February 5, 2012

"Darulaman Palace"
Place: Kabul, Afghanistan



Entrance of Darulaman Palace



On February 5th, a good friend of mine from my previous office took some photos of me in Kabul for a brochure of APU.  (Thanks, T!!! J )
A few months ago, my friend M who works for APU contacted me asking if I could contribute to an APU brochure designed to promote APU for high school students and their parents by interviewing some graduates. At that time my job situation was uncertain and I was already feeling “I think I had it enough” in that office, although that was the moment when I started to realize in which area I would like to pursue my career. Anyway, I was not even sure if I would be in Afghanistan with the same project when M contacted me. But, I said “yes”.

Then I went back to Japan for a month or so in December to “rehab” from post-U**P symptoms. Then I have got this job with UNESCO Afghanistan. (I will write about how I ended up with UNESCO Afghanistan another time)

Here I am, back in freezing cold Kabul. So, I landed in Afghanistan on January 16^th 2012. It felt a lot colder than last winter the moment I stepped out of the aircraft this time.

Since November, the person in charge of the APU brochure has kept in touch with me without knowing all the dramas I was going through. Early January, she sent me a Word file with several questions such as “why did you choose to study at APU?” and asked for some photos of me to decorate my page in the brochure. She also sent me sample photos from last year (perhaps). When I saw those sample photos, the first thought which came up to my mind was; “…..hey, this is not possible in Afghanistan! Standing in the middle of such a busy street as a background on a sunny day??”. Well, of course, for those who have never been to Afghanistan, it must be hard to understand why it is so difficult to take a couple of photos in the town AND on a sunny day… But it seriously is difficult for expats, especially women, to do that and there rarely are beautiful sunny days in Kabul! But I am a little adventurous girl who tries anything before making any decisions. So, I called up my good friend T who used to work for Communications Unit in the same UN agency because I was always in love with the way she looks at objects/people through her lens.
 

Roof is about to fall!


Her answer was positive! So, we decided to take action today. It was snowing the last few days, so the whole city was still covered with snow everywhere in Kabul today and the sky was clear, but FREEZING COLD! Anyway, I picked up T in the heart of the city, Shahre Naw (“New City”), and we headed down to the south of Kabul to take some photos in front of an old palace, called Darulaman Palace.


Darulaman Palace from a distance

 
Afghanistan used to have a royal family and this palace did not look like a huge ruin like today until late 1960’s. I am not gonna go into the history of this Palace here, but we agreed that this place would be one of the rare places where we could take photos “peacefully”. I had never been to this place before. Thanks to the snow, it looked so beautiful. Snow covered up all the dirt on the ground and dust in the air. In the first sight, the dome part kind of reminded me of the A-bomb dome in Hiroshima where I spent nearly a year before Afghanistan. Perhaps, it is because this palace and the Dome in Hiroshima were built by an European architect around the same time (Darulaman Palace in early 1920’s and the A-Bomb Dome in 1915) for a similar reason; to show modernization of the country?
 

Me, freezing!! at the Palace


As soon as we approached the Palace, a young Afghan soldier who was guarding this Palace spoke to us in Dari with curious face. We explained in English that we work for the UN and we just wanted to take some photos near the building. This guy did not seem to understand even a word. Then another soldier came and spoke to us in English and he let us inside the Palace! We were so lucky! YEY!


"I love you Mariam"



The walls had thousands of bullet holes. The roofs fell down because of the damage caused by a series of wars in Afghanistan since 1970’s and debris was found everywhere in the building. There were several small rooms and a few big rooms, but all destroyed. It was kind of interesting that we could still see the color of some walls and carving on each column. There was graffiti in Dari / Pashtun everywhere. The only one I could read was “I love you Mariam”. Apparently, it is also common even in Afghanistan to confess love for someone in graffiti, rather than telling so face to face to the loved one, on a ruin wall.
 

Destroyed Wall


In Europe, most of old castles and palaces have been beautifully refurbished even after experiencing destruction or minor damages during the wars and they have been one of the most popular tourist attractions today. Unlike those European palaces, such as one in Versailles in France for instance, Darulaman Palace has absolutely nothing inside today and stands alone in a deserted area of Kabul. Almost no locals are interested in visiting the Palace and most of expats are not even allowed to come here because there are an American base and local military training facility close-by and they are often targeted by insurgents. Although my Afghan friend told me that the government is asking the public for donation to renovate the building on TV commercials and in ministry buildings today, I wonder how many people are actually interested in reviving this Palace and where the collected money is actually going if anyone has ever donated to the notoriously corrupt government. Later on, I realized that the reason why I thought of the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima when I first saw this palace from a distance was not only because of the similarity in its exterior design, but also because this building really tells you how much this country has been suffering for a very long time. Darulaman Palace is evidence of human violence, although ironically the name of “Darulaman” means “abode of peace” in the local language.
 

Elevator!


During our exciting Palace tour, the English speaking Afghan soldier showed us around. He said that once upon a time he was a student at Kabul University (the best university in Afghanistan) and studied psychology.  Well, Afghanistan is a country where many young people are students of Harvard or Oxford or UCLA in their imaginary world (you will see all these things on profiles of Afghans on Facebook), so when I heard of him telling me that he had studied at Kabul University, I was like “…. Another Afghan.” (oh well, this guy was kind enough to take us to several floors and be patient with us for nearly half an hour, so I should be nice to him).

After taking some photos at the Palace, we had to rush to the town. Suddenly, a UNESCO staff who was at the office started to demand a lift to home although he did not tell so to the driver earlier… Knowing the terrible rush hour in Kabul, I knew that we would be stuck in a traffic jam. BINGO! Lots of cars were stuck in snow or hidden gutters on sides of roads. So many people were walking though small space between such cars to cross the road to wherever they wanted to go (traffic lights do not exist or they are not functional at all in Kabul). Grumpy traffic policemen looked like they had already surrendered their job to the hopeless traffic situation and a crowd of people soaked in mud and snow.

At some point, we thought that we better got off at a Kabul’s 5-star hotel which was on our way because we were hungry and were in serious needs for bathroom! lol So, we gave up the idea to take some additional photos in other parts of the town today.

After we enjoyed the Afghanistan’s cleanest and most beautiful toilet facility and had dinner at the hotel, we headed for home finally. It definitely was a wonderful and exciting day! I really enjoyed it. J
(Thanks, T, for joining me and taking my photos! We must have this kind of excursion soon again!)