I'm always surprised by what I find myself getting into here. I guess in many ways I look for the obscure and unique - some of it is normal though - which always surprises me as Afghanistan can be far from normal at times. Below - a list of the obscure and the unique but always mixed with a little What!?!?!
- German Embassy: Classical and traditional Afghan music concert. Wow - talented musicians! Somehow I missed the memo that it was a black tie event - well, I had on black socks, hopefully that counted for something. Once again though, way too many people armed to the teeth, guns everywhere - I think I was sitting behind some 4 star general.
- Volleyball Tournament: Six people who have never played together before, plus half of whom have never played volleyball before... but we came in 2nd place... haha. Note to self: when digging the ball, put Thumb away - otherwise ball will contact thumb and peel back half of the nail....
- 40 yr old Bendyk vintage leather jacket bought in the market - awesome! Trying to get the 40 yr old smell out of the jacket - not so awesome.
- Ping Pong - always a favourite. Thinking about starting 'Paul's Ping Pong Playground for Guards and Drivers' - In the event of an emergency, I'm sure I'll find them huddled around the table. I'm just waiting for the day when I start getting phone calls from their families asking where they are.... 'Uhm, they're right here, playing Ping Pong....'
- Visiting the Bird Market of Kabul - google it - it's famous. What they won't tell you is that it actually feels like a cross between Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' and Skid Row... We were looking for turkeys (hens actually) - gonna fatten two up on corn and beer and have them for dinner later in November. I found myself walking down the main alley way. I'm following a turkey seller - he appears to have spent too much time around turkeys. He's gobbling along, slipping past the masses that are also trying to buy birds - he has a red scarf on, that's what I keep looking for... the scarf reminds me of the red snood on a male turkey - another indication that makes me wonder if this man might actually be a turkey in disguise. He darts quickly to the left and disappears - I make my way through the crowds and approach the spot where he vanished and see that the human turkey has ducked into a very narrow tunnel-like walkway - caked in bird shat and feathers - so I follow... It leads to a small courtyard - the distribution point for turkeys. Turkey-man has taken what looks to be a hundred year old spiral stair case built out of dried mud and sticks to a landing on our left. I follow, reach the top and find more turkeys in pens. The pens are all open so you can easily select the turkey of your liking. We go to the last pen and see two hens that look perfect - there's a third one in the pen, oh wait, that's not a turkey - that's actually a person hanging out in the pen with the turkeys... I think it's turkey-man's brother.
- Card Games - when you travel out to the field - away from Kabul - at night you will most definitely play card games with the local staff. We're all sitting in a circle - about 15 of us - only males. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards first, the last one with cards in his hands is the loser - and there is a penalty. The penalty for tonight is you have to drink five large glasses of water, one right after the other. Now - in other cultures water might be replaced by alcohol. Seeing that this isn't an option here - water it is. The real penalty comes when they don't let you go to the bathroom once they see you getting up to leave. Now that's a penalty. Other penalties have been everyone gets up, grabs the cushion they were sitting on and starts to mercilessly beat the loser.
