Kabul Diary

Fourteen year old Nazifa likes to study. She especially likes mathematics; even during her free time she tries to go through some lessons. Free time is of course scarce, because mother needs to be helped taking care of her little sisters and brothers. Nazifa dreams of working as an engineer or a doctor. The young girl believes that her dream can be a reality – for she has seen with her own eyes in the village clinic a female Afghan nurse working there.
Today Nazifa is bowing over the holy book. Over one book a bevy of girls is found, as there are not enough books for all of the students. Unfamiliar with the circumstances you may think that this is a singing class, actually it's a Koran class: the teacher sings the holy text first and the girls repeat together after the teacher.
Afghanistan is an Islamic republic, the religion plays a very important role in this country – and so the children start studying the Holy Koran already from the first class and until the ninth class. To understand the holy book in its original scripture and not as a translation, Arabic must be studied also.
Islam is not only important as book wisdom; it actually determines opportunities and gives behavioral guidelines for everyday life, whether it is marriage, eating or prayer. In Afghanistan it is customary for the women to pray at home. This rule has exceptions. For example, in Mazar-e Sharif, women and children also are allowed to enter the famous Shrine of Hazrat Ali (called Blue Mosque as well). Amazingly peaceful atmosphere of this shrine is the destination of many a family's pilgrimage; here you can meet people from all over Afghanistan. In this beautiful shrine built during Timurid era you can find serious men praying, children wearing their Sunday clothes eagerly feeding holy white doves, or women with their children heading towards the tomb of the saint Hazrat Ali.

Looking at Farida, you're struck by her life experienced glare. It is difficult to believe that she is only a ten year old girl. Feriha is the same age, a gentle Hazara girl. They sit in a classroom full of eager children. This is no ordinary school; this is Ashiana center, a place that offers education to street children. These children have one thing in common; they have all had to earn a living on the streets from a very young age. In Afghanistan it is normal that children start helping support their families at a young age. Sometimes families are so poor they have to send their children to work on the streets.
Look at the picture of a little boy at Hazrat Ali Shrine in Mazar-e Sharif. He presents a good example of your regular child-salesman: he carries around his neck a box where chewing gum, biscuits and crisps are.
Ashiana aims to save children from work slavery through the help of a personal sponsor. To find a sponsor, Ashiana offers the families a contract: the family gets 260 US dollars a year (this is the amount the child could make in a year). After signing the contract the child is free of work and can devote his or her time to studying. Sometimes the family agrees later to transfer their children to regular schools, to continue their education. These children are very good students: usually after a year at Ashiana they go straight to state school to the second or third class. Today Ashiana has helped 2000 children become literate.
Sometimes you are left with the impression that the family is against educating their children, but the truth is in most cases the reason is poverty caused by extraordinary situations. Farida and Feriha talk about their life in the outskirts of Kabul, where the whole family is squeezed into a small rented room. Even a small room costs 2000 Afghanis (40 US dollars) a month. Both have six brothers and sisters who also work: some wash cars, others sell chewing gum.
Farida is a half time student to begin with: during the mornings she goes gathering paper and cardboard in the streets with her brother. For lunch Farida goes to the Ashiana center: the lunch given at the center is usually the only proper meal the street children get during the day. Farida likes to study, she especially likes the Koran lesson, secretly she dreams of becoming a teacher.
Feriha has been free from working the streets for the last year. She used to look for plastic with her brother in piles of garbage, which they sold to merchants, earning about 60 Afghanis (1.2 US dollars) a day.
Now the girl who dreams of becoming a doctor goes to a regular school, she especially likes Mathematics. She is happy that she has made many friends at school as well. Even others know about her past as a street child, no one makes fun of her: in impoverished Afghanistan, gathering garbage is a regular job.

Even though Ghulam Rassul is only in the fifth grade, he has a specific goal: he dreams of becoming a teacher. Today he is the class president and assists the teacher. He studies with great care, especially mathematics and physics. Ghulam Rassul is sure he wants to become a teacher in his village: the teachers of Apkupruk boys’ school in Keshendeh are mostly elderly and lack education.
In his free time Ghulam Rassul like every other school boy dreams of playing football. There is never enough time to play as much as he'd like, because he has to help his parents and brothers. He has seven brothers and they often need help working on the small plots of land around the village. Here they grow crops that don't require much water, like watermelon and melons.
Keshendeh village is 80 kilometers away from the center of the province Mazar-e Sharif, it takes four hours to drive there. A river must be crossed. There is no bridge and when the water is high then it's impossible to reach the village. On the narrow bumpy gravel road you meet a few trucks and village men on horses or camels. Because this year there has been plenty of rain, the hills are green and much grass can be gathered. Only the rain waters the hills. Rain water is gathered to keep in the sides of the mountains in special containers called kandas. Although the inhabitants of Keshendeh work very hard, they still face a poor life style – regardless of all their hard work, they only have one yield a year.
Different color fields form the Keshendeh braes just like a colorful quilt. Cultivating these little fields is very hard work. Usually this is done by hand. Sometimes donkeys can be seen plowing the fields. Stubborn donkeys are not a suitable animal for plowing, which is why usually oxen are used in Afghanistan. But what can you do when you are desperate and unable to buy an ox....

How do you make the people around you understand that a disabled child is just as capable as a child who is not disabled? This is a difficult question for many families. Especially in Afghanistan, where a disabled child is regarded as a source of shame to the family and is kept hidden away at home. With the help of foreign aid programs, some centers have been established in the bigger cities where blind, def and other disabled children are taught and given activities. Specialized and trained social workers go from home to home and to the surrounding areas to give consultations and explanations. Often the parents are amazed at how the child they thought to be stupid carefully memorizes a passage for school. Some good students go on to find a suitable job, such as a tailor or a mechanic.
Afghanistan's students appreciate the fact that they are able to go to school, especially those children who according to local tradition are regarded as hopeless member of the society. Shengan center for disabled children is a place where everyone is able to learn according to his or her ability: in one class a regular lesson is being given according to the governmental curriculum, and in another class students are being taught day to day skills – it is important to explain to people that one may be def, but still clever and able to work. In the third classroom puzzles are being put together and in the fourth classroom how to use a computer is being taught. The students dream of having the Internet and being able to communicate with children in far off schools. Unfortunately in Afghanistan this is only possible through a satellite connection, which is why it is extremely expensive.
It is rare to encounter such pure joy as the kind encountered in the Shengan center. It is wonderful to see how well the teachers and the children get along: whether in the classroom or in the playground. The 65 students here are special because they have to overcome obstacles day in and day out, obstacles regular people don't face. So how does a def person cross the road in a country where there are no pedestrian cross roads or traffic lights? The six people working at the center are also special, because it takes allot of patience to deal with disabled children. But patience is one thing the Afghans have...

Foreign guests are squatting with fifty girls in the shade of the mountain, a hundred meters from the school house. The morning – girls shift – is over and now it's the boys shift. Usually boys and girls have separate schools in Afghanistan; in Keshendeh the girls don't have their own school.
Although The Prophet Mohamed, Peace Be upon him, said: “seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim, male or female”, in Afghanistan men's education is considered more important than that of a woman's. This is why the boy schools tend to be built before the girls’ schools are. Sometimes a school is not yet built for the girls and so the girls have to use the boys’ school. This is what happened in Keshendeh: the little old school high at the shore of the river has to accommodate three shifts. The classes are full. There are not enough stools and desks – the clever boys take plastic chairs with them from home. As the new boys school is being built the building of the girls school has been delayed due to arguments over land.
The direction of the Aqkupruk School is not happy with the fact that the foreign visitors want to talk with the girls. Finally they agree to the visitors talking to the girls, but pictures are not allowed to be taken. The foreign visitors’ explanations do not help - the wall of mistrust remains up. This can happen because the Afghans have different experiences with the outside world. What influences the foreigners bring with them? It is unknown so it's best to keep away from them...
How do you interview three classes of school girls at once? Especially when the on listening male teachers try to answer for the shy young girls? Some female teachers are also squatting here. But they are apathetic and don't answer any questions. It seems unbelievable that just forty kilometers away you can find Sholgara village girls school, where every female teacher seems to be bursting with good intentions and energy.
And then a miracle happens. One young girl stands up and asks the visitors for help. You foreigners have to help our village women, she says bravely. We need our school house. We need educated teachers. We need a laboratory to study biology. We need computers to get present day knowledge. And we need the Internet and English teachers to communicate with the outside world.

Childhood in Afghanistan is short, because children start helping their parents at a very young age: they bring water, take care of their younger siblings, and wash the dishes. As the Afghan children have many work responsibilities and few toys, they are very good at utilizing every free moment. One little street girl who sells chewing gum says:” I don't have toys, but sometimes a like jumping around!” And so you find kites flying in the sky made of old plastic bags, little girls chase each other in hidden street corners and in every little open area there are boys kicking a ball around. Not every family can afford to buy a ball but when there is a group of children, one is sure to be found.
Keshendeh village is far and poor; here all the members in a family have to work hard. If in the evenings after work there is time, then school work is allowed. Helping the family is the main priority! The school boys do find time to run around between lessons. They play football and a unique jumping game: they jump on one leg trying to push the others down. The winner is the last one standing.
Although boys and men playing football is a usual site in Afghanistan, girls playing sport is not the case. Only few schools and centers facilitate sports for girls. It is hard to play sports when you are complying with all the regulations: away from sight and completely covered. But the girls enjoy running around just like the boys do. Behind the high walls of Shengan Center for disabled children def girls and boys play against each other in a match of volleyball. Actually the girls have a few male teachers on their side. The girls' shrieks of joy as they try to hit the ball with their henna decorated hands put everyone in a good mood: the children watching bashfully from the side lines or the classroom windows.

Habibullah is curiously listening at the door – he also wants to take part in his mother’s conversation with their guests. The mother says that the oldest son is working in Iran, and the daughter’s family just returned from The United Arab Emirates. To a stranger this household looks like a little peaceful oasis: there are roses and lovely mulberry trees, inviting carpets put out on the veranda. Why do the local inhabitants need to leave this place – it is a peaceful and bountiful place?
A big Balkh river goes through Sholgara village, and there is more than one yield a year. Now in May the crops are being picked. As another crop profitable rice is grown. There is even a forest in the region, which is a rare and beautiful thing in Afghanistan. When the previous years have been dry and rain has been little, then spring 2009 has been very rainy. This year in Afghanistan all the farmers are looking forward to a fine crop. But a lot of rain does not always bring good news. The rains have also caused floods and destroyed homes and fields. At one point it was impossible to get to the village, because the high waters destroyed the bridge.
The floods are not the main cause behind many looking for work in other places than their village. The cause behind this evil is in land ownership – only a fifth of the families here own the land. There is not enough daily work to be found at the land owners. If the family has nothing to sell at the market, or does not teach at the schools, then there is very little chance to find work: try to find road work or try to find work even further, abroad.

Young teachers gather curiously in the teachers’ room around the visitor from far away. The Slovakian Olympia shows pictures of twin schools from other countries and of Afghanistan children. The teacher’s room is comfortable: in the corner there is a coat hanger with burqas on it. There is a cabinet for the documents, a rug on the floor and hot milk in the thermos.
One of the teachers is Najiba, an 18-year old young lady with a delicate smile. In Bibi Khadija School for girls it is often difficult to tell the difference between the students and the teachers, because the teachers are so young. Najiba teaches Pushtu language, she also likes history and biology. She loves to read – mostly in the evening when the family and her little child are sleeping. Najiba has been married for three years already, proudly she shows off her young husband and child's pictures on her mobile phone.
Najiba's 22-year old college Koubra has been married for five years now. Koubra's husband is studying far away in Shebergan. He is studying science, with the aim of becoming a biology teacher. The married couple has two children who the mother helps to take care of. In Afghanistan it is usual to live in an extended family. Many different generations live together. That makes it easy to always depend on one another.
Both Koubra and Najiba studied to become teachers in Kjuja Sikander high school for boys in the same village. They started studying to become teachers while they were still students in high school themselves. In Afghanistan there is a shortage in female teachers. And girls must have a female teacher at the age of puberty or they are not aloud to attend school. This is why female teachers are very important. Koubra tells us about her routine back then, she would wake very early in the morning, first of all she would go to her school and then she would go to the teachers’ course. She would get home late at night; she would walk many hours everyday.
Bibi Khadija School for girls is the only school for girls in this region. The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan helped open this school here back in the 1990's, but back then due to security problems the school had to be closed. In 2002 the school was opened again. The conditions to begin with were bad. Six years later though, with the help of the Swedish Committee the school was ready. “It is so wonderful that we have a school house and no longer have to study in tents,” say the teachers.

When you ask the girls at Bibi Khadija school for girls which water you can drink, they all answer: only from a pump water well. And if there is no pump water to be found then we take the water from the river and we boil it before drinking. It is great that these girls have basic hygienic knowledge. It is also great that their home village has clean drinking water, because in the last few years the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan has built 20 drill wells in Sholgara – one of which is found in the girl school's yard. They have also built some public toilets; toilets are a luxury that only a tenth of Afghan families have.
Only a sixth of the population has access to clean drinking water. Pump water wells are very expensive to build and very few have their own well. This is why usually natural water sources are used for drinking water. If basic hygiene is not practiced like boiling the water before drinking it or washing hands then disease is very easily spread. Half of the causes of death of children under the age of five is diarrhea. The building of pump water wells, the informing of the importance of washing hands on popular radio shows and the teaching of hygiene to children in schools certainly helps the reduction of the spread of disease.
The new shinny pump water wells are striking from a far in Sholgara village. Fetching water is usually the youngsters’ job in Afghanistan, which is why you usually meet large numbers of children around the wells. Everyone carries the water in their own manner, whether by donkey, by canister, by cart or by jug. And a little fun can always be had – whether it be chatting or running around.