Trip to Mehtar Lam - 2
Monday, November 13th 2006 - 7:59 PM
The road to Jalalabad is a remarkably good one. Pretty much the whole of the distance we drove along it, the surface was tar, and in good condition. I can't help wondering if part of the reason for this is that the road to Pakistan is a potential evacuation route for the foreign workers in Kabul, if things turn really nasty there - it was built by the US government, after all.
A couple of hours out of Kabul, we came to the turn off to Mehtar Lam. There's a bit of a town here, and a small "bazaar" (row of shops). From here onwards, the road wasn't so good - although it was mostly better than the majority of roads in Kabul.
At one point, there was a diversion and all vehicles had to drive through a village - on the narrow dirt track that wound through the place. We shared this track with pedestrians, sheep and heavily laden camels - and also with lunatic drivers who were in a hurry to either die or kill someone else. Driving fast along a rough dirt road, through a populated area, to save five or ten seconds on the overall journey, apparently seemed like a good idea to several people.
Just before Mehtar Lam, you cross the Alishang river via a longish bridge, and soon afterwards you're driving up the town's main street. It's a fairly typical small town main street - lined with shops and various stalls etc, interspersed with workshops of various sorts. And quite a lot of pedestrians, mostly walking in the road.
We stopped near the top of the main street and Farid got out and went in through a gateway across the road. I think this was the office of some government ministry or local authority - although exactly what it was didn't register with me sufficiently for me to be able to remember it. But what he had to do here was something related to the land title for the property where we're building a new independent radio station here.
A view of Mehtar Lam from the hill where the television tower is.
When Farid came back, after half an hour or so, we both went into the RTA radio station - which we were parked almost right outside of.
The entrance to this station was through an open double gateway and down a short slope. The building they're in is the agriculture ministry building or something, i think, and it was a bit run down.
The station manager met us at the bottom of the stairs and invited us to come upstairs and have some tea. The tea never materialised though - which was a bit puzzling, as politeness dictates you offer your guests tea. But maybe they just didn't have any...
We sat in an office which had a desk at one end, couches and armchairs around the rest of the walls, and a couple of long, low tables in the middle. There was just enough room to walk between the tables and the armchairs.
We discussed possible locations for a new transmitter site - one that would get more coverage than where they are now. But there were security problems with the two places we'd identified as being good spots in terms of coverage. Then we all went back out to the car to drive up to the top of the hill, where we could get a better view of the surrounding terrain.
At the top of the hill, there's a television station and antenna tower, and another site with several towers - presumably mobile phone etc, but i didn't pay enough attention to be able to say for sure. I was too busy taking photos!
From there, we drove about a kilometer to the site of the new independent station we're building. The builders were there and had started work on the perimeter wall. They'd also dug trenches for the foundations of the building itself. I noticed they'd changed the plan around a bit - putting the kitchen and toilet on the other side of the building to where i'd put them. I wasn't too bothered, as it didn't really make any difference to the overall layout of the building - but i thought it was weird.
Builders laying the foundation for the new station building which i designed
But then, in this country, it doesn't matter what plans you make, or what plans other people make and you approve - it always seems like people have to change them before actually doing the work. Like they're showing you they know best and you don't know anything.
Anyway, it was good to see the station actually being built finally. I took photos of the work and of all the builders. There were about a dozen of them - and almost all of them were all wearing hard hats, which was good to see!
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan