Surviving in Kabul: Walk Slowly, Stare Straight Ahead

People are strange / When you're a stranger
     —Jim Morrison, The Doors

I used to get mad at the Afghans crossing the street in front of me walking so slowly.  It's like they were deliberately taking their time to tick me off.  However, having had to cross busy streets a few times myself now, I can see that walking at a slow and steady speed is a crucial survival mechanism. 

Mind if I cut in?

There are no traffic lights here — at least none that I've seen. Even if there were, I doubt anyone would pay them much heed.  I know the crosswalks are ignored.  So there's nothing for it when you need to get across a highway but to just venture right into the mad parade of beat-up Toyotas and jingle trucks.  Running or stopping just screws up the drivers.  They have timed themselves to miss your front toe or back heel by about a quarter of an inch.  Eye contact means you will yield to coming traffic, so just stare straight ahead, walk slowly and ignore the blare of horns.

Courtesy of Wiki.

Jingle Truck with Beautiful Plumage

If you do get hit, there will be likely no ambulance will come and aid you.  The hitter will find his vehicle swarmed by locals, preventing him from driving off.  There then ensues some kind of verbal contract where parties come to a conclusion as to fault and how many goats must change hands.  (OK the last part is a joke.)

 

On my perambulation yesterday I came across a local dump spot.  There is some sporadic trash collection in the city, as far as I can tell, but not nearly enough.  These ad hoc dumps develop by natural selection.  Once dumped there, the poorer Afghans sift through all the garbage with amazing efficiency.  Absolutely anything worth a coin is recycled —  plastic bottles, metal, batteries.  The donkeys and stray dogs and cats feed on the organics there.

Ad Hoc Dump, Kabul

"Ooh, Dennis, there's some lovely filth down 'ere."

These fellas insisted I take their picture.  Nice guys.

There's some discussion here about starting a recycling program for plastic bottles from the enormous quantity of bottled water we go through.  There's a lucrative child-labour market down at the Kabul dump--an ever-burning festering pit.  The kids are issued with little knives to remove labels and work long, hard hours scouring the dump for plastic bottles.  So, on the plus side a recycling program might prevent some Afghan Fagan from exploiting kids.  On the flip side though, it would be putting a bunch if destitute kids out of work.  A typical Afghanistan dilemma.

Kids Rambling Thorught the Dump. They do not even issue them with iPods.

Treasure Hunting the Kabul River.  At least these little ones have shoes.

It is not the conflict here that gets to me, but the suffering of this country's children.