Kabul Diary 2

It is 9.15 in the morning and I am observing Elliott's working day at the hospital.

I think my day started at 4.15 with the call to prayer from a nearby mosque. I could also hear to congregation praying. Being Ramadan there would be many there. So I said my prayers in bed not mosque and tried to get back to sleep.

7am a car arrived to take Elliott to work. Kabul looks very like Kano but we did one thing we could not have done in Nigeria. I changed money for local currency at a street vendor who had piles of notes on his little stall. One thing more in evidence in Kabul is the military, their own and UN soldiers. The later merely drive through on patrol and do not stop. They are all NATO soldiers. Our boys are in the south. We flew over the conflict provinces on our way here yesterday.

Jack Straw take note, so far I have spotted only three fully veiled Afghan women. I think the debate should shift onto who we would prefer to have veiled, and not only women. Red Ken and Prescott for example? But I digress.

At the hospital I have been meeting Elliott's Afghan and expat colleagues. I went on a ward round with his students but they only had one new admission, a possible case of poisoning by pesticide.