Baraki Barak
Sunday, October 15th 2006 - 9:06 AM
The other week, i finally managed to get out of Kabul for the first time, after 6 weeks here.
On Sunday morning, 1st October, me and Khalil went to Baraki Barak, in Logar province, south of Kabul, to assess a proposed site for the rebuilding of radio Istiqlal, which was firebombed a few weeks back. (Sunday's the first day of the working week here.) I slept later than usual, not waking up till nearly seven, and leapt out of bed in a hurry, as i'd intended to get to work at about eight o'clock.
In the end, though, nothing happened till well after nine thirty - and even then we weren't going anywhere fast. We needed to take bulletproof vests with us, but they were in the other car, which was off with Jan and a couple of others at a meeting somewhere. So before we went anywhere we had to drive over there and get them. There was also a bit of discussion about whether we needed a satellite phone or not. We're supposed to take a satphone and body armour with us whenever we go out of Kabul. I eventually got the satphone off Shakir and we were ready to leave.
After picking up the body armour, we drove through the heavy traffic of Kabul for a while, before the city finally petered out and we were on the open road.
The countryside was, not surprisingly, very brown. There was a vast amount of completely bare soil everywhere. But what did surprise me was how much water there was and how green it was in places.
The scenery for part of the way reminded me of the area of France north of Courry. Probably very good grape growing country - it's shame they're not prone to wine production in this part of the world!
It was about an hour's drive to Baraki Barak. We passed through Pul-i-Alam - the capital of Logar province - on the way. It's a medium-sized town, not particularly big. According to www.fallingrain.com, the population within 7km of that point is a bit over eight thousand.
The town seems to be built around one long street of shops, which is the highway from Kabul to Gardez in Paktia, the next province south.
Pul-i-Alam - the capital of Logar province from the proposed station site
Not far south of Pul-i-Alam, we turned right onto a dirt road. After less than a kilometer this became a tarred road again - with no apparent reason for the dirt section. And not far after that, we came into what seems to have been the suburbs of Baraki Barak. But they went on for a long way before we arrived at the main part of town. These suburbs though, were really only thin strips of housing along the main road - not large, densely populated areas, by any means.
www.fallingrain.com puts the population of Baraki Barak at roughly the same as Pul-i-Alam - although the two figures may cover the same area. And Baraki Barak didn't seem much smaller than the provincial capital. I found out later (from the web, of course) that Baraki Barak had been the capital until about 1996.
We met the station manager of Radio Istiqlal outside the old station building, which was right on the side of the main road. There was visible evidence of the fire which had destroyed the place. The sign above the door was burnt, as was the door itself and the window nearby. The antenna was on about a five metre length of iron pipe, standing up from the roof of the building. I took some photos, and Khalil joined in, taking photos too, but we didn't go inside the building.
Radio Istiqlal after being firebombed
The station manager got into the car and we drove back the way we came to have a look at the site the station "owner" was proposing to buy for the new studio building. We ended up driving all the way back to Pul-i-Alam, which was completely on the other side of a long hill from Baraki Barak. That would ensure that, if the station moved there, none of the existing listeners would be able to receive it - which seemed really silly.
We drove up the main street of Pul-i-Alam, which was divided into two one-way roads, separated by a long strip of park, and turned off to head up the hill side. We drove onto a dirt road, past a whole lot of small timber yards, and eventually into what was just a mainly empty hillside. There were small walls - probably foundations for buildings, actually - scattered around, but no sign of anything much happening.
Anyway, we drove around, gradually going up the hill, as the station manager tried to work out where the proposed station site was. Eventually he found it and called someone to make sure.
It was almost the worst site i could imagine for a radio station - surrounded on three sides by hills, with only really a ninety degree aperture in the hills to get a signal out through. They would be broadcasting to a small portion of Pul-i-Alam and a lot of the mostly empty plain beyond. The place was a long way from any other buildings, impossible to secure, and incredibly dusty. There was no way you'd put a radio station here!
Khalil took a GPS reading anyway - we were there, after all, and me might need it. And i took a load of photos, and we got back in the minbus and drove back to Baraki Barak.
On the way, Khalil spoke to the station manager and told him we thought the place was no good. He said they'd been offered space in the District Centre, but the station "owner" didn't want to go there. We decided to go and have a look for ourselves.
The district centre was a large block of land right next to the main street in Baraki Barak. There was a dirt track going up into it, with a guard post twenty metres up the track. We walked up and the station manager and another guy he'd met up with there went to see if the District Governor was there, but he wasn't. We had a bit of a look around, anyway, and i suggested Khalil took another GPS reading, as it would be close enough to where they were proposing, and anywhere around there would be pretty much the same.
In contrast to the other spot, this was a good site for a radio station. It was flat all round, a bit higher than most of the community, secure, right in the centre of town, and would have give the station a better range than the old site - while reaching all their old audience.
Anyway, there was nothing more to be done, except for us to get in touch with the station "owner" and tell him our thoughts - and that was best done by Jan or Nilab, or someone else back at the office.
We walked back down the track to the main street. I asked the guard at the guard post if i could take a picture of him, and he was happy to be photographed. He stood up and held his rifle in a soldier-like manner and i took a couple of shots. A little further on, there was a woodwork shop and i stopped to take a photo of a window frame leaning against the outside wall. One of the men working in there stood in the doorway and motioned for me to take a photo of him - so, of course, i did.
When i got out onto the main street, a couple of guys standing in front of a shop across the road were gesturing to me to take photos of them too, so i walked out into the road and took one. I was having trouble focussing the camera, for some reason - dust on the lens, by the look of it - so i wiped the lens with my shirt. Then i showed them the photo on the display on the back of the camera.
While i was doing that a few other men crowded round for a look, so i took a photo of all of them. Then i showed the back of the camera around that larger group - and of course, more joined in and i took a third photo. After that, we said our goodbyes to the station manager and the other station worker, got in the car and started back for Kabul.
Men in Baraki Barak posing for their photo
When i transferred the photos onto my computer, later on, i found that first photo was really blurred - which was a terrible shame, as it would have been a great picture. The other two came out fine, and the last of them was the best.
Me showing the photo i just took to men in Baraki Barak
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan