81. Anniversary

So today was the big day...10 years to the day I landed in Afghanistan. I spent the morning driving around town. Couldn't find one thing that still looked the same as when I first got here. Lots of new buildings, a lot more people and cars and way more trash. I searched for old landmarks but didn't find any because everything is hidden behind high walls topped with barb wire now. I only saw three burqa figures on the streets, which is positive since back then almost every woman who was out wore one. Shops after shops of everything you could possibly need and things you didn't even think you need line the streets. 10 years ago I couldn't even find conditioner for my hair, instant coffee or a vacuum cleaner. I ended the day with dinner and deep insightful conversation with the person who has been a part of my life here since the day we arrived here together a decade ago - my dearest friend Katrin. My disappointment and hopelessness about Afghanistan was temporarily lifted by her refreshing observations of positive changes and hopeful outlook for a future that although not perfect will be better than the doom I have convinced myself will befall this nation. In all the chaos of the recent turmoil here, I have stopped acknowledging the changes that have come about in the last 10 years so we made a list of everything that exists in today's Afghanistan that wasn't here back then. 

Here are some of the items we have now that did not exist 10 years ago: 

1. Covered ditches (trenches) 

2. Billboards 

3. High rise buildings 

4. Gas stations 

5. Shopping malls 

6. French and Italian restaurants 

7. Working showers 

8. 24 hour electricity 

9. Snow 

10. Supermarkets 

11. Sidewalks 

12. Private schools and universities 

13. Independent media 

14. Conditioner 

15. Daily International flights 

16. Restaurant delivery services 

17. Store signage in English 

18. Girls going to school 

19. Women out without wearing burqa's 

20. Afghan National Army and Police 

21. Parliament 

22. A legal system 

23. Internet access 

24. No curfew 

25. Flat screen TVs 

26. Paved roads and bridges 

27. A 5 star hotel 

28. Factories 

29. A constitution 

30. Water in the Kabul river 

A much needed exercise to help me see how much has been achieved during a time when most of my days are spent identifying everything that's wrong. Unfortunately, there are many not so good things that I see now as well that didn't exist 10 years ago, like: 

1. Drug addicts 

2. Trash everywhere 

3. Blast film, hesco walls, barb wired fences 

4. Pollution 

5. homeless people 

6. Traffic 

7. Poppy palaces 

8. 1 hour road closures to let a minister's convoy pass 

9. Rampant corruption 

10. Suicide bombings 

But I end this day feeling better than I have in a long time about Afghanistan and a little bit of hope that after achieving so much, the Afghan people will not let this nation return to the state it was in a decade ago.

Katrin and I, the day we arrived in Kabul 10 years ago.