Badakhshan tragedy

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Update: Abuzar Ahmad

Okay so here I go…

The little fella is home 🙂 he has taken a few steps but I’m not sure if he’s fully walking just yet. He is off to Canada soon with his uncle and cousins. I’m happy for him. That kid is special. He has touched me deep within.  He really has.

I hope he grows up feeling loved and secure. I think that’s what’s most important. 

Kabul kidnapping shooting

What the heck is Kabul doing??? Okay, not Kabul exactly.  But it’s crazy.

The past 24 hours have been mad. An MP is shot and a DM gets kidnapped from within Kabul city. Not the outskirts,  within!

I don’t have details but it’s sad.

Our little Abuzar is home. He has been discharged… wait. This story needs a post of its own!

Brb

Counting…

So, not long after the Serena attack, came the third presidential elections since the demise of the Taliban.

I should have blogged about this earlier but I was too busy tweeting and had jumped on the election bandwagon.  Its been a fun ride! 

The turnout was faaantastic. Absolute victory for the afghans.  The queueing at the polling stations was impressive, take a look:

Impressive, ain’t it?! Make no mistake, the women also turned up in large numbers (their queues just weren’t as tidy as the men’s).

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such perfect lines.

Okay,  enough about lines, some of the votes have been counted and Abdullah has scored 41 percent with Ashraf Ghani not too far off. It’s still way too early to establish patterns, and doesn’t say much.

Mid-May is when the final count will be announced.  I am hoping we won’t go into a run-off, deep down I don’t think it will go as peacefully as the April elections did.

In any case, regardless of who wins, the afghans have won. People exercised their right to vote. Democracy has won. The taliban have lost.

The pain on his little face

Uffffffffff….

The pictures from NBC… unbearable. 

Abuzar Ahmad

Where do I begin?
What do I say?

Two years and ten months old.
dressed in his new clothes
At dinner with his family at the Serena.
Music fills the room.
It was New Year’s eve.
Laughing gleefully. 
Teasing his siblings.
Waiters hustling and bustling.
BANG
Men enter, pistols in hand
“Not my children” screams his mother
Fear
Confusion
BANG
BANG
That horrible sound
Everything blackens

Madar. His eyes open
Madar
Just a memory — nothing more.
Sweet memory

His tiny body so fragile
So weak
Where am I?
Madar

Faces. But not madar’s kind, loving face.
Abuzar. Abuzar.
They call him.

Heavy eyelids.
2 years, 10 months.
5 bullet holes

The nation, the world. Crying. Praying.
Abuzar, we are with you.

A nation’s hero.
A fighter.
A warrior.
At what cost?
At what price?

Father. Mother. Siblings.
A sweet memory.

——————

I just wanted to write bout that little boy who stole my heart. I wanted to keep it brief..

As a mother, I longed to hold him. To tell him he’s loved. It will be okay.  It will be okay.

As the story unfolded and Abuzar’s photos filled Facebook and Twitter.  I

became more attached to this child. I felt an obligation to make sure he was okay.

I realised I was not alone. So many men and women felt the same. We all wanted to reach out.

A few days had passed and I felt a little better and not as emotional when seeing his pictures.  I followed his progress online wishing I was in kabul.

Watching the NBC report on Abuzar shattered every fibre of my being. Luckily my husband and my tot weren’t home. I watched the report and I heard him cry. Such a sorrowful cry. I broke. i cried. I cried and I cried. How dare they shoot at a child from such close range? Animals!

Now, the internet is filled with pictures of him and videos of him playing with his cousin. Smiling. Giggling.

A beautiful little soul. He has stolen our hearts.

I’m baaaack

Wow.  It has been a while! last post was in October 2011.

Here I am now. Nursing my 3 month old baby while typing up this entry!

Times have changed 🙂

I now have two beautiful boys. Both under two, my hands are FULL. I resigned from my post in Afghanistan when I was 8 months pregnant,  and came to Australia (my home!) to have the baby here. We decided against returning to Afghanistan for it’s not safe with two babies. And I don’t feel like I can be a great mother to my children while living in Afghanistan. I won’t be the way I want my children to see me. We’re glad we made that decision.

Since then, we’ve really taken it easy and enjoyed parenthood. We’ve been traveling… lived in Bangkok for about 6 months before moving to Bangladesh (hubby’s job assignment). I loved Bangladesh!!! The people were amazing. I felt so comfortable, so unlike Afghanistan.  There were no men with staring problems. Yes, it was hot and humid amd crowded and I was heavily pregnant with my 2nd baby. But I loved it. I won’t rant further. But I loved it. Lol.

