Qala e Now - 3
Friday, February 23rd 2007 - 5:55 PM
Sunday night it rained all night. It was freezing cold and still raining when i got up the next morning. The prospects of finding anything interesting to do today - like going for a walk - were looking slim.
The first afternoon we were here, we'd tried to get internet access at the AECI office, but hadn't managed to get our laptops to work on the PRT's network. Paco couldn't help, so i called Pablo in Herat and had said he'd call me with the IP address he used, so we could use that, but he never did. So i'd been out of email contact for a couple of days now and the emails would be building up, unanswered. There was nothing to be done about it though, as there was no public internet access available in this town.
On Monday, we did virtually nothing. The highlight of the day was going to the RTA station, with Ahmadi as interpreter, and telling them what was going to be happening. I explained we would send a technician down in about three weeks, with some equipment to set up a temporary studio and get the Salam Watandar satellite service on-air for them as well. So that they at least had a slightly more workable radio station while the project to improve it properly got underway.
They told us the municipality had told them they could have some land on a hill overlooking the hill where the new RTA tower had been built. Did we want to go and have a look at it? Of course we did. Apart from anything else, we weren't exactly busy!
So we all piled into their minibus again, for another journey across the river and the runway and up a dodgy track up the hillside, that was now a dodgy and muddy track.
Not far past the turning off to go to the RTA tower, the road was blocked by a deep trench that had been dug right across it, so the car stopped and we all got out and walked up the steep hillside above the track.
At the top, the view was fantastic. It was a lot higher than the RTA tower and the top of the hill had been flattened out into a fairly large level space. There was an old military vehicle on its side, stripped of everything apart from the body. And what looked like the levelled ruin of a small building. Apparently this hilltop had been bombed by the Russians, so i guess it must have been an Afghan army post.
It seemed like a good place for an FM transmitter, as it was nice and high, but i doubted it would be a real possibility, as it wasn't at all secure. The station staff said the army would station 20 soldiers up there to guard it - i couldn't see that happening though, even if the army really had said they'd do it.
When i woke up on Tuesday morning it was sleeting and there was snow on the ground. This wasn't a good sign. Our flight was due to leave at 9.45 that morning and we organised a car to take us to the airport at nine o'clock. But before nine, we found out from PRT air that the flight was cancelled due to the weather. There wouldn't be another one till Saturday. So we were stuck...
There were plenty of flights of all sorts from Herat, which was a six hour drive away, on a road where there were three incidents last year - including an IED which killed a workmate of the guys in the house we were staying in. He'd also lived here before he died.
The general concensus was that it wasn't a good idea to drive there without an armed escort. So we got onto Paco and Lance to try and get the PRT to take us there on one of their convoys, which was due to leave sometime soon. They had to photocopy our passports to give to the base commander, who would ask his bosses in Madrid if they could take us. Nothing happened that day.
A couple of guys who live in the house arrived back from Herat today. Wahid, and someone whose name i never managed to catch. They'd driven from Herat and said the road was difficult, but open. It took them about six and a half hours.
The following day, Wednesday, Pablo finally made it back from Herat and we arranged to meet at five o'clock that afternoon.
In the morning we went to the UNAMA (United Nations) office, to see if they could be of any help to us. They told us they had regular convoys to Herat but the next one wouldn't be till Monday. That was a long way away, but it was possible we'd still be stuck here by then. They also said we could use their internet access - not with our own laptops, but from one of their office computers. We had some stuff that had to be emailed to our boss quite urgently, so we said we'd come back later and do it.
At four o'clock, Wahid drove me, Gavin, Ahmadi and Sadar up to a hilltop on the other side of the airport, not far from the other two hills we'd visited in the last few days. At the runway, we were stopped by an armoured Spanish PRT vehicle which was parked across the end of the track leading to the runway. There was a plane about to take off and we weren't allowed to cross.
We got out of the car and hung around by the runway until the plane went. It was a dark olive coloured military plane, on its way to Herat, as we found out later. The PRT troops were changing and the plane was bringing in new ones and taking out old ones. The Spanish army only do four month stints here, unlike some of the other countries, which do a year.
After a long wait, we were eventually allowed to cross. The track we took up the hill was quite different to the other one. This way there were lots of trees - what looked like cedars, or something similar, some poplars, and some small pistachio trees were planted up the hillside. At the top of the hill, we got out and stood eating pistachios - which Wahid had bought on the way, and probably came from Iran, not here - and looking at the view. I took some photos, including the obligatory group pictures, with Qali Now and the hills in the background. Some of them were quite good photos.
We were supposed to meet up with Pablo at the PRT base at five o'clock, but there was another plane due to land. The PRT vehicle was driving along the runway announcing over a PA system that a plane was going to land soon and to keep off the runway. Then it blocked the road we'd have to go out on. So we just stayed at the top of the hill and watched. It was ages before the plane arrived, and when it did it was very similar to the one that had left not long before. The road stayed closed until after it had taken off.
When we eventually got to the PRT base, it was quarter to six.
Pablo and Luis were in the AECI office and Pablo offered us beer, which we accepted gladly. It was Mahou, a Spanish beer that i hadn't drunk for a long time.
We talked for a couple of hours and drank three beers all up. But i started to wonder if the guys where we were staying were waiting till we got back before they had their evening meal. So we left, in case they were - which was not before time, because they hadn't eaten and it was eight o'clock when we got back there, a fair bit later than they normally eat.
During the course of our meeting with him, Pablo said he'd requested the PRT to transport us to Herat - by plane, helicopter or convoy, whichever would get us there first. They'd agreed, but of course there was no commitment to when it would happen...
Three of the men we were staying with in the AECI house, with Qala e Now in the background.
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan