The Privileged Elite
Friday, March 16th 2007 - 1:20 PM
This blog post started life as a response to a post by my friend Ingrid's blog - but i thought it warranted a post of its own...
Living here in Kabul, as a relatively rich foreigner, i seem to have become a member of the privileged elite. I don't need to worry about trivial matters like washing machines and vacuum cleaners, as we employ people to worry about things like that. We haven't actually got a washing machine, but that doesn't really bother me much, as we have a cleaner who comes in a couple of times a week and destroys our clothes for us under the pretence of washing them.
I do sometimes think we should get a washing machine, to save her having to handwash everything, but they're very expensive and i don't know how long i'm going to be living here.
The cleaner also transfers the dust from the floor to the air with one of the local "brooms" - which are kinda like those brooms made out of a bundle of long bristles, only without a long handle - which is what people use here. Obviously the people who have to sweep floors aren't important or rich enough to warrant putting back-saving handles on the things... Or maybe broom handles just haven't been invented in Afghanistan yet - like lots of other things, including screws!
But we have got a vaccuum cleaner. And i've even used it - once. So the cleaner probably doesn't really use the broom... (I'm always at work when she comes, so i don't know.)
It's kinda weird having a cleaner - or rather two of them, as the one that my housemate Roya employed brings her sister along with her for protection, as there's men in the house. But both of them have got husbands who are unable to work, and families to support, and it provides employment for them and shares a little of our money with women who would otherwise be quite skint no doubt.
We've also got a couple of chowkidors - or "guards", who work rotating 24-hour shifts. They spend almost all their time at work sitting in the guards' hut near the gate - drinking tea no doubt, smoking dope (one of them), and watching television, or sleeping. And they don't do very much apart from opening the normally bolted gate in the 3m high wall (which surround most houses in Kabul) when anyone wants to go in or out. But they do light the fires for us and will go to the shops for us too, if we ask them. Which i don't.
It's a very strange life. I've never been keen on people cleaning up after me or running around for me. But it's very normal here and it's hard to avoid. At least we haven't got a cook - like we did where i lived last.
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan