A Bumpy Arrival in Kabul

(written 2/1/12, posted 2/3/12)

This post comes to you from the Rosta guest house in Kabul! It also comes to you from the edge of utter exhaustion. I boarded the plane from Dubai to Kabul at 3:30AM Dubai time. At the departure gate I got to meet a fellow participant in the ANIM, Summer Boggess, a cellist from New York. Her sister Allegra is actually living in Kabul to work at ANIM so I knew that Summer would be on my flight. The flight itself was largely uneventful except for one massive air pocket that scared the heck out of all of us, jolted me awake, and ruined the meal service. The sun was rising as we approached Kabul, so I was able to get a glimpse of the terrain. It was spectacular and forbidding. The mountains are huge and jagged, and they seemed to be completely impassable. There was no sign of habitation until we actually reached the valley of the Kabul river. There was a recent snowstorm so everything was white. The outlines of fields, canals, and compounds were all that you could see of civilization until the city.

The first hitch-- and it was a frustrating one for me-- came as we collected our luggage in Kabul this morning. I had to gate check my rollerboard carryon bag when we boarded in Dubai. It came off the carousel in Kabul, and I opened it to check the contents-- and my laptop wasn't there. Normally I remember to take out my laptop when I gate check, but I forgot this time. The assumption is that it was stolen, and this is not unheard of here, but I'm hoping against hope that I never put it back into my bag in Dubai and it will miraculously find its way to the lost and found. It's an expensive and inconvenient loss, but fortunately a largely replaceable one. I would have been much sadder had any of the donated supplies I was bringing had gone missing! The result is that this post is being written to you on various computers in Kabul.

After filing the necessary paperwork at the airport, Summer and I met Allegra and our driver. A joyful reunion for the sisters, and I was so happy to meet Allegra, who has been a really helpful contact for me. Then we headed into Kabul to get to our guest houses.

It is cold in Kabul right now, and that means smog from all the homes being heated with coal and wood. The massive mountains around the city were just barely visible through the brown haze and everything has a layer of a dust on it. The streets were clogged with cars, and as is often the case in countries like this, the roads are a terrifying free-for-all. Our driver dove into intersections without the slightest pause and cars all seemed miss each other by inches. Everyone must know what they're doing though, because I saw almost no dents on the cars. Amusingly, I noticed a Jesus fish on a Toyota Corolla, and Allegra informed me that almost all cars here are foreign donations, so they often arrive with Christian or political insignia.

We briefly stopped at my guest house to drop off my stuff. The guesthouse is across the street from a major security zone so it is considered quite safe. I don't know if it is comforting or alarming to know that my hotel is protected by a two blast-proof security fences, has 24-hour multiple armed guards, and has a bomb-shelter/safe room in the basement!

Then it was on to the school. I immediately met two of my young students, Mashal and Najib. A crowd of brass students gathered in the classroom where I will be teaching and watched me warm up and start working some fundamentals with them. The level here is very basic; it will be a good challenge to lay solid groundwork for them to build on after I am gone.

In the late morning was a quick recital for the students. Since the performance space is very small, there are separate recitals for the students and the general public. A young Aghan girl played a very proper minuet and a traditional Afghan tune on the piano, and another girl zipped through the Suzuki Allegro. The new "Afghanistan String Quartet", four of the older boys, played an energetic Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. The recital concluded with the teacher of Afghan native instruments performing a Hindi raga on a sirod--a sitar like Afghan instrument with many resonating strings and a metal fingerboard. Fascinating to watch and to hear!

My first meal was at a restaurant near the school that basically functions as a cafeteria. The staple food here is naan bread, which comes in huge elongated slabs and is delicious. There was a tasty soup of vegetables, potatoes and chicken, and beef shish kabob doused in cumin, which we ate wrapped in the naan. I will be eating well here!

Just before lunch, I received the unexpected news that, due to a potential Afghan holiday, the only chance I would have to perform for the general public would be this evening. Afghan holidays are a complicated business. They are determined by lunar observation, which means they are declared only a few days in advance and there is sometimes controversy even then about what day they will be! The upshot was, I HAD to perform the slow movement of the Brahms Trio tonight for the glitterati of Kabul's expat community. No, there would not be time to return to the guesthouse and change.

So after lunch I rehearsed the trio with William Harvey and Allegra, who fortunately are excellent readers and sensitive chamber musicians. I taught Mashal and Najib a little more, practiced some on my own, and at 6:00 performed in Kabul, wearing the same jeans, sweater, and sneakers that I was wearing when I left Miami two days ago! The crowd was understanding and appreciative and it was a thrill to produce (in a half-stupor of fatigue), the dark and expressive music of Brahms in a place that may have never heard it before.

After the concert we returned to the guest house, ate a very quick bite, and I began this post, first on the public computer, then on James's laptop, and finally on my iPhone. The lack of a laptop is going to delay writing and publishing these posts but I will try to get a report of each day that I'm here out.