Neighbours' Lunch

It's all in a day's work. My day was very, very busy, as usual. It started with meeting with the deputy chief of NDS. Then we had some weapons training. While the others were training, some of us went over to the garden across the street to host a lunch invitation for all the people from the neighbouring houses. Some 50 guests were invited, and Qabili Pilau with a side dish of salad and Naan, of course, was on the menu. In fact, I've had a traditional Afghan meal four or five times now, and every single time Palau has been on the meny. Not that I'm complaining, it's really good. And there was lots of it - 300 USD buys a lot of palau: 25 huge plates for 50 people (two always share a plate) were brought to the tables, and 15 plates were brought to the women and the families, as was the plan. Still it took two men to carry away the gigantic bowl of left-overs away to somewhere. I had been fooled, again. 150 or 200 USD would surely have covered the catering.

What was more irritating, though, was the discussion subjects during the meal. "The PRT doesn't do anything, no reconstruction, nothing." "Why can't you put asphalt on the roads in the neighbourhood?" "If you can't put asphalt, put gravel on the roads." "If you can't put gravel, at least build ditches on the sides - you can do that, can't you?" "Did you like the food? How about giving a radio for our cook?" At last, there was my chance for a comeback line: "Our cook sings himself!" After 25 minutes of stuffing themselves with palau (it's unbelieveable how much these thin guys can eat) and insulting us for not doing anything, everyone left all at once. Some said they hadn't prayed at midday, and had to pray, although we postponed the lunch from 1200 to 1300 at the mullah's request, and others said that they had prayed, and left anyway. There was a word or two of thanks, but not enough to leave me with an impression of politeness. It's unfortunate that I will have to join another one of these lunch invitations in six months or so.

Coming back from lunch, we continued for a while with the weapons training. Then it was time to go to the shooting range, where we shot with all the support weapons of the PO, then had a short dinner break at dusk, and continued with the night vision sights. It's all in a day's work.


Always eat with your right hand only, and keep your Naan the right way up.