Chicken Street

August 1st, 2009
Kabul, Afghanistan

My draft design is completed and I'm waiting for comments from State and USAID. The rest of my team seemed to be in a bit of a funk today - arguing with themselves and banging away at their computers. After about an hour of offering help and faffing around my Afghan colleague, Dr. Arslan and the chief security guard (and former Indian Special Forces Officer) named Delip and a body guard and I took off for "Chicken Street" in downtown Kabul.

Chicken Street and Flower Street were named by former Peace Corp volunteers in the early 1960's for their colorful displays of .. what else .. chickens and flowers. But over the years these two streets grew into a sort of souq/bazaar - full of antiquities shops. Today you can find opulent silks, sparkling Afghan rubies, Persian and Afghan carpets, fur hats and coats and loads of Pashmina from the Kashmiri dealers.

Delip and I had a blast going in and out of the shops. I speak Farsi fairly well, so it's always a surprise to the locals. This afternoon an adorable kid was trying to sell me a polyester scarf for forty dollars. He was shocked when I asked him in Farsi why he was selling plastic shawls at that price. But he rallied back into form and pulled out a selection of luscious Pashmina. In the end, I didn't buy anything. But Delip went back in the shop to buy the scarf for his wife.

We returned to the compound to find the entire team asleep in the blistering sun. Poya told me they had gotten into a huge argument and then collapsed with their coca-colas. Poya says this kind of thing happens all the time with ex-pats. So while the team snoozed we looked at the little purchases from Chicken street and continued talking about the program to end domestic violence in Afghanistan. Stay tuned for more details on this!

In the mean time let me know if anyone wants a Pashmina shawl!