My appologizes for not writing over the past couple of weeks. Things as always have been quite hectic with work and I was sick for a few days from some food I ate.
Today was the first day of Ramadan, so I thought I would try to fast, my first time ever. We had the day off work so it was not too bad fasting. I'm going to try and fast for most of the month, but we'll see how it goes. I think it's going to be rather difficult when I have to work normal hours.
The security situation has been pretty bad since I've been back, so we've been pretty limited in our movement. No day trips or exploring whatsoever. I'm hoping we can get one trip in at least before the winter, but I am seriously beginning to doubt it. I was supposed to go to Jalalabad this week because we are opening a playground there, but due to some attacks there I couldn't get clearance to go (and again today there was another attack in Jalalabad).
Nothing else exciting going on to report, everything has been pretty low-key. Hope things are well!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
How to help those left behind
A must read from TIME magazine a few weeks ago....
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1828069,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1828069,00.html
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
I'm back
Hi all -
Sorry for not posting. I just returned from my first home-leave and was pretty busy for the two short weeks I spent in Vancouver.
I'm back at work in Kabul and things have been quite hectic. There has been quite a lot of work to catch up on and lots going on. We launched a new SIM for youth called "Yaaran," meaning best friend in Dari and Pashto. The SIM card is aimed at youth and gives them good rates on their calls. Today we've launched the BlackBerry service in Kabul, so things are very hectic on the PR side over at Roshan.
As I'm sure you've all heard three girls were killed yesterday in the province of Logar - about 45 minutes away from Kabul. I was at the UN compound last night and people are pretty upset over the incident. Quite a few people I know met the girls in one way or another. One had only been here for 3 months, the other was on a 2 week visit to see if she wanted to work in Afghanistan. It's pretty scary and hit very close to home. A lot of the locals in the office are confused, because women are rarely ever targets in this environment. There was an attack on a house a few weeks ago, where the only man in the house was killed, but the 12 women were left untouched.
That is all for now, back to work.
Sorry for not posting. I just returned from my first home-leave and was pretty busy for the two short weeks I spent in Vancouver.
I'm back at work in Kabul and things have been quite hectic. There has been quite a lot of work to catch up on and lots going on. We launched a new SIM for youth called "Yaaran," meaning best friend in Dari and Pashto. The SIM card is aimed at youth and gives them good rates on their calls. Today we've launched the BlackBerry service in Kabul, so things are very hectic on the PR side over at Roshan.
As I'm sure you've all heard three girls were killed yesterday in the province of Logar - about 45 minutes away from Kabul. I was at the UN compound last night and people are pretty upset over the incident. Quite a few people I know met the girls in one way or another. One had only been here for 3 months, the other was on a 2 week visit to see if she wanted to work in Afghanistan. It's pretty scary and hit very close to home. A lot of the locals in the office are confused, because women are rarely ever targets in this environment. There was an attack on a house a few weeks ago, where the only man in the house was killed, but the 12 women were left untouched.
That is all for now, back to work.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
More from Dushanbe
Hello all!!
I'm still in Dushanbe for the week. Last week was pretty busy with work at the bank. I'm trying to get my project done by end of the day tomorrow, so things have been hectic. The weekend was amazing. Friday night I ended up having dinner with a friend who was at Roshan and now is back in Khorog. He's here until the end of the month visiting friends and family, so it was good to catch up with him. Saturday was pretty low-key, relaxed and took it easy for the most part. In some ways it is quite nice that I don't have internet in my apartment hehe.
Sunday I got up quite early and went to the Tajik bazaar with one of my friends from the office. In Afghanistan, for security reasons, we aren't allowed to visit any of the bazaars, so it was great to get out and see a bazaar. They have buses here and then these mini-vans that also serve as public transport. We took one of the mini-vans about 25 minutes out of the city and went by the new Ismaili Centre they are building here. There is a wall around it and we drove my pretty quickly, but it looks like it's going to be huge. The Ismailis here don't have a formal place to pray like we do in the west. They end up going from house to house, so each week it is somewhere different, and obviously in smaller groups. They are hoping the Centre would have been finished early this month, but I think it'll take at least another 6 months to complete from talking to other people.
At the bazaar I ended up buying a traditional Tajik dress and a couple other things. Afterwards, it was still pretty early so we went into the mountains again for swimming. It was colder outside of the city yesterday, so we just sat out and enjoyed the scenery. The mountains here are amazing. I need to post pictures. My computer at the office is in Russian, and is really beginning to irritating me because it won't allow me to upload pictures and keeps giving me error messages in Russian. So pictures will most likely have to wait until I'm back in Kabul on Saturday. I can't believe I'm only here for another 4 days :( I'm kind of sad to be leaving now. I've met some really nice people and I will really miss them. My only regret is that I didn't get to visit Khorog, but Tajikistan is pretty close to Afghanistan, so I'm hoping I can make another trip soon, I have 2 years right.
