Afghanistan Diary: Top 3 Challenges faced living in Afghanistan:

As preparations are underway for an extended period in Lebanon, a revisit of my first mission to Afghanistan was necessary to best prepare for arduous fieldtrips, lack of electricity and hazards at every step.

Now in my third week in Afghanistan and having visited 8 provinces, staying in hotels and hosted in people’s homes as is customary here in Afghanistan (lovely hospitable folk the Afghans are); below are the top three things that I’ve struggled with during my stay here, and in a sense it’s understandable due to the generational long conflict and the little to no maintenance that’s taken place in more than 20 years.

Utilities:

Electricity and heating is a real and ongoing struggle for personal comfort and getting in the way of work. Power-cuts are very common in Afghanistan; with no pre-warning the lights and internet would go, and everything then comes to a standstill. Some who can afford it have solar-powered batteries to bring back power; the panels charge the mega batteries all day to be used when the power cuts. However, with overuse or forgetting to charge the batteries or the inevitable technical fault can leave you in the dark and without connectivity for a very long time.

I’m lucky enough to visit the country during winter, the snow-capped mountains were truly spectacular and nothing like I’ve seen before. It also sent home how harsh winters are here and the importance of humanitarian winterisation projects for the unfortunate Afghans. Having said that, a few things were common between all Afghan homes of those who were well to do for themselves, poorer folks and the hotels I stayed at; they all suffered from a lack of reliable power supply, hot water in their bathrooms (showering was a death-wish) and heating. Every room (offices, homes, hotel) has a wood-burning heater connected to a chimney that bellows smoke out of the room. This type of heater fills the room with a killer ever-present smog that I’m sure causes respiratory complications and diseases, but leaves people with little choice- freeze to death or choke?

After a few days of experiencing all of this, I quickly realised the only reliable source of electricity and heating was our vehicles!

Mobility:

Due to security concerns related poverty and the inefficiency of the state, as well as poor road infrastructure, going out and about is risky business. English language isn’t widely spoken, which usually gives one confidence to be able to get about in a common third language. Further to this, due to the decades long conflict with numerous people and political/religious groups from around the world being part to the Afghanistan conflict, there is an underlying suspicion of foreigners.

For example, the Islamic Hanafi school of thought is widespread across Afghanistan and due to slight differences in prayer style, unwittingly attracting attention during congregational prayers at mosques could potentially be dangerous. Also due to the conflict there is an unprecedented amount of homelessness and street begging which has risen the levels of street crime.

With all this in mind, the inflexibility in mobility has had a toll on me; I wasn’t prepared for this level of confinement to meetings, travel in vehicles, having someone with me at every interval and going to bed having physically moved very little. This is something I will certainly prepare for (mentally at least) before revisiting Afghanistan; hopefully by then the situation would have changed for the better.

Cash, Cash, Cash:

Finally, the most inconvenient experience that’s made my life difficult in Afghanistan is the inability to make payments online or by tapping my card like I can in the rest of the world. The conventional banking system as we know it has completely collapsed in Afghanistan. Visiting an ATM machine is wishful thinking as there are none to be seen, and if they were found, I couldn’t withdraw any cash because my country’s banking system isn’t talking with Afghanistan’s. everything is expected to be paid for in cash, air tickets (internal/international flights out of the country), food & drink, business at government institutions and all other forms of shopping. Thus, you must come to Afghanistan with a good idea of how much you will spend or find some very good friends and keep a good tab of what you’ll spend with a promise to pay back somehow and prepare for awkward moments every time money is involved.