Its been just over a month since I have arrived here in Kabul. It seems like no less than three. Adjusting has been at times easy, at others difficult, but always interesting. Easy perhaps, because I felt very prepared to come here and saw it as both a huge challenge and a personal experience. I have been working with some incredible people, ex-pats and locals alike. My staff are the most highly dedicated, enthusiastic young guys I've ever seen. Culturally generous and robust, I am amidst a people that have everything to lose by failing to adapt and keep pushing forward.

The difficulties arise mostly from that unforgiving tag-team of poverty and under education that beat down and oppress the people here. An accompanying sense of guilt whispers ceaselessly to me from its comfortable perch in my conscience. Not surprisingly, the most disturbing moments are when I see the state of many of the children. Last week I was surveying a site for a possible warehouse and right next to it was a garbage dump full of kids as young as 3 years old sifting through the trash to find an item that even their desperation infused neighbors threw away. How poor does that make THEM? Its very disturbing, but then I also saw them playing and laughing as though they were standing in the most well equipped of school yards. The girls gathered in circles whispering secrets, giggling and playing hide and seek with the my camera flash, while the boys raced up a large pile of rubble vying for the highly prized title of 'King of the Castle'. Funny, there were enough piles of rubble for each to have his own but human nature led them to believe that they should battle over the same one.

By dusk they were ready to go home. With their burlap sacks balanced heavily on top of their young heads, full of things to burn, things to play with, things to treasure and even things to eat they headed off to their smoky, mud hut neighborhoods. Curious as we all were about each other, they had to go. They had responsibilities after all; like making sure their families had enough to live. Now what 6 year old do you know who doesn't whine about having THAT common chore like, everyday?

Its completely insane. How do you turn down the weathered and trembling hand of a senile woman struggling with her cane, whos pleas for help are muffled beneath a BURKA? How do you pass by the 10 year old who has no hands to even take your baksheesh because they were blown apart by a landmine?

"Always look on the bright side of life" goes the song. And so with that in mind I also cannot help but see the immense changes happening all over the place. People are rebuilding. Everywhere you go there's someone patching up a destroyed or abandoned structure. Homes, schools and businesses are springing up everywhere. There's music in the street, families in parks, merchants of every kind selling their wares sometimes from sophisticated storefronts, sometimes from a wooden cart tied to an overworked mule.

There's energy here in Kabul. Sure its chaotic but its encouraging. I'm grateful to be a part of this even if in only a tiny way. Granted, I've been here a mere month and it may be the rosy haze of romanticism mediating my perceptions but I feel good about what's happening and believe that progress is being made.

Roshan Connection. We are doing our part. After all, reliable communications is key to rebuilding infrastructure and we are setting up the GSM network (cell phones) for the whole country. Now, we are the second cell phone company here and make no mistake, this is a business. No time for guitars and Koombaya people. Just get those phones out the door, sell that air time, reach more customers, cut costs and do it right fuckin' now 'cause there's HUGE amounts of money to be made! Sounds a bit frightful huh? Sounds like a potential predator. Fortunately, my left of center friends, we are majority owned by AKFED (Aga Khan Fund for Economic Dev't) so our profits are directed toward schools, hospitals and sustainable development projects. We are creating thousands of local jobs, infusing millions into the economy and pay an average wage of USD 200/month in a country with an average income of $40/month. We are fostering a middle class and middle classes tend to avoid extreme points of view. When we leave in 2-3 years we will have trained them to run the company without us. Makes me feel pretty good about what we're doing here....

Our 2 pet turkeys (yes, pet turkeys) keep competing with the sound of my house music and are gobblegobblegobbling their dissatisfaction with the beat. There's no accounting for taste....which reminds me, I could use a sandwich right now.

So this is the first of what I hope will be many (shorter, I promise) entries. An online journal of thoughts, deeds, misdeeds, adventures and reflections. Feel free to visit once in a while to read about whatever it is that's happening here, in that far away country occasionally mentioned on your TV set. Although my flickering contact with many of you may lead you to believe otherwise, I do in fact feel it's important to stay in touch with my friends and family. And so I hope you will return once every 2-3 weeks to share in some way, the experience. Come and go as you choose and if you would like to say hello, I would love to hear from you. rizvirji@hotmail.com is one of my windows to the world. I look out of it often.

I am posting pictures and the first few are here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b347916084a7

I will continue to put links to pics in this forum every so often.

bye for now