Last night I attended a movie night/fundraiser for a Kabul-Istanbul rickshaw journey by Annika, German anthropology student, and Adnan, an Indian-Canadian journalist. They both work for the children's circus that was founded here in 2002 and trains local kids as performers. The idea is to stop in refugee camps and collaborate with children's aid organizations along the route to perform and plant the seeds for more circus franchises.
They had the rickshaw custom made in Jalalabad (with the steering wheel on the left, which will make driving harder in Pakistan but easier elsewhere, though rearview visibility is I think be the least of the rickshaw's problems driving on Iranian and Turkish highways).
What was different and welcome was that most of the people working for the circus have been doing so for 5 or 10 years--Annika at 8 months was I think the newest recruit and she's stayed the whole eight months without the frequent R&R or international conference hopping of most NGO and foreign government people. Without exaggeration, the majority of the NGO people I've talked to have been here for less than 6 months and are already thinking of moving on to other countries.
Annika swinging flames:
They seem to be really into weird artificial energy drinks around here. At least at the convenience stores I've been to so far, there's been more brand variety to energy drinks than to just about anything else.
Speaking of drinks, one sector where in my opinion the Iranian label has foreign competitors, including the Germans, beat for quality is non-alcoholic beer. If marketed well as a less sickly sweet more full-bodied alternative to soft drinks I think Delster could make it big in the US.
They had the rickshaw custom made in Jalalabad (with the steering wheel on the left, which will make driving harder in Pakistan but easier elsewhere, though rearview visibility is I think be the least of the rickshaw's problems driving on Iranian and Turkish highways).
What was different and welcome was that most of the people working for the circus have been doing so for 5 or 10 years--Annika at 8 months was I think the newest recruit and she's stayed the whole eight months without the frequent R&R or international conference hopping of most NGO and foreign government people. Without exaggeration, the majority of the NGO people I've talked to have been here for less than 6 months and are already thinking of moving on to other countries.
Annika swinging flames:
The woman next to me put a hundred dollar bill in Annika's cap after the performance, just to spite me. They're collecting donations for the trip here as well:
http://www.indiegogo.com/rickshawcircus
They seem to be really into weird artificial energy drinks around here. At least at the convenience stores I've been to so far, there's been more brand variety to energy drinks than to just about anything else.
Speaking of drinks, one sector where in my opinion the Iranian label has foreign competitors, including the Germans, beat for quality is non-alcoholic beer. If marketed well as a less sickly sweet more full-bodied alternative to soft drinks I think Delster could make it big in the US.
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