Kabul diary 4

Thu 12 Oct 2.30pm

Today is the start of the weekend here as Friday in an Islamic country takes the place of our Sunday.

Mark,Sue and the girls took us to the National Gallery this morning. We were the only visitors so were shown round by two guides. What surprised me was it was just about all paintings, no Islamic calligraphy. The pictures were by local and expat artists. Some showed signs of damage as they had been taken from their frames and hidden to escape the iconoclasm of the Taliban who destroyed all representations of living creatures. There was a case full of torn up pictures which the staff had failed to burn as instructed. My favorite picture, later to appear on my blog was of the sole British survivor riding injured into Jelalabad after the first Afghan war 130 years ago.. 16,000 left Kabul. He alone survived from the British army that had taken Kabul

We enjoyed a pizza lunch at a cafe open for non-Muslims only during the day in Ramadan. We had planned a picnic in the country but our hosts decided it was not a good idea in the fast time.