A Walk In The Dark
Wednesday, January 17th 2007 - 7:16 PM
Yesterday evening i went to visit a friend who lives in Shar-e-Now. As i haven't got a night time driver at the moment, and because i'm planning to do as much walking as i can now i'm living over this side of town and not walking to work, i decided to walk there.
I'm a bit hazy about the lie of the land in this part of town, particularly because i've only been through it in a car - which is always being driven by someone else - but i thought i had a pretty good idea of the route.
On the way there, though, i turned left a street too early and managed to confuse myself a bit. But i only walked in the wrong direction for a short distance before retracing my steps and heading the right way. In the end, it took me about half an hour to get to Sharna's house.
I was going to have a shower over there, but their water pipes were frozen too, and they hadn't had any hot water for a while. They were showering at the neighbours' place, and i didn't want to impose on them as well. But when i got there, Sharna told me the water had just been fixed and i could have a shower if i wanted to. It was really good, as i hadn't had a shower since before i'd left London, and i'd spent a lot of time on planes etc since then.
At about ten o'clock, i left to walk home. Everyone thought it was a bad idea, but i didn't have any qualms about it personally. And i trust my intuition in such situations.
It was pretty bloody cold, but i got myself some gloves and a scarf while i was in England, and with the scarf wrapped round my nose and mouth, i was quite comfortable walking. This also had the added advantage of stopping me from standing out too much - as a lot of Afghans wrap scarves around their faces while walking in the cold, and my clothes didn't particularly mark me as foreign.
This time, though, i managed to get even more confused than before about the route i needed to take. This was partly because i tried to go back the same way as i came, but i'd walked along a road that i didn't normally go along, so i completely missed my way trying to walk back, and ended up somewhere i'd never been before.
But my sense of direction's good and i managed to find my way to somewhere i recognised quite quickly. Getting from there to my street wasn't as simple as i thought it should be though. I realise now that where i was looking for the end of my street, i should have been looking for the end of the street that crosses the end of my street - if you see what i mean!
Anyway, as i couldn't find where i was looking for, i walked back to the first place i'd recognised, as i knew i could find it from there. To double check, i asked some guards who were in a guard box on the corner of that road. They confirmed it was the road i thought it was.
The streets were almost completely dark at that time of night, as there are no street lights in Kabul. And they were pretty much deserted too. There was the occasional car - mostly taxis - and guard huts dotted around the place, with guards inside or outside them.
Most of the streets in this area don't have names. They are known by numbers, and you count them off as you go down the (named) street that they cross. I counted the streets as i passed them until i got to street six, which was where my house was.
After walking down this street for a short distance, i passed the Kabul Coffee House, which i didn't think was on my street, but Roya had mentioned it was nearby, so i thought maybe i'd just missed it before. I asked the guard there if this was street six, and if it was also the point where two suburbs, Qala-e-Fatullah and Taymani, meet. He said it was, so i kept on walking. And walking. And walking.
Eventually the road got less and less familiar looking and i realised i couldn't possibly be where i thought i was. By this stage, i'd been walking for nearly an hour and i was starting to get a bit worried. I'd thought about calling Afghan Logistics to get a taxi to take me home, but i didn't know where i was, so i couldn't tell them where to pick me up.
In the end, i walked back to the Kabul Coffee House and called them from there. The guards there invited me into their hut, turned on the generator for some light, and gave me a cup of tea. It was nice and warm in there, as they had a little bukhari going, and i was very grateful for the hospitality. I was also conscious of the fact that i'd woken at least one of them up and was keeping him from his sleep by being there - and sitting on his bed.
Eventually the car came and i got home quite quickly. But, in the process, i found out that i live on street four - not street six!
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan