Its Kabultown

Back again for Round Three. I am supposed to be here for about six or seven weeks this time but it has managed to be spectacularly unproductive so far. I left the US almost two weeks ago, arrived in Kabul one week ago, and have spent three days in the office so far because we have spent the past four days in lockdown. There was an attack on the US embassy on my way here so I got stuck in Dubai for five days while the school decided if it was safe for me to move on. Three days after I got here, there was a major assassination that killed the former president Rabbani and we have been in lockdown or observing the official government three days of mourning since then. Although I have managed to get some work done in the meantime, its difficult to concentrate right after an attack and then after a couple days in the house, everyone is antsy. But because I dont like being bored, I have managed to organize a dance party, a movie night, and a brunch day. When you are stuck in the compound, you have to make your own fun and actually I think that we have been doing a pretty good job. Oddly enough, even though I am starting to feel a little claustrophobic, its pretty much what I anticipated my time here to be, so its not been too difficult to handle. But that said, hopefully there wont be any attacks for a while so that we can get out and do something that doesnt involve our living room, outside gym, or table tennis table.

Back in Kabul

Well I am back in Kabul for another nine days. I am a little skeptical how much work I am going to get done this time seeing as I am only going to be here for eight full days, which is really eight half days since it is Ramadan and government work hours are from 8-1, which often means 8-12 since its 1000 degrees outside and no one is allowed to eat or drink. But we will see, maybe people are especially productive when they only have to work a few hours. Somehow I doubt it, but who knows.

I made is safe and sound to the new guesthouse I am staying in, but unfortunately my suitcase did not. Fingers crossed that it shows up on the next flight or the flight after. But I had a sneaking suspicion that would happen since the last time I was here I was saying that I have never lost a suitcase, so it was mostly empty anyway. I left most of my clothes here the last time since i knew I would be coming back, so the only thing that was in the suitcase was cosmetics, my running shoes, and underwear. The underwear would be nice to have, I wont lie, but I've made it through longer periods of time with negligible personal hygiene.

I did find a roommate in my hotel room when I was going to bed. I thought at first it was an insect and i was going to squash it but on closer inspection it was a teeny tiny SCORPION. It was really small, like the size of a fingernail but still... it might be worse than a cockroach. Jury is still out. Everyone assures me that that is very rare and the guy who did squash it did it with a kleenex, so I guess it couldnt have been too dangerous. I mean it probably was as tiny as a scorpion could be. But stlil, ewwwwwww.

On the upside, I went to dinner with two of my friends Hannah and Christine and one of my professors/ bosses, Gilbert. We went to a Korean restaurant and Christine is Korean American so she ordered all kinds of delicious food. Gilbert showed us pictures of his trip to North Korea (the man has been EVERYWHERE) and we had delightful dinner conversation. We talked about everything from drug abuse in Afghanistan to family planning in Afghanistan to... ok well we mostly talked about public health stuff in Afghanistan but, still, I found it interesting.

Well, I am still totally jetlagged. Its four in the morning so I am going to try to go back to sleep but figured I would be a little productive and update people.

24 hours in Kabul

So within 24 hours, I woke up to my friend telling me there was an attack on a hotel that was on CNN and I should probably tell people that I was safe but since she woke me up at 3 in the morning, I didnt know what she was talking about and Im pretty sure I told her to shut up. And then within a few hours of helicopters flying overhead, which after living in Baltimore I find oddly reassuring, everything was back to normal. Went into work, just like nothing had ever happened. Went to lunch with a bunch of the doctors who were teaching me Dari, the official language, which involves a lot of throat clearing. And since I have had a lot of phlegm induced by the fact that Afghanistan is trying to strangle me with air pollution, I was pretty good at it. And then after work, we went rug shopping wherein the proprietor gave me a 600 dollar rug for free on the promise that I would come back and pay for it in a couple weeks. And then after rug shopping, I went to a meeting with the Minister of Health to update her on the progress we are making in our study. No big deal. Just a normal day in Kabul.

Updates

So many little weird things happen during the day that I want to tell people about but I never have the energy to write an email. And then I remember that oh yeah, I have a blog for the very purpose of writing about the weird wonderful things that happen. Like the restaurant that we went to yesterday that had a soundtrack of 90s hits played on pan flute. Titanic theme song, the Bodyguard theme song, Unbreak My Heart, Phil Collins? All available on pan flute. Thats the second time we have been to that restaurant and everytime I just sit and giggle to myself because Im so endlessly entertained. Or when we went shopping yesterday and went to a store that had a wide variety of metal helmets with horns and face masks? Are they from the barbarian hordes that conquered Rome? Not for me to say, but I sure hope so. Or the man at the next shop who asked if I was married and then when I said no, gave me a small traditional box as a gift and said that its for my wedding ring when I get married. So that when I get married, I will always think of him. Or the driver named Korban, but since he is older, people call him by the respectful name KakaKorban and he is the sweetest cutest littlest old man ever.

These are the things that I just find endlessly entertaining and endearing about this place. I dont forget where I am, obviously its not an ideal place to be or live, but there are so many sneak attack charming things that happen during the day, its hard to not find it pretty endearing in its own way.

Kabul

Almost done with day three in Kabul. Overall, its pretty boring really, which I am not complaining about. So far, its just been a lot of work at the office and then coming home and doing more work. Since we arent really allowed out to walk around, I havent had a chance to see much other than our office which is down the block one way and the grocery store which is down the block the other way. The mornings here are gorgeous but by 9, its already ridiculously hot. I wear a headscarf on the street but once I am in the office, I take it off. Its just too hot with that much clothing on. Tomorrow we are going to a meeting with USAID so hopefully we will have a chance to drive through the city and I can sneak some pictures. In the meantime, I have two from the roof of our office and another of a very informative sign in our bathroom. The roof shots just sort of show thats its dusty here but the one from the bathroom, well... Its the little things that keep me entertained...

Dubai

Just a quick update since I know people are a little more worried about this global adventure than the past ones. I will try to check in more often over the next couple weeks. So far, I have just made it to Dubai and I will be going on to Kabul tomorrow. I am staying at the airport in the hotel here (what will they think of next) so I wont actually get to go out in Dubai but the airport/mall here is giving me a taste. Its crazy. It is quite literally a duty-free mall. There are cars, Gucci stores, a Cold Stone Creamery. And thats just directly across from me. I havent gone out to explore because i know I will spend a million dollars. The flight was ok but it was exceptionally long, 12.5 hours, and bumpy and there were screaming babies. And I hate to say it, but I think Delta is better. I hate to give Delta credit for anything, but at least they have a decent movie selection and the staff isnt so grouchy. Anyhoo, not much else to update on right now, but I will fill everyone in when I get to Kabul tomorrow.

Work

I realize that a lot of people dont really know what "public health" is. Sometimes even I don't. So I am going to try to summarize it and then I am going to say what I do so that maybe people have a better idea. Public health is more or less trying to protect entire populations of people from getting sick. Doctors treat diseases. Public health professionals try to stop people from getting sick in the first place. So we run family planning clinics, conduct education campaigns about smoking, develop vaccines, and study the effects of pollution on cancer. Those are examples of "public health". There are a bunch of different things you can focus on, for example I have a friend who is studying health policy, another one studying infectious disease epidemiology, and I am studying reproductive health. So for me, I try to learn about what affect participation in a microcredit organization has on contraceptive use among poor women in Bangladesh, what barriers women in Afghanistan face to accessing safe birth delivery services, or whether women who escape sex trafficking in Thailand are able to integrate into society or face deportation and retrafficking. So those are public healthy things that we do. My work on them mostly involves sitting at a computer, crunching numbers and looking for patterns, but it also involves developing surveys, conducting interviews, or traveling to sites and actually seeing what the organizations we work with do (although that doesnt get to happen all that often sadly). So for those of you who were never really sure what in the world I was doing, and to clarify for myself a little bit, those are three things that I am working on right now.

Apparently people read this

I dont know that people I know read this but apparently people I dont know read it when they google me. Thats creepy. I guess if thats the case maybe i should spend more time writing on it. But since I havent written anything in almost a year, that seems unlikely. Anyway, I figured that I would just update the picture and the title. Since I am not in Africa and sadly will likely not be going back for some time. But I do have some trips in the works (SPAIN in one month and a half!!!) and possibly some other locations this summer. Potential dissertation opportunities are popping up, but its best not to get too excited. But here are some words to throw around... Nigeria, Burma, Thailand. Just putting it out there...