I think I may be stirring up insubordination at the guesthouse.
It started when I insisted Waheedullah, the short 22 year old Hazara house keeper, join me for dinner yesterday evening. Soon he was trash talking the newspaper staff for treating him generally like dirt and never letting him eat a meal with them. Recently the journalist mentioned in my previous post heard gunfire from a nearby wedding celebration and thought it was an attack and locked herself in the steel-walled safe room. It took Waheed some time with his limited English to coax her out. It says a lot, I think, that she didn't immediately let him in to take shelter with her if she thought they were under attack.
Then I told him, honestly, that I'm moving out soon because they charge $50/night at this guest house. He was incredulous--I didn't ask what percentage of that they give him. He's supporting a big family: six sisters, a mother, and a father who can't work because his knee was destroyed by a bullet and subsequent botched surgery received before they fled to Pakistan, where Waheed spent most of his childhood.
Then I mentioned that I am into martial arts to steer the conversation in a light direction and he first responded with an anecdote about a Panjsheri (READ: arrogant Tajik) cracking him with a clean left hook (one of several scars on his face) because Waheed had bumped the Panjsheri's pickup truck with his bicycle (the police then showed up and shook Waheed down for money--Shiite Hazaras don't have it easy). Then today he asked me for some martial arts instruction. I showed him one sambo move and introduced him to the wide world of mma videos. He asked me not to mention martial arts or that he exercises in the gym to the cook, his boss. Apparently the landlord forbade Waheed from working out after Waheed knocked down the cook for slapping and haranguing him for laziness one day when Waheed was sick from heat and Ramadan fasting.
So basically I'm doing all I can to encourage him to fight and disrespect hierarchy--evident already in that he drafted me to spend about 2 hours last night installing and running antivirus software for him. He's not the first Afghan I've given tech support and none of them have made any effort to hide their porn collections--not sure if that's from lack of know-how or because it's nothing to be embarrassed of.
A few pics of Friday recreation in Shahr-e No park:
I didn't get one of the boys chasing each other in flip flops around the perilously wet top of the tanker.
It started when I insisted Waheedullah, the short 22 year old Hazara house keeper, join me for dinner yesterday evening. Soon he was trash talking the newspaper staff for treating him generally like dirt and never letting him eat a meal with them. Recently the journalist mentioned in my previous post heard gunfire from a nearby wedding celebration and thought it was an attack and locked herself in the steel-walled safe room. It took Waheed some time with his limited English to coax her out. It says a lot, I think, that she didn't immediately let him in to take shelter with her if she thought they were under attack.
Then I told him, honestly, that I'm moving out soon because they charge $50/night at this guest house. He was incredulous--I didn't ask what percentage of that they give him. He's supporting a big family: six sisters, a mother, and a father who can't work because his knee was destroyed by a bullet and subsequent botched surgery received before they fled to Pakistan, where Waheed spent most of his childhood.
Then I mentioned that I am into martial arts to steer the conversation in a light direction and he first responded with an anecdote about a Panjsheri (READ: arrogant Tajik) cracking him with a clean left hook (one of several scars on his face) because Waheed had bumped the Panjsheri's pickup truck with his bicycle (the police then showed up and shook Waheed down for money--Shiite Hazaras don't have it easy). Then today he asked me for some martial arts instruction. I showed him one sambo move and introduced him to the wide world of mma videos. He asked me not to mention martial arts or that he exercises in the gym to the cook, his boss. Apparently the landlord forbade Waheed from working out after Waheed knocked down the cook for slapping and haranguing him for laziness one day when Waheed was sick from heat and Ramadan fasting.
So basically I'm doing all I can to encourage him to fight and disrespect hierarchy--evident already in that he drafted me to spend about 2 hours last night installing and running antivirus software for him. He's not the first Afghan I've given tech support and none of them have made any effort to hide their porn collections--not sure if that's from lack of know-how or because it's nothing to be embarrassed of.
A few pics of Friday recreation in Shahr-e No park:
I didn't get one of the boys chasing each other in flip flops around the perilously wet top of the tanker.
They are very South Asian in their cinematic tastes around here. I got my beard trimmed on my way home and at the Salon of Hair Reform they had a Bollywood action flick playing. I watched nervously as the hero was beat up in a barber shop and the villain slashed his face with a straight razor while minions held him down.
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