Using the Internet as an information source for help as opposed to a source for copying.

I am presently teaching a business communications ESL course at American University in Kabul and am learning more about teaching every day.

When I was in school (even in 2005) there wasn’t nearly as much information online as there is now (and there certainly wasn’t as much back during undergrad in the 90s). Without a doubt this information boom has been a blessing, no two ways about it, but the misuse or abuse of this information has become more and more disturbing to me. In the US I have heard about problems related to plagiarism etc but for those who are caught there are very stiff penalties (a friend of mine was expelled from school for a year and all she did was copy someone’s homework). In the developing world it is a different story. There are almost no laws about not claiming someone else’s intellectual work as your own and even if there are laws they are routinely ignored. I admit that I am perhaps a bit flexible about “fair use” but profiting off of someone else’s work or claiming someone else’s work as your own really really bothers me. In the class I am teaching I routinely catch students blatantly copying from the internet and not citing the copied work (or worse claiming it as your own); even worse many of the international students from developing countries in my grad school program routinely copied the work of others (and didn’t get caught nearly as often as they should have). I have heard worse stories from friends who are/were professional teachers having papers submitted with the URLs still in the header with students swearing it was their own work.

This is one of those “I can identify the problem, but don’t know the solution” things, if I was to treat my students as my friend in undergrad was treated I would have a class that was 1/3^rd its original size. I have had to stress repeatedly that un-cited work will not be counted (they are presently working on final projects) all this and I am not even requiring the work be cited according to any particular standard (I had to use APA), just tell me how I can find the information if I wanted to refer back to it… and many of them still are not getting it.

Under Attack!!

How's that for an alarmist title? Well it's misleading to say the least but it still seemed appropriate. Last night (3am) I kept hearing all these noises, sometimes it sounded (in my groggy state) like very brief thunder other times straight up gunfire. I found out this morning that it was actually a shootout between some terrorist and the Afghan Police/Army. It took place less than a mile from where I am which I guess should be unsettling but for some reason its not. I guess some of the reasons it is not particularly unsettling is that I have heard about violence in Kabul for awhile (though I haven't actually heard the violence itself), rumor has it these guys are linked to the attack on Karzi and the police found them and cornered them, they weren't after me, and there was almost no chance I would be caught up in it. Still its kind of surreal. For me the most difficult part of working in Kabul is having to take security into consideration all the time which means I (as I keep saying) don't get out much. Ironically the projects I manage are in a very safe area of Afghanistan (Central, called Hazarajat) where one can, and I have, walk anywhere one wants without fear.

I was walking in Bamyan, a province smack in the middle of Hazarajat, a few months ago and as often happens an Afghan (student) who wanted to practice their English came along and started talking to me. We came to a creek that we had to cross so I hopped across and he just left his bicycle in the grass along the edge of the creek (plenty of people around). I asked him if "that wouldn't be a problem?" and he said "what wouldn't be a problem?" apparently he was not worried in the least about someone stealing the bicycle even thought it probably cost 2-3 weeks salary for many people in the area. Yeah,
I'm hoping to get a job there next (assuming my next job is in Afghanistan).


If you want to see via satellite the approximate area where the fire fight took place (in Kabul) go here (Google maps). The fairly barren area to the right with a faint line going across it is a very well known mountain and the line is a very old wall built by a king way back when (not sure how way back though). I live about a mile west of this point. The houses at the base of the mountain are where Kabul's poor (not poorest) live. I have been around here and can attest that this particular area is not the nicest of mountain "settlements".

Burqa Emporium

Burqa Emporium
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

Well I am not sure if this shop would count as a “emporium” but the only thing they sold was burqas. I should have gotten a photo but they had burqas for children (bought my cousins one, should be interesting to see their reaction) and even a burqa for dolls! I know westerners who have tried wearing a burqa and found it to be intolerable, not being able to see, hard to breath, etc; and in reality (or in Kabul, not sure about other areas) women here sometimes wear buraqs but flip the front up so they can see (and exposing their faces but they don’t seem to care).

