A Long Road to Progress by Richard Hall

Author:Richard Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

DAY 56 — WEDNESDAY 10 DECEMBER 2008 — AFGHAN HOSPITALITY

As the dogs howled, I shivered — whether from cold or fear I was not sure. It was certainly cold. It was 4.00 a.m., the temperature was –10 °C and I had been on sentry duty for an hour. Most of my body heat had already dissipated and there were still another two hours of sentry to go. I felt some anxiety. Corporal Van Deursen, Corporal Stevens (my driver) and I were staying overnight with District Governor Sayghani, in the middle of the province. The nearest security forces were several kilometres away in Sayghan Town. Despite Sayghani’s assurances that we would be perfectly safe in his house, concern for our vehicle and its military contents, especially when there were so many strangers about, led to the decision to guard it during the night. Alone and relatively isolated, I wondered what had caused all of the village dogs suddenly to start barking. Dark thoughts of a Taliban patrol invaded my mind.

Our normal interaction with the district officials consisted of fleeting and infrequent visits taken by our patrols. We needed, in my view, to enhance our relationship with them to form a deeper understanding of their governance and development needs. Spurning the thought of going as part of a fully fledged armed patrol on yet another visit, I decided to break the mould, take a little bit of a risk, and invited myself to stay with just my vehicle crew.

All Afghan houses have a meeting room, which is often separated from their living quarters. This is the place where visitors are welcomed. The Afghan code of hospitality is such that no one is ever turned away and they have a duty to look after and protect visitors. The meeting rooms vary. All are simple rooms with the floor covered with carpets or rugs (the quality of which depends on wealth) and cushions normally line the walls. Here, guests are met, fed and if necessary invited to stay the night. The district governor had three such meeting rooms, the largest of which could have easily held up to fifty people. The carpets reflected his wealth and the number and size of the rooms provided an indication of his importance.

We arrived just after lunch. He ushered us into the largest meeting room as if we were visiting royalty, positioning us in the place of honour at the room’s far end. He came from a long-established aristocratic family, was gracious, exceedingly well mannered and seemed wrapped in a cloak of quiet dignity. Groups of village elders came and went, paying their respects to him, and he darted from one group to another, conscious of the need to spend time with each, yet aware of his duty to look after me. As each new group of village elders came into the meeting room, there was an initial shock at seeing someone in uniform, followed by a nodding of heads, welcoming ‘salaams’ and, more often than not, smiles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.