Kabul Street Scenes

October 17, 2009
Kabul

Kabul streets are teeming with activity at all times. Vendors, shoppers, workers all weave in between cars and pedestrians and create a rich tapestry of street life. Shops are clustered by product sold. For example, all the rope makers are in one block, the grain sellers in another. The fruit and vegetable sellers are clustered in open air markets along the side of the road.

I am imprisoned in an AUAF car, unable to walk freely along the street. In our district there are some fruit and veggie stands that we may be driven to, and accompanied by an escort, we can walk among the stands and buy produce. And, of course there are grocery stores and craft shops that cater to the International population in Kabul. Other than that I experience Kabul streets behind glass.

The weather has begun to turn and locals are predicting a cold winter. Wood vendors have stacked cords and cords of wood in lots by the side of the road, and men pushing carts make deliveries of split logs. Heat here is produced either by electric heaters, kerosene, diesel or wood. It still reaches into the 70s during the day and I have yet to put on a coat.

We wait with baited breath for the election decision. We are on notice that our travel may be curtailed even further if the unrest they anticipate occurs. More on that next time.