I have been told different things by different people about why the buraqs are worn the main reason is so men can’t see how women look and many times women only wear them because their husbands make them do so. But there are many conservative women in Afghanistan, the cook for my organization (who is ethnic Tajik, not typically as conservative as some other ethnic groups here) wears a burqa outdoors but her husband died a few years ago so it is obviously of her own will (she also never comes out of the kitchen either but doesn’t seem to care too much if I come in and see her). Another odd (to me) example is an Afghan friend of mine (who is a *really* nice guy and ethnic Pashto, who tend to be more conservative), his wife wears a burqa and not because he make her (she requires it). He actually has a funny story; his family lives in Pakistan where women also wear something that is similar to a burqa but you can see their eyes (in Afghanistan you can’t see any part of their face) and his wife was getting stares for wearing an afghan burqa but she refused to “expose” herself by wearing a Pakistani style dress so he had to buy sunglasses for her at which point she finally yielded and wore the Pakistani style clothes. Different cultures.

Sidewalk Barber

Sidewalk Barber
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

This group was about the least amicable of the people I tried to photograph. I found the “sidewalk barbers” to be really interesting to watch, and I came across many excellent (well 3) photo opportunities, but almost every time I asked to take a photo (I always asked first) they would give me an emphatic “No”. The only reason I got a photo of this guy was that my friend told him (unbeknownst to me until he was getting prepped) that if the barber would let me take a photo my friend would agree to pay for a haircut (I would not have agreed to this as there have been few photos that I felt were worth paying for [paying for photos builds a culture of “lets get the rich foreigners to pay to take photos of us”, seems like a bad precedent]). So I took a photo of this guy and he still wanted more money. I now wonder if the profession just draws in a certain type of personality. Another afghan friend said that maybe the barbers are ashamed of what they do but people doing far more menial work agreed to let me take photos no problem, perhaps there is a cultural element I am missing here.

Fire!

Fire!
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

I wish I had gotten a picture of this when it happened but alas no photo. The (diesel) heater caught on fire in one of the offices in my building and pretty much managed to add a layer of soot in minutes. The person walked in saw the thing gurgling and spitting out fiery blobs of diesel so he picked it up, ran to the balcony and tossed it over the side (burning his hand in the process). There was a trail of burn marks on the rug between his office and the balcony where the fiery drops of diesel left their mark (and they have yet to change the rug months later [yes, I am behind on my posting]). The kicker for me is this was the second fire in two months.

These heaters are pretty simple in design, they have a can of diesel that drips into a pipe that puddles at the base of a larger can and is lit. The problem is that if any dust/dirt gets into the tank/can that holds the fuel it can temporarily clog up the spout and if you have turned it up a bit more turn your back and whatever dirt/dust frees itself the spout starts gushing diesel which overflows the part where the fire is and viola! Deathtrap.

My National Geographic Magazine Photo

My National Geographic Magazine Photo
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

Well it was *supposed* to be my national geographic magazine photo but while it came out ok it did not come out nearly as well as I hoped it would. One of my photography problems is I don’t like to be obvious about taking photos and to sit in front of the person and snap off 20 different photos while the person is right there (which could very well have yielded at least one really good photo) is beyond uncomfortable for me.

Asides from the scene that seemed almost perfect I have been amused by the sewing machines in Afghanistan. These sewing machines are “hand powered” by a crank. It seems like this setup would be particularly difficult to use since I would think that one would have to have one hand cranking the machine and one hand guiding the cloth along.

My great aunt’s (great grandmother’s?) sewing machine (that my folks still have) was foot driven, it seems like that something that allowed both hands to be free would be a lot easier to use but perhaps that setup would be a bit more complicated mechanically speaking (and the more complicated the setup the harder it is to fix). The whole human powered part makes total sense though because much of Afghanistan doesn’t have any electricity and even those parts that are electrified areas don’t have consistent power.

Landslide!

Landslide!
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

This was one of the field adventures I had while heading out to one of the field offices. It had apparently rained somewhere (certainly not in Kabul) which caused a few landslides. Our driver made it through some spots I really didn’t think we’d make it through but this part he was not willing to try unless we nudged the odds a bit (that is digging). Despite the fact that I am holding the camera I did help quite a bit (actually the driver and I were the ones to ask one of the villagers for some shovels) and got props for it from some of the staff. We might have been able to make it over this hump but it was actually viscous mud mixed with rock so not totally solid and a bigger problem (that is not apparent from this picture) was that if we flipped we would roll down a 20 foot embankment (we do have a roll-cage in the truck but why risk it?). Our options were to turn around and take a 8 hour detour (we had already been driving since 5am it it was now mid afternoon) which the driver was not keen on.

Normally I have thought of Afghans as pretty hard working but these kids were certainly the exception. One of the staff had asked if they could help and they said they had to go somewhere (that was at least 15 minutes before this picture was taken, after they said they had to go they promptly sat down and started to gawk at us). I even offered them $2 apiece (two days salary for some families) and they still didn’t want to help (apparently not the most fiscally savvy of children). Anyway, we shoveled away and tossed small rocks out of the way and put large rocks on the soft spots and after about an hour of work or so Nasurla (driver) locked the hubs, made it over the hump, and gunned it through the 2 foot deep 20 yard long pool of mud and to safety on the other side no problem! dude you rock! (He is probably the most careful of the drivers, the other drivers give him a hard time because he is "slow" [euphamism for safe?])

Tough As Nails

Tough As Nails
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

This is Atoi and while I am not sure he is actually “tough as nails” he certainly gives that impression (driving full throttle on narrow Cliffside roads for 15 hours at a time, washing the car in 15F weather with a rag and bare hands, chasing down any of the staff that tries crossing him [being about 6” helps, taller than average here], and just looking pretty tough and weathered [though he is just 65]). He drives like most afghan drivers, absolutely deranged; even my boss whences sometimes and my boss grew up in Afghanistan!

I have to admit though that he is one of my favorite drivers here. I learned how to say “donkey” in Persian from him since he calls everyone on the road (and police) donkeys (borderline obscene here). The mere fact that he looks and talks like he could eat the creosote off a telephone pole helps fend off would be urban-assault-prone-drivers, beggars (who can pick your pocket if they get close enough [though this is rare]), and really helps when I am negotiating in the market. During Ramadan (Ramazan here) he was a one man hurricane, kinda scary actually (to all those who don’t know, during Ramazan people fast during the day which tends to make people pretty grouchy).

Correction: Apparently he is 75 (he has lived in Kabul for 65 years I think) which makes seeing him literally run around all the more impressive

Staff Photos

Staff Photos
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

No these kids are not my staff (though make no mistake, child labor is alive and well here) but these were some photos my staff took. My organization has way more digital cameras than it needs (though the cameras are never available when we need them “Where the IDP project camera?!” “Oh, Mohammad took it home” “When?!” “Two weeks ago” “Sigh…”) and since the project donors always like to see photos of the projects they are funding I have the staff take project pictures. I get pretty mixed results in that sometimes they don’t take any photos, or I get photos of the backs of peoples heads but to their credit they do take a lot of pictures so out of this quantity they sometimes have a few good pictures.

I loved this photo of the children of one of the families we tried to help, this was actually taken with a 7megapixel camera… but for some reason the staff took 2 weeks worth of pictures using a 640x480 resolution (less than 1 megapixel I think).

As for the children here, I of course noticed two of them (the boy in particular) had reddish hair. Before coming here I had assumed that all Afghans pretty much looked like Arabs but I was quite wrong. I still think a lot of Afghans could pass for Arab in the central region they are “Hazara” which are ethnic Mongol, and there is a ethnic group called “Buyat” and they look pretty western, and then there are Afghans that to me look like Panjabi Indians. I do remember when I was in Laos seeing some children who had reddish hair way out in the boonies and I though “hmmmm, they are keeping up with fashion (dyed hair I thought” but I later learned that that color hair can result from severe malnutrition, I have no idea if that is the case here or not.

Transportation in Afghanistan

Transportation in Afghanistan
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

The first thing I thought of when I saw this (other than “Where is my camera?!”) was some friends of mine. They have children and told me that they used to joke with their kids when their kids friends were around and sternly tell their kids “if you do that again I’ll lock you in the closet again!” well of course they were joking (though I can totally see the kids’ friends’ eyes just popping out of their heads) but they could just as well said “I’ll put you in the trunk of the car!” well here it is, though I don’t think this kid is being punished.

There are of course a million and one “How many Mexicans can you fit in X vehicle” jokes in the US but Afghans take it to the next level riding for hours hanging onto the backs of trucks, riding with cattle (squished?!), on tops of trucks, and now in the trunk of taxies.

Afghan Golf

Afghan Golf
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

Coming from a golfing state (NC) I should love the sport but alas, I can’t fathom what those funny Scots where thinking when they came up with this game (and ironically I’ve got Scottish blood in my family)

Well on my way to a lake outside of Kabul we passed “Kabul Golf Course” upon seeing this I had to stop and take a picture which involved waving my hands around to the driver (he is getting used to this but I still get the feeling all the drivers in my organization are going to lynch me someday for all the photos I have them stop for). I’m not sure if I am the only one but there are those things I just don’t expect to see in Afghanistan and a golf course it one of them. Now I have to admit that this particular golfing green isn’t something that any self respecting North Carolinian would play on but after being cooped up in a compound (depending on one’s organization’s security policies) one might be surprised at what eventually passes as acceptable.

I was actually surprised that this place hadn’t been invaded by Kuchi yet (afghan nomads as far as I can tell) as they had forcefully made their way into the edges of central Afghanistan for some pretty pathetic grazing areas (this scrub was prime eat’n by comparison). Another thing that was kind of surprising was that foreigners would go there at all; the area wasn’t guarded, was a nice spot for sniping (indeed not a mile away I climbed a mountain that had the remains of a bunker where the Mujadin (sp?) sniped Russians about 15 years earlier), and well, it was full of only foreigners with a few Afghan caddies. While I admit that it is hard to resist the draw of familiar things (being poor as dirt helps keep me away from such western amusements) and I probably do get out a wee bit more than some expats but I tend towards afghan areas and not places with tons of westerners in groups.

Living from a Wheelbarrow

Living from a Wheelbarrow
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

This was supposed to be my phenomenal photo but alas it didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted. I was hoping to get all of them to turn my way so I could get a picture, actually the irony here was almost annoying because usually, if people know I am a foreigner, they can’t stop staring at me.

If you go to a large market in Afghanistan you will see people with wheel barrows carting stuff around, smaller scale version of the two men pulling a heavily laden cart in another picture, but probably in the same pay range as. They are paid by vendors to cart stuff around from one place to the next, for cents per trip.

The scene actually reminds me of migrant workers that gather at places like construction sites or home depots etc; they wait and hope for some daily work, and usually it is just barely enough to get buy.

Walkers for Afghan Tots!

Walkers for Afghan Tots!
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

While cavorting around Kabul’s biggest bazaar on my photography excursion I came across something I don’t see very often, a traditional (I think) Afghan toy!

Lately I have been trying to find some toys for my cousins, for the girls it was a cinch but for the little(est) boy it has been kinda difficult. I am not the type that enjoys getting meaningless or useless gifts so I tend not to give them either (personally I’d rather do without than get a meaningless/useless gift). This has been a bit of a problem though, if he was a weeee bit older I could get him some really cool handmade knives (a staple of my boyhood) or maybe some old Islamic/Buddhist/Greek coins always interesting (when you are old enough to appreciate them) but damn, for a kid who is not even waist high (well not to me at least) it ain’t easy.

In talking with my Afghan friends they have confessed to me that there are few traditional afghan toys (that they can think of). I actually saw a picture of this toy somewhere else and my friend informed me it is a walker for kids (ironic, you start off using one of these things and end up using them too [kind of like diapers I guess]). So tots that are learning to walk shuffle around while holding on to these but my cousins is pretty darn mobile (ie not that young) so it wouldn’t work for him but they are interesting all the same… I haven’t seen older people here use walkers at all but a larger version of this might work for those aging 60s revivalist!

A Dollar A Day

A Dollar A Day
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

This is a common scene in Kabul, and larger cities in Afghanistan (but really I have only been in Kabul and smaller towns/villages) men acting as human mules to cart around goods for vendors, it is a really sobering sight for me every time I see it (100s of times) and unlike some depressing scenes in development this kind of thing still gets to me.

These scenes keep brining me back to a conversation I had with an NGO officer for who I was doing some consulting work for in Kenya (arguably one of the better off countries in Africa, despite the recent violence). I had said something like “you wouldn’t want them hauling a 50kg (100lb) bag of fertilizer for 7-8 miles…” and I noticed as I said that her looked to his colleague and she half smiled back, it occurred to me at that moment that my made up scenario was actually quite real. I have seen hard work in many countries but I think the hardest work for the least compensation I have seen is in Africa and now Afghanistan. The men in this picture probably will not earn more than a dollar apiece this day.

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.