WARRIOR GYM

We're getting ready for our embed. I'm excited but I can't help feeling that the two cameraman I will now be working with (another one arrived from Moscow yesterday) are even more excited about it than me! I guess it's a boy-girl thing. But they did make me laugh. We visited two American bases to try and see if we could buy some "army clothes" as I reckon my long, respectful Muslim skirts, head scarves, and fashionable high heels might not quite cut the grade. Heavens, what was I worried about? Both bases had gyms - the one had a huge sign in front of one - "Warrior Gym" - I'm told this is the first thing that gets erected in an army base - as well as shops and food stores - selling everything from the latest DVDs, WW2 and mens magazines, to pop tarts, Starbucks coffee and American chocolate; the one even had an outdoor market with little stalls where I could buy Afghan souvenirs, clothes, carpets, jewellery. Both had a Pizza Hut and noticeboards with posters pinned to it. One was about salsa lessons every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evening (I might give it a bash!), others were about evening classes and what to do if you're sexually harassed. There was one poster talking about a spa - which if correct I will most certainly be trying next week! Maxim and Alexey (the cameramen) were possibly in more shock than me. They said had we been sent to join the Russian army for two weeks it would have been completely different (the words they used were slightly less polite!) - so thank Heavens for that! In the whole of Kabul for example, there is maybe a handful of ATM cash machines - you walk into the one shop here - there are three lined up on the right hand side!

What I'm most pleased about is that for the last three days I've been looking for a pharmacy, but haven't been brave enough to venture into one. I think what turned me off was the sign in front of one of the doctors' offices - "therapist for deses" (meaning "disease") - I don't know why, but it just didn't instill too much confidence in me! Luckily - and no surprise there - the US bases have their own dispensaries.

Before we landed up on the army bases, we were told by locals that we could buy military clothing from Suprem shopping centre. After driving around for two hours (because no-one knew where it was) and finally finding it, we were told it had closed down two years ago! Let me explain the big shopping centres of Kabul. Muddy roads with potholes, no traffic lights (I've counted two in Kabul and no-one was obeying either), huge cement barriers behind which you can see nothing, and then local security men with guns standing guard. If Suprem had been closed for two years, what exactly were they guarding now I asked. The answer: the goods!

You notice a lot of sheep on Kabul's streets when you drive around nowadays - they're being sold for the Muslim festival of Eid when Abraham/Ibrahim was thought to have been prepared to sacrifice his son to God. The story goes that at the last minute God stopped him from doing it as he was then convinced of his commitment to Him, and a sheep was slaughtered instead. It is rather amusing, though, to see pink and green sprayed sheep - the farmers do it so they can remember which sheep are theirs as there are so many roaming the streets. They sell for between $150-$200 (the rest of the year the price is around $100) which is a lot of money for a country where the average salary hovers closer to $200 per month.

Back to my pet topic at the moment - the huge amount of money spent on security and whether or not it actually makes a difference. A recent USAID circular to NGOs indicated that a proportion of 40% of a budget allocated for security was admissible. So one understands why there are these huge black SUV's with darkened glasses and blazing lights that sometimes come screeching down the roads as if they own them. I think the foreigners inside are afraid - and I can understand that - but they're so cut off from Afghan society that their fear and isolation only breeds more fear and isolation. My sense is that most foreign troops here have little understanding of how Afghans see them and the anger that their behaviour is generating. I read an interesting comment that I thought summarises rather well their presence here: "NATO seems not to know whether it is fighting a war or making a peace... Real development will take place only if there is stability, which is exactly what NATO has demonstrated that it cannot deliver for Afghans". Security remains the main priority for most Afghans (after employment) but I'm told that in many cases the local population would rather not involve the police in a crime because of how corrupt the police themselves are - and so people will try as far as possible and sort it out themselves. It makes you wonder where exactly all the foreign funding that is meant to deal with these problems is going to. (Three-quarters of the government's development budget comes from external sources.)

An interesting snippet. Diesel is more expensive here than fuel - which is a first for me.

Incidentally, I finally found "army clothes" in the shop next to the Russian embassy where the salesman spoke fluent Russian. We managed to bargain him down a whole five dollars in total which is worse than pathetic - especially when we found out afterwards that the customer before us paid about half what we did. Still, the cameramen reckon it would've cost us three times as much in Moscow - little comfort when you consider that Moscow is rated the most expensive city in the world!