Kabul Diary 1

It is 8.15pm Sunday evening in this household. We arrived at 9 am local time so are feeling a bit jet lagged having lost 3 and a half hours from BST and a night's sleep.

We left Heathrow on Royal Dubai, a plane full of people very few of whom left the flight at Dubai. Most were going to the far east or the antipodes. It was a 7 hour flight. Proceeding to Dubai baggage claim I heard a welcome sound, Hausa, and greeted two men from Kano. A pleasant Arab lady immigration officer gave us visas for UAR, we got our cases and asked how to find terminal 2. The answer was pay 7 ukp to have a taxi take us round to the other side of the airport. Fortunately we had bought the local currency in Finchley. This was 3 to 4 in the morning and we had to check in for the Ariana Afghan Airlines flight leaving 6.30 am. Most passengers were Afghan men, few females, plenty of European males but Katy the only white female on a half-full airbus that took 2 and a half hours to dusty, brown Kabul under its circle of hills. We were pleasantly surprised to get drinks and breakfast in daylight during Ramadan while in the air.

Elliott was a little late picking us up and it was getting hot. They live on the other side of the city so we saw something of Kabul and the delights of local traffic. It is reminiscent of Kano in many ways, when the dust blows down from the Sahara. Sunday is a working day. Elliott had already finished some night work at the hospital. His son's Mark and Carl were at the SERVE office. Mark's girls were at school. His mother Marty and wife Sue were at home to welcome us. We strolled out to buy bread from an Afghan run French bakery.After lunch we slept then had drinks at a newly developed facility where locals and expats can meet, eat, drink and access the Internet. After dinner Sue and I are on laptops emailing, the brothers plying computer games, the children in bed and the rest of the adults watching Mansfield Park on DVD. Electricity is from their own solar cells charging 12 volt accumulators which is then transformed to mains.

Photos later I trust.