Anyways hope everyone is well....more later...take care
I'm still in Dushanbe for the week. Last week was pretty busy with work at the bank. I'm trying to get my project done by end of the day tomorrow, so things have been hectic. The weekend was amazing. Friday night I ended up having dinner with a friend who was at Roshan and now is back in Khorog. He's here until the end of the month visiting friends and family, so it was good to catch up with him. Saturday was pretty low-key, relaxed and took it easy for the most part. In some ways it is quite nice that I don't have internet in my apartment hehe.
Sunday I got up quite early and went to the Tajik bazaar with one of my friends from the office. In Afghanistan, for security reasons, we aren't allowed to visit any of the bazaars, so it was great to get out and see a bazaar. They have buses here and then these mini-vans that also serve as public transport. We took one of the mini-vans about 25 minutes out of the city and went by the new Ismaili Centre they are building here. There is a wall around it and we drove my pretty quickly, but it looks like it's going to be huge. The Ismailis here don't have a formal place to pray like we do in the west. They end up going from house to house, so each week it is somewhere different, and obviously in smaller groups. They are hoping the Centre would have been finished early this month, but I think it'll take at least another 6 months to complete from talking to other people.
At the bazaar I ended up buying a traditional Tajik dress and a couple other things. Afterwards, it was still pretty early so we went into the mountains again for swimming. It was colder outside of the city yesterday, so we just sat out and enjoyed the scenery. The mountains here are amazing. I need to post pictures. My computer at the office is in Russian, and is really beginning to irritating me because it won't allow me to upload pictures and keeps giving me error messages in Russian. So pictures will most likely have to wait until I'm back in Kabul on Saturday. I can't believe I'm only here for another 4 days :( I'm kind of sad to be leaving now. I've met some really nice people and I will really miss them. My only regret is that I didn't get to visit Khorog, but Tajikistan is pretty close to Afghanistan, so I'm hoping I can make another trip soon, I have 2 years right.
Anyways hope everyone is well....more later...take care
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
BBC Photo Gallery
Pictures from a shoot I managed with BBC News a couple weeks ago
Check it out at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7476917.stm
Check it out at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7476917.stm
Life without hijabs and sleeves
Things are going well over in Dushanbe. I had a really relaxing weekend. My apartment is right downtown so just spent time exploring the area. I ended up being out for most of the day and got a call in the evening from a friend of mine who I worked with at Roshan. He was supposed to be in the UK, but had decided to stay back and was in Dushanbe for a few days. We ended up meeting up and went to dinner at this place called Victory Park. The restaurant we went to is nestled in the mountains and overlooks the city of Dushanbe. After dinner we went to a local dance club, which was quite interesting. They played a mix of English, Tajik, Russian, Iranian and even French music. Very cool. Sunday we rented a taxi and went up into the mountains. They have swimming pools and lakes everywhere and apparently it's a big thing here, everyone gets out of the city and goes swimming on the weekends. We spent Sunday by the pool and then had dinner at this place called Rohat - quite the tourist attraction. The restaurant is beautiful. I will post pictures as soon as I can get my camera to connect to the computer. I can't get it to work for some reason.
I've been at the bank everyday this week working on the report and looks like I will be able to get a lot of it done by the end of this week. I had a chance yesterday to visit the Aga Khan Humanities Project and the AKDN offices here. It's nice to see that the AKDN has such a presence here and is really valued by the people. You see a lot of Focus and AKF cars around the city.
It is deathly hot here, which makes the 30 minute walk to and from work awful, but hey what can you do. I didn't have running water for three days, which also made things a bit interesting. This weekend I think we're going to go swimming again and also try and visit a local bazaar. The traditional Tajik dress looks super comfortable and perfect for the weather here. I'm here through until the end of next week, then back to Kabul for a few days to catch up on work, and then home hopefully on the 25th for 2 weeks. I'm exhausted and super excited to come home and take a break for a bit.
As soon as I figure this camera business out I will post pictures...
Hope you are all doing well :)
I've been at the bank everyday this week working on the report and looks like I will be able to get a lot of it done by the end of this week. I had a chance yesterday to visit the Aga Khan Humanities Project and the AKDN offices here. It's nice to see that the AKDN has such a presence here and is really valued by the people. You see a lot of Focus and AKF cars around the city.
It is deathly hot here, which makes the 30 minute walk to and from work awful, but hey what can you do. I didn't have running water for three days, which also made things a bit interesting. This weekend I think we're going to go swimming again and also try and visit a local bazaar. The traditional Tajik dress looks super comfortable and perfect for the weather here. I'm here through until the end of next week, then back to Kabul for a few days to catch up on work, and then home hopefully on the 25th for 2 weeks. I'm exhausted and super excited to come home and take a break for a bit.
As soon as I figure this camera business out I will post pictures...
Hope you are all doing well :)
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