antanov and C-130 transports, looking so big that you would think the ground would have to fall out beneath them so they could take off. ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) helicopters buzz above us and bearded Afghans with Kalashnikovs stand by as we pull up to customs.
I am excited to be here, so excited. Having worked on Afghanistan for the past five years in some form or another, the thrill of finally being in Kabul, the heart of it all, is immense. The best part of trips like this is yet to come. I get to meet our local partners, see what Oxfam is doing, and be inspired by some of the toughest, most courageous and kind people you are ever going to meet. Aid workers? No, we're all right. Afghans. From what we see on TV we often have only a couple ways to see the Afghan people—as terrorists or victims.
Afghans, like any group of people, are a lot like you and me. They want their children to have a better life than they've had. They want to be safe. They want a government that will hear their voices and treat them with dignity. Groups like Oxfam will try to help them get the future they want, but as we learn in all the countries where we work, the communities we help must build that future with their own hands to make it a reality.
