Since my first impression not much has changed in the last 15 days because there is still something very familiar about Jalalabad. All Afghans think I am from north Kabul and talk to me in Pashto all the time. If they don’t know English I have decided to talk to them in Spanish. Time is going by fast and my days are busy. I have met many interesting friends and only 1 enemy, not bad for a Colombian huh? Surprisingly, I often still feel at home, except for the constant language and culture barrier. Most of the people I meet speak 3 or more languages;
Pashto,
Dari,
Urdu, Arabic, Russian and sometimes English. I could say that in some instances this culture is the exact opposite to mine and it has been very difficult for me to mitigate my cultural instincts and reactions. Rachel says; I push it too far and that I have to be more sensitive. Despite this, I have decided to push their cultural limits by asking many questions which to me might seem normal but could be considered tabooin Afghanistan. I want them to open up and talk to me about their culture and I too will open up and show and tell about my culture.
The first friends I made were two very respectful individuals that go by the name of Israr and Sayad. These two men are the proud owners of the Gandahara Preschool. They are also members of the Jalalabad Rotary Club. Happily Rachel, our friend Jennifer and I accepted to assist a rotary meeting to discuss a few projects that the
SSF team are interested and involved with through Fairi Moini ans Steve Brown at the
San Diego Rotary Club. Things went so well that we came out baptized as true Jalalabadi Rotarians.
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| Israr |
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| Sayad |
We got to the meeting at 5pm but
Afghan-time is just like
Ecuadorian-time; you say 5pm and most people start showing up 1 hour late or even later. Halfway though the meeting more and more people kept showing up. After the agenda was carried out, there was a time to propose our ideas and ask questions. A group of men that particularly caught my attention was a group of late arrivers, young and educated Afghans that shared their business idea for Jalalabad; a fast food restaurant specifically made to enamour all foreign travelers passing through J-bad. One of them said,
“A restaurant will give travelers some thing good to say about Jalalabad and they will want to come back”. In a very conscious and polite way I responded,
“I think your restaurant is a great idea but…”. I started talking about how dirty and how unsanitary the streets and the peoples costumes are, that this was probably more of a priority that needs to change in order to give a good impression and set an example not only for foreigners but more importantly, for Afghans. This is when he responded
“where are you from ? America?” I said
“Nope… Colombia!” “This is not Colombia,” he said,
“here in Afghanistan we live in WAR, to clean the streets is very difficult! Does Colombia have a WAR?” The point is that even if there are a few educated entrepreneurs, there is still much more education needed. Afghans need a national education plan that is implemented on all levels for their future but they also need immediate action and change. A restaurant is a good idea but only if it sets an example for the community.
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| The view from the very popular Behsood river restaurants |
This is when I met Dr. Pardis, the former Director of Public Health for
Nangahar Province. He is currently getting his masters degree in Hospital Management at a university in Hiroshima, Japan. In Jalalabad, he is now in charge of the PolioPlus Polio eradication project. According to Dr. Pardis this week we will travel to the border town Torkham where more than
10,000 people cross to return to Afghanistan from Pakistan. In Torkham we will check out one of the 110 polio vaccination points in the Nangahar province, where they vaccinate more than 2000 children entering per day. The big issue for polio in Afghanistan is the Afghans southeastern neighbor. Compared to India, Nigeria, and Afghanistan, Pakistan has the largest number of polio cases.
In 2010 Afghanistan registered approximately 23 polio cases but Pakistan registered 134 cases, and there are approximately 10,000 Afghans returning from Pakistan to Afghanistan on a daily basis. Unfortunately the problem does not stop there. A popular Muslim belief is that western medicine is made to harm Muslims therefore many families avoid vaccination.
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| Dr. Pardis and a member of a Japanese NGO. |
