Challenges for Business in Remote Afghanistan

This is a pho­to stu­dio in the remote province on Bamyan, in cen­tral Afghanistan. Since they are far away from major cities and the cap­i­tal Kab­ul, they have devel­oped skills that can help them fix prob­lems of their equip­ment and machines that they are using with­out hav­ing to trav­el and bring their bro­ken machines with them. For exam­ple, this pho­to stu­dio own­er fix­es his own pho­to­copi­er and print­er when there is any small prob­lems with it. If they need to replace any parts then they ask a dri­ver who trav­els reg­u­lar­ly to Kab­ul to bring that to them and then they would replace it by themselves.
Imped­i­ments to road trav­els stop them from trav­el­ing too. Tal­iban’s check points on the way from Bamyan to Kab­ul is one con­cern for busi­ness peo­ple in Bamyan, for exam­ple. In win­ter the roads are snowed under and impos­si­ble to trav­el on. The cost of the road trav­el is also high. So those are some of the chal­lenges that busi­ness peo­ple in Bamyan and oth­er remote provinces are fac­ing and the have to devel­op rel­e­vant skills to trou­bleshoot prob­lems in their areas of work.

Hindrance to My Progress

After spend­ing a week and a half in Bamyan city and train­ing Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents, the pro­fes­sors and a few work­ers from Shuha­da aid and relief orga­ni­za­tion in tech tools and map­ping and Crowdmap­ping pro­grams and appli­ca­tions, it’s time to go back and par­tic­i­pate in the Islam­abad Inno­va­tion Lab ini­ti­at­ed by Internews in Islam­abad, Pak­istan. I was invit­ed to the inno­va­tion lab by the Internews, Afghanistan. We have pur­chased tick­ets and our flight is on Octo­ber 24th, 2011. The actu­al inno­va­tion lab will be held from Octo­ber 25–27 where dif­fer­ent experts and devel­op­ers will present pre­sen­ta­tions and train­ings on dif­fer­ent social media tools. I am also going to give a pre­sen­ta­tion on the open source data col­lec­tion and map visu­al­iz­ing tool Crowdmap. I have been look­ing for­ward to the Islam­abad Inno­va­tion lab for a long time. The prob­lem is that there are no flights from my cur­rent city of Bamyan to the cap­i­tal city of Kab­ul we are fly­ing out of Kab­ul air­port to Islam­abad on Mon­day, Octo­ber 24 before the inno­va­tion lab in Islam­abad begins. I know that the weath­er will get bet­ter and we’ll have flights again but there is a big­ger and more entrenched prob­lem- the fear of being killed by the Tal­iban if we take the road.
Most of the peo­ple that I have talked to here are very intim­i­dat­ed and fear­ful of trav­el­ing on the road from Bamyan to Kab­ul. They think it’s crazy to trav­el on this road since it’s a noto­ri­ous­ly dan­ger­ous road because of sev­er­al rea­sons: Impro­vised Explo­sive Devices (IEDs), Tal­iban check­ing cars to iden­ti­fy those whom they don’t like and to cut their heads off, and rob­beries on the way. A few months ago a mem­ber of the Bamyan provin­cial assem­bly was trav­el­ing from Bamyan to Kab­ul when he got caught by the Tal­iban and they cut off his head right away. These acts of ter­ror­ists have increased people’s fear. It’s a shame that not func­tion­ing roads that have in Afghanistan but we can’t use them.
Yes­ter­day morn­ing, I was ask­ing some­one who works with a NGO here in Bamyan for advice on how to dress and what type of vehi­cle and what route to take. Shams told me his sto­ry like how one time he was trav­el­ing on that road and the dri­ver was inter­ro­gat­ing him about what he was doing and why he had been to Bamyan. He was afraid that the dri­ver might be one of “them” and would harm him. He passed him­self off for a pota­to busi­ness man. Bamyan’s pota­toes are very pop­u­lar in Afghanistan and that’s how he got away with the poten­tial threat. Some peo­ple also think that there are spot­ters in the main city cen­ter and they fol­low peo­ple and report back when they start their trip from this city.
How­ev­er, my par­tic­i­pa­tion in this inno­va­tion lab in Pak­istan will add a lot to my skills and exper­tise in social media and oth­er open source tools and pro­grams and how they can be used for social change. There is going to be experts and devel­op­ers from dif­fer­ent coun­tries and it’ll be a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for me to share my ideas and expe­ri­ences with oth­er inter­na­tion­al col­leagues of how tech­nol­o­gy in Afghanistan is used for social change and also to hear their sto­ries about it. When I return from this inno­va­tion lab, I will share what I have learned with oth­er fel­low Afghans and my team, Jalala­good Geek Squad.
Is it worth tak­ing the risk and trav­el­ling on the Bamyan-Kab­ul road for this?
I think those of us who have cho­sen to work and live in Afghanistan, we’ve accept­ed this as part of the chal­lenge to some­times trav­el on roads and to places that are dan­ger­ous. Dan­ger­ous because there are ene­mies of human­i­ty. Dan­ger­ous because there are ter­ror­ists who cre­ate fear their vio­lent acts and there­by tar­get­ing and dis­re­gard­ing the safe­ty of human beings.
To con­clude, I feel accom­plished at the end of my work and the train­ings that I helped with with Baman Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents, staff and sev­er­al aid work­ers here. And noth­ing will change my com­mit­ment to serv­ing those who are in need of what I can offer.

Things that Make Me Fall in Love with Bamyan

The amaz­ing and nat­ur­al beau­ty of Bamyan city

The hap­py and play­ful kids of Bamyan

The extreme­ly friend­ly and help­ful people

And most impor­tant­ly, the stun­ning smile of these peo­ple. When Haz­aras smile, their eyes look amaz­ing­ly beautiful!

Heading Back to Kabul

Today is my 11th day here in Bamyan. It’s 8:35 in the morn­ing and a beau­ti­ful day here. I have packed every­thing and sit­ting on my bed in my hotel room. I am leav­ing for the air­port in half an hour. When my col­league and I were com­ing to Bamyan we booked round trip tick­ets with Part­ners in Avi­a­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Tech­nol­o­gy (Pactec). They have flight to Bamyan on Sun­days and Wednes­days. The prob­lem is that I am going to par­tic­i­pate in an inno­va­tion lab in Islam­abad, Pak­istan. After I bought the round trip tick­ets for fly­ing back to Kab­ul on the 26th, I found out that my flight to Islam­abd is on the 24th from Kab­ul Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. I tried to change my flight with Pactec to Sun­day the 24th but I could­n’t do so. Then I met this lady from the Provin­cial Recon­struc­tion Team (PRT) here in Bamyan and she said that I show up at the airstrip today in about 30 min­utes to see if she could get my on an Embassy Air flight. It’s a fun­ny way of fly­ing some­where. When I go to the dirt air­port of Bamyan, I need to talk to the pilot and tell him about my prob­lem and then they’ll decide whether I can get on it or not. I know it’s fun­ny but if I get it it’ll be my first time in a heli­copter. If could­n’t get on this Embassy Air then I will have to take the dan­ger­ous road tomor­row to make it to my Islam­abad Inno­va­tion Lab on the flight the fol­low­ing day. Now I need to ask the hotel man­ag­er if I can bum a ride to the air­port which about 10 min­utes from my hotel. I hope I get on the heli­copter flight today. 🙂

From Bamyan with Love

This is a con­ve­nience store own­er right across from Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty. Drink­ing tea in his “Love” glass.

Fun with the Screamers at the City of Scream

Last Fri­day, Una and I went to Shahr-e-Ghol­gho­la which means the city of scream in Dari. It’s a beau­ti­ful old city ruins on top of a hill with a won­der­ful view of the whole city of Bamyan. We hiked to the very top of the hill and met a fam­i­ly. An old man came to vis­it Shahr-e-Ghol­gho­la with his chil­dren. He was a police­man who was sta­tioned on top of this hill a few years ear­li­er. Then on our way back down on the oth­er side of the hill we came across a bunch of the cutest and very fun kids. They were all shep­herds who had left their sheep behind and came to run down the hill­side with me. The lit­tle kids were so tough that they ran down these real­ly steep hill­sides that Una thought that I should­n’t try to run on as an adult. The scream­ers showed us around and explained to us the dif­fer­ent parts of the Shahr-e-Ghol­gho­la. We explored some caves. We went into this one real­ly deep and very dark cave where we could­n’t find the end of it. We saw a dead dog at one point and then made a U‑turn and came out. They accom­pa­nied us all the way through to the end of the old city ruins. At the end the scream­ers asked us to bring them hard copies of the beau­ti­ful pho­tos that we took with them.

They had told us that they would be by that hill when­ev­er we come dur­ing the day. These kids take care of their sheep all day in a pas­ture by the hill and they nev­er go home for lunch or any­thing. They have break­fasts and din­ner. They are all one team and very fun togeth­er. They play togeth­er, run togeth­er and lead their groups of sheep togeth­er. They were wear­ing too lit­tle clothes in this harsh sea­son in Bamyan. A cou­ple of day lat­er, Una and I print­ed the pho­tos for them and took back to the city of screams where we had met and promised to meet again.
Una bought them a cou­ple of blan­kets to keep them warm when they are out in cold. She also brought them some juice and cook­ies. We came to the city of scream­ers with all the stuff. We could­n’t find the scream­ers. I screamed the scream­ers names in the city of screams. I found one of them and then a cou­ple of more. We gave them their pho­tos and every­thing and said good­bye until next time.

Shahr-e-Gholghola-The City of Screams

From the plaque:
Shahr-e-Ghol­gho­la (“City of Screams”) is a for­ti­fied urban site dat­ing from late Sas­san­ian (6th c. AD) through to the Ghorid peri­od (12th-13th CC.). The citadel on this hill site was the heart of the Islam­ic city of Bamyan fol­low­ing the decline of Bud­dhism here from the 8th cen­tu­ry AD.
Shahr-e-Ghol­gho­la is believed to have been destroyed by the Mon­gols under Genghis Khan, who invad­ed it in 1221 and mas­sa­cred all the inhab­i­tants. The site’s name is said to date from this massacre.

Presentation to BU Staff and the Students

When my col­league­U­na and I arrived in Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty (BU here­after), we met with the deputy chan­cel­lor of the uni­ver­si­ty in the after­noon since the chan­cel­lor had been to Kab­ul for his health check­up. As I explained in my ear­li­er blog, we did a needs assess­ment sur­vey of BU back in April of this year and then we were able to raise some funds for their inter­net, solar pow­er and com­put­er labs facil­i­ties. We arrived here on Octo­ber 12th, 2011. The fol­low­ing day, we pre­sent­ed a more detailed overview of the fol­low­ing 10 days of train­ing and equip­ment instal­la­tion to the uni­ver­si­ty staff and the stu­dents. Since I am giv­ing a train­ing in the open source, Open­StreetMap and Crowdmap, I pre­sent­ed a lit­tle infor­ma­tion about those two. Una is train­ing the uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents and some pro­fes­sors in social media. She talked about what she plans to teach the trainees. Today was the 16the and the sec­ond and last day of Open­StreetMap train­ing. I enjoyed teach­ing the stu­dents and pro­fes­sors to use smart phones to col­lect gps data and to work around Open­StreetMap. It’s 11:05 and as I am typ­ing I am sit­ting in the restau­rant of the hotel that I am stay­ing in (for bet­ter inter­net con­nec­tion) and Una is work­ing is putting fin­ish­ing touch­es to her pre­sen­ta­tion on social media train­ing for tomor­row. After 2 days of social media train­ing, I will have anoth­er 2 days of Crowdmap train­ing with the uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents and professors.

Inventory for Bamyan University

This is from Thurs­day at Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty. We are mak­ing an inven­to­ry list for the equip­ment that we have brought with to the uni­ver­si­ty in our Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty project (more details in my pre­vi­ous blog). Pro­fes­sors Joya and Motamid are help­ing me with it. Pro­fes­sor Joya has got his mas­ter’s degree in Edu­ca­tion and Lan­guage Learn­ing from Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty. I love work­ing with Bamyan Uni­ver­si­ty staff.

We were send­ing all these equip­ment from the cap­i­tal Kab­ul through Par­wan to Bamyan which has been a very dan­ger­ous way late­ly. There have been sev­er­al kid­naps and rob­bing. I have a smart col­league who put all the 40 lap­tops and smart phones and inter­net modems in these met­al trunks and locked them all. We rent­ed part of this big Russ­ian truck that reg­u­lar­ly makes trips to Kab­ul from Bamyan and brings back sup­plies to the stores of Bamyan Bazaar. They put all these trunks in the back of the truck under oth­er sup­plies so that any poten­tial rob­bers on the way would­n’t see it. Every­thing made it to the uni­ver­si­ty alright and before us.
We labeled all the lap­tops and the smart phones and record­ed their ser­i­al num­bers on a spread­sheet. I asked Pro­fes­sor Abidy, our main con­tact at the uni­ver­si­ty to get bat­ter­ies for the label mak­er. He brought the AAA Chi­nese bat­ter­ies with a brand name of SQMY which looks like Sony with the first glance. The life of the bat­ter­ies was from turn­ing the label mak­er on to typ­ing “A‑1” and press­ing print but­ton. They died. We had to walk to Bamyan main bazaar, about 10 min­utes from the cam­pus to get good qual­i­ty Energizers.

Kabul Attack Building

One month ago less than a dozen of Tal­iban attacked Kab­ul city.
Look at all those bul­let marks on one of the build­ings that they hid in in the first pho­to. They were fir­ing out of this build­ing. This build­ing is still under con­struc­tion. It’s already very pop­u­lar all over the coun­try and world­wide. Nice name for the build­ing. Kab­u­lAt­tack Plaza! They don’t need to rename it or do fur­ther mar­ket­ing for it :-). Here is an inter­est­ing link: Tal­iban and NATO-led forces engage in war of words on Twit­ter.