So that’s the update!

I have decided to take time off work and spend as much time with my boys. Once they start kindy/pre school then I’ll head back to work.  I’ll be 30 years old lol. I’ll still be desirable in the job market, I’d hope. Haha.

My boys are my priority. I’m a stay home mum and man, it is tough!  Working in Kabul was waaaay easier.

I’m in Australia but I can’t seem to let go of Afghanistan.  I follow it closely. 

That’s the thing with Afghanistan.  It grows on you…

More later

Since the Finest bombing…

So. I’ve been busy. You can understand why I haven’t been blogging for about a few weeks now.

It’s snowing today… wohoo!

Since the bombing at Finest, I haven’t visited! Not going to shop and look for other stuff, not going to take the risk.

We brought on the New Year in Bali. We visited KL and Korea. It was FUN! I could live in KL! And we did our usual stop over in Dubai for 3-4 nights. i actually liked Dubai this time. This is probably the 6th -7th time I went there and I actually enjoyed it! I shopped a lot, they had sales!

So yes, back in Kabul and back at work. Not to mention reading and watching the news – as it happens in Cairo – has taken most of my time.

Next blog will be slightly less dull than this. I promise.

Oh you might want to check out http://www.realsimple.com so convenient!

Until next time…

My hair dryer and the suicide bomber

Granted. I haven’t blogged in a while. so many things have kept me insanely busy. My job being one of them.

Yesterday’s attacks have prompted me to vent. And so, here I am.

Friday.28th Jan. 2011

Friday is our one day weekend. So it’s the day we catch up on some sleep, spend the day cooking our brunch and just chilling out, followed by visiting relos.

We did just that. Seemed like a normal Friday.

Normally hubby and I start cooking brunch together but today I took a little bit longer than usual. I blow dried my hair. Trying to juggle the roller brush in one hand and the hair dryer in one hand it took extremely long.

When I got up, hubby was already chopping stuff up.

We had our brunch, got dressed. As usual, took me an extra while to figure out what to wear.

Then off we went.

As we left the door and waited for the driver, I asked my hubby if he brought the envelope. He forgot. So he went in to get it. So I waited.

I saw our bulky security officer who lives at our house for security purposes, bustle by. He usually has his soldier boots on and his weapons belted around his waist. No guns today. He was on the phone, pale and frantic. He raised his eyebrows to say hello and ran out the door. I knew something was going on.

Hubby came back just as the security dude walked out the main gates. I mentioned briefly to my hubby ‘i think something’s going on. The security dude was frantic and pale’

About 2.33pm

Just as the driver was paging the base to let him know that we were moving, the operations manager came running outside. ‘Back inside’ he yelled, motioning for the driver to drive in through the gates. He asked us to slide down our windows. ‘There was a bomb attack in town near Finest, no movement’ he said frantically, pale as a ghost. He hurried along to wherever the security guy was heading. This is when they call everyone to make sure everyone is accounted for.

We went back inside and of course turned on the TV to see if it had made it on the news. Hubby called his family to see if everyone’s okay. Of course, the Afghan TV had their usual shows. CNN and BBC was covering the Cairo protests. And so, we waited. and waited. And finally Afghan TV provided a brief update. It happened at Wazir Akbar Khan. A store we frequently visited.

There it was.

The first thought that came to my mind were the guys who worked at the store.

Moments later, footage hit the screen. A shop we visited, up in flames, power outage so it was dark and smokey, the neatly stacked shelves were now empty, the items spread all over the floor. A young boy, around 12 years old was crying and frantic. ‘My sister and my cousin came to shop, I don’t know where they are’ he sobbed as his eyes darted from side to side expecting them to walk out of the burnt down store.

It was sad.

The casualty count started at 4 killed and then stopped at 8.

So the whole day we were on lockdown, watching the Cairo protests live and just hanging about.

That evening, we had a security briefing. Two of my hubby’s colleagues were caught in the attack, one was seriously injured. She’s in stable condition and will be evacuated to her home country for treatment.

The guys had more information: the suicide bomber walked into the store, began firing at everyone, threw a hand grenade then detonated himself.

Some are saying the Taliban did it targeting head of Blackwater. But Head of Blackwater is doing fine, we’re not even sure if he was in there at all. Hekmatyar is also claiming responsibility. Nothing to be proud of but somehting they each want to have a hand in. Shame.

Another Afghan colleague of my hubby was there with his 5 relatives. they were all killed. 6 from one family. So how could the number of killed total 8? They’ve definitely downplayed the number of casualties!

I’m counting my blessings and hoping there is no more of this!