March 24, 2012

“My Oasis in Kabul”
Location: Kabul, Afghanistan

When you hear the name of Afghanistan, you may imagine bloodshed, corruption, poppy fields, burqa women beaten by men, no food, suicide attackers, 40-50 something years old beard men having teenage sexual partners (teenage wives!), etc… hell-like place on the earth you can ever think of, which I would say are partially reflecting reality in this country.

Some Afghans, especially young ones, blame western media of broadcasting wrong images about Afghanistan. Personally I think it is because they are fully aware of that those wrong things are going on in their soil and they feel humiliated about their own people. I know that one must not conclude all the people who belong to that community behave the same way as those who are appearing on TV, yet media spread information that is considered as “unusual” or “worth sharing”. So, my counter-argument for those who blame the media is “just accept the facts. If it did not happen at all in your country, no one in the world would have ever noticed your ‘different’ custom and media is not stupid enough to waste their time on nothing special.”

Anyway, although those things I mentioned earlier are true, there are tiny yet hopeful things about this country, too. For instance, some small businesses in Kabul like Zarif Desgin (designer clothes brand), Bento-Ya (Japanese restaurant) and Jardin de Taimani (western restaurant), which are providing employment and learning opportunities to the local community and oasis for foreigners in Kabul.

I wrote about Zarif Design some while ago and will be probably writing about it over and over since I ordered some more jackets. lol Same for Bento-Ya. So, I want to share with you a low-profile western restaurant I went this afternoon.

This Jardin de Taimani (“Garden of Taimani” in French) is located in Taimani area in Kabul, which is kind of close to where my current GH is but still requires a car. This restaurant has a HUGE garden surrounded by tall walls with wires and its interior is also petty decorated with so many carpets and wooden furniture. A very cozy place. There is a sister restaurant called “Le Bistro” in the center of Kabul which was walking distance from my UNDP GH and apparently Jardin de Taimani is owned by the same rootless funny French man. I have not spoken much with him, but I have heard that he also runs some sort of resort in Vietnam and some other Asian countries as a result of long long long years of travelling around the world? And he has got charming French accent in his English. J

I ordered salmon pasta and a piece of super delicious lemon cake with diet coke and a cup of coffee. I think it was USD 29 (approx. 2,378 yen) in total. Yes, this is SUPER expensive to Afghan standard but in Japan, I think this is normal price for a decent lunch set. I really enjoyed their food and atmosphere.

In most Afghan restaurants, waiters (of course, there are no waitresses at restaurants in Afghanistan, but the equivalency does exist at average Afghan homes also called as “housewives” or “women slaves (any female members of the family)”) are soooooooo impolite, dirty, lazy and forgettable. Honestly, they are soooooo disastrous. Even circus monkeys work better than those Afghan waiters because they don't blame other monkeys for their own mistakes. But if you go to a restaurant run by foreigners, waiters are trained and they do perform their waiter job better.

Once I heard the same French owner correcting one of his waiters on how to serve a cup of coffee at Le Bistro. He brought coffee to a customer with milk and sugar without a spoon. Since unfortunately many Afghan people, young to old & both genders, lack logical way of thinking and do not accept correction from anyone in public, it is very difficult to teach an Afghan how s/he could improve himself or herself. They immediately accuse someone else and/or come up with millions of brilliant excuses without giving even a thought to look back at one’s action, when something like this happens. So, I am almost giving up explaining how to do something in better way to the Afghans nowadays but because private sector is more severe than the UN in terms of training of their employees and providing better services, the employers cannot be lazy like me in teaching and so I was kind of impressed at this owner’s effort to bring the standard of the restaurant up in Afghanistan.

I do appreciate this kind of different atmospheres of some places for foreigners in Kabul because it makes me feel that I am connected back to civilization again. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that all Afghans are rubbish and lazy-asses. In fact, I do see potential in some hardworking young people who I believe will be making difference very soon. But the problem is that majority of people here are so used to being “excused” from making efforts in improving themselves and making a honest living instead of looking for random fortune in Australia, US, UK and other European countries by using this phase “Afghanistan has suffered from war for the last few decades”. I think it is when Afghanistan starts growing that people stop using their “poor victim” card and begin to ask for teaching for their improvement through modesty.