Hello, How are you, I'm fine how are you? I'm fine thanks how are you? How are you ...

If you listened to two Afghans greet each other you would think Afghan's are some of the most polite and caring people in the world (and indeed they can be but i am not sure they take the world title). It is very common, upon meeting someone, to ask how they are doing... many times and in many different ways all at the initial meeting. A common (translated) greeting would be as follows:

Hello how are you?
I am fine and how are you?
I am fine thank you are you healthy?
I am doing well are you good?
I am very good thank you
How are you?

And for this i am not kidding at all. Honestly the first few times i met new afghans i thought they were just joking with me, giving the new (foreign) guy a hard time but i quickly found that they were being quite sincere even doing the kiss on the cheek thing. Fortunately being in Europe softened me up to that a bit... though i always appreciate doing with a soft-cheeked woman rather than some big bearded afghan guy, though i guess i am one to talk having a beard at the moment as well. Also, i have only seen once instance of a guy cheek-kissing a woman, i would say that it is probably haram (taboo to those non-Muslims out there) in most cases though i have never asked.

The cheek kissing reminds me of an obligatory sexual harassment workshop that the Peace Corps volunteers had to take in Moldova. At the time Peace Corps Moldova had a ethnic Bulgarian Russian speaking doctor who was adored by all volunteers (including me) he took very good care of us but he would sometimes say the funniest things (that might be offensive had someone else said it). During soviet times he was with the soviet military and at one point was in Portugal on assignment. He was trying to explain how guys could be sexually harassed too and to do so he used his time in Portugal as an example, "Victor (he sometimes referred to him self in the first person, pretty Russian) was werking in Portugal and I meet woman doctor, she kissed me on cheek and first Victor was offended, I was harassed! ... But then Victor thought Hmmmm, maybe this is good thing… now victor likes this" (all the volunteers almost cried we laughed so hard, perhaps you had to be there).

Temple from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

Temple from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

Nope, but it kinda reminded me of the temple from end of that movie. There are a few key differences, this is not nearly as old as the movie temple was supposed to be, this was in Afghanistan not the Middle East, and this had nothing to do with the bible.

As I understand it this place was build by some important Afghan (nobility?) about a hundred years ago as a sort of summer house (which makes sense because while I was there in July it must have gotten down to in the 40s [Fahrenheit] at night). It is now used as a mosque of sorts and is the second thing most people think of when they think of Band-i Amir (right after the Lakes themselves).

Waterfall?

Waterfall?
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

Not exactly sure what to call this, waterfall I guess. Regardless I was quite pretty I wouldn’t say spectacular but worth a photo and by Afghan standards this would certainly pass as spectacular. It is runoff from the lake and has a Yellowstone (national park in the US) kinda look to it due to the funky colored growths (moss, algae?) growing where the water was flowing.

Really Deep (take my word for it)

Really Deep (take my word for it)
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

Well they had paddle boats out at Band-I Amir, how they got them out there (Our 4x4 had troubles in some places trying to get there and it was only carrying people) I have no idea but non the less they had em and almost every Afghan wanted to go in one. I was not particularly hip on paddling around in one of these things since I am not a fan of getting wet (and I got very, wet [and irritated]), there was *no* safety gear, I am not the best swimmer, and it just wasn’t all the novel to me but nonetheless I was coaxed into one of dinky little boats. While out paddling around wherever my co-paddler desired I noticed that the lake seemed to be pretty damn deep! I thought I would capture my observation on (digital) film, but alas you can’t really tell much by looking at the picture but I checked on Wikipedia (they spell it Band-e Amir, seems that proper spellings of places here using western characters is not formalized yet) that some of the Band-i lakes are indeed pretty deep (average depth of 80 meters).

Adrenaline (continued)

Adrenaline (continued)
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

Here is a shot of one side of the “cliff pillars” my colleague was hopping around on, if you look up on (around the the center of) the ridge you will see a white dot, that is a full grown Afghan man, and if you will look to the bottom right of the picture you will see that I wasn’t able to fit in the base… it was (or at least seemed like) a looooong way down.

Adrenaline

Adrenaline
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

That is one of the (non-explicative) things that came out of his mouth after he got back onto solid footing. This was an American colleague of mine who was intrepid enough to go hopping around on these cliff pillars (for lack of a better name). Also notice he is doing this in something like rubber Birkenstocks (damn hippie)(Just kidding Theo). You can’t imagine how high up this was and how it looked even higher up, vertigo just doesn’t describe it. I didn’t have the cohones to follow but our driver took the lead hopping back and forth like a little afghan mountain goat (all the while egging us to follow, I didn’t fall for it). I later found out that our driver drove a tank during the fighting with the soviets which goes a long way towards explaining his unhinged driving tendencies and his general perception of danger.

The Band-i Amir Resort

The Band-i Amir Resort
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

I really wasn’t told much about Band-i Amir so when I got there I was pleasantly surprised. It is a pretty remote place, of course no running water or electricity (but that could be said about most of Afghanistan). I can’t remember where but I remember reading some comment about how Bamiyan City (one of the two largest cities in the province) is for the “Extreme Tourist” well they haven’t been to Band-I Amir; Bamiyan city has a few restaurants (admittedly they all only serve kebabs, damn good though), markets, occasional electricity, and hotels… Band-i Amir has none of those. There are a few generators which you can hear grinding away at night but they pretty much just serve to power the lights around the little vendor stalls and not much else. Here you can see the lake above, a string of tents/shacks below (vendors with a surprisingly large variety of things to sell) and assorted tents which are the Band-i Amir equivalent to hotel rooms. To the left (out of the picture) is an outhouse of questionable hygiene and a restaurant of sorts. Really though, considering where it is located the amenities are more than I would have expected.

Afghan Boonies Toilet & Public Urination

Afghan Boonies Toilet & Public Urination
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

While visiting the different lakes in the Band-i Amir lake area I noticed a small structure built into the side of a cliff and asked one of my Afghan colleges what it was, the answer (matter-a-factly) was “it’s a toilet” (I am sure there was a mental “duh” in there somewhere). One of the things that first struck me in Moldova was public urination, I have since seen it in many other countries but 99% of the time was men. I would not have expected to see such things in a culture as uber conservative as Afghanistan but I do, all over the place. Yesterday I was going to a meeting and this driver prefers to go through the public market (I question the time efficiency of taking the market route but markets are always interesting to observe so I never say anything) and there was a wall along the way, not even a block apart were two Afghan men standing, right there back against the public peeing on the wall, amazing. One last note that does seem to be different from other countries, many guys squat to pee, I haven’t quite figured this one out, they pretty much do the same standing-n-peeing thing but while they are squatting, perhaps they think they are being more discreet, I just don’t know.