The Survival Guide to Kabul©
Published
internationally in July 2003 as Kabul: The Bradt Mini Guide.
First published in Kabul in September 2002
as a pamphlet.
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September 2002 NASER
BAROTALI
Naser Barotali has been selling The Survival
Guide to Kabul for two months. With his income he supports his younger
brother and his blind grandfather. He is an orphan. This is his story.
I was born in a district of west Kabul called
Barhgre Ali Mardan in 1987. My younger brother Nasieer was born two years
after me. We grew up in a very difficult time. The
different mujhaddien commanders were fighting for control of the city and
there was a lot of bombing and fighting in our area. Our lives were very
hard, but then one day when I was about eight years old a large rocket exploded
near our house. My father ran out to see what had happened
and that was the last time we saw him alive. A gunman in the street shot him
with a friend of his who had gone with him. After that our lives became very sad and
difficult. My father was no longer around to earn a living to keep us alive
and my mother was devastated by the grief. A year later she too died. Her
death was due to a broken heart. After that my brother and I had to fend for
ourselves until my grandfather came to get us. He took us from our family
home as the fighting was getting worse and the bombs were falling all around
us. Together we fled to Jalalabad where lived in a camp for displaced people.
I was about eight or nine then, I can’t quite remember exactly how old I was,
but I remember being sad and scared. There were thousands of people in the camp,
all of them had moved to escape the fighting. By now Kabul was a death
zone. After three years in the camp in Jalalabad (I
can’t remember its name), one of my paternal uncles came for my brother and
me and said he could find work for us at a carpet factory in Pakistan. As
there was no one in our family who could care for my brother and I we left
for Peshawar. We lived with my uncle in Haji Camp, a
community of Afghan refugees in Peshawar town, but our lives were very sad
and very hard there. Every morning we would have to get up at 4am to go to
work at the carpet factory. Our day would end at 9pm. Sometimes I was so
tired I would fall asleep. When that happened the factory owner on beat me on
the head with a metal hook used for weaving the carpets. The good thing is
that we were fed. We had hot meals, rice, potatoes and meat
sometimes. The factory owner would also give us his children’s second-hand
clothes. At least we had food. In my two years in the carpet factory I made 5
large carpets and my brother made 12 smaller ones. In all that time we were
never once paid, as we were considered apprentices. We wanted to run away,
but we didn’t dare because we were told that the child snatchers would catch
us and take us to a KharGhar (Forced Labour Camp) where we would never see
our relatives again. My brother and I were very unhappy. The
conditions in the factory were very bad. Hot in summer, cold in winter and we
were beaten. Every day we would pray for my grandfather to come and get us
and take us away back to Afghanistan. Finally one of my aunts told my
grandfather how miserable we were and he came and rescued us last year. After so many years we all came home to
Kabul. We live in the same district, as before in west Kabul, we have no
heating, water or electricity. My brother and I both work now selling
newspapers and we support my grandfather who is unemployed. He is blind and
cannot work. It takes me about 40
minutes every day to come to work in the city centre where I sell newspapers.
Every morning I get ten newspapers from the paper seller and then at the end
of the day I pay him. Usually I make 40,000-50,000 Afghanis a day (US$1.00)
then I pay him the 30,000 Afghanis (70c) for the papers. My profit was so small we could barely
survive. Two months ago I heard that Dominic (Medley)
was giving out Survival Guides to us street sellers. He was already a
customer of mine, so I hurried over to ask for some guides so I could sell
them too. Now I get five guides a day and I sell them for between 60,000 to
70,000 Afghanis each. The good thing about the guide is I get to keep all the
profit. I use the money to buy extra food for my family. Usually I buy oil,
sugar and flour. Most days I have tea and Nan (bread) for
breakfast, potatoes and rice for lunch and potatoes and rice for dinner. I
never usually get meat. I cannot read or write and I have never been
to school. I go to mosque, but I am illiterate. I don’t know what to expect
for the future. I do not think I will have an easy life. My parents are dead,
my grandfather is old and my brother and I are the only ones to care for him. I am sad for my life and sad for my future.
There’s no one to care for us. My life is just standing and selling
newspapers. My future is bad. The money I get from selling the newspaper is
not enough, so I am happy to sell the guide and Dominic is the best guy in
Kabul. I don’t know if he is the best guy in Afghanistan because I don’t know
the other provinces, but I can say he’s the best in Kabul. END |
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كابل،
افغانستان |
The Survival Guide to Kabul©
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