Already 4th of July

Dear friends and readers.

Waheed did not answer the next day. Even though Dill told me the next morning, the driver of Waheed would pick me up at 9.30am, he did not show up. No communication happend.  So 3 days ago I started a new communication round. 2 days ago I saw him in his office. Waheed has a logistic company and is on top very engaged to work for peace. He is very willing to support my ideas and to drive me to every province to speak with leaders of province, town and villages.

But….. He has a different concept in his mind. He explains to me, that for this kind of work he thinks about, I have to found before a NGO, have to get all the papers ready for that. And I should have a budget for that operation. He speaks of about ‚for example 1 millionDollar‘.

Similar ideas I heared before. ‚If you want to make peace you have to bring money‘ someone else earlier said to me. This is what people learned here from different other organisations and groups working in Afghanistan. On a governmetal level or NGO based work. And that’s what happens here. And for sure it is also necessary in lots or even most of cases. A side effect is, that everyone who sees a forgeigner, is believing, that this person has a lot of money. And everyone has this kind of mentality to open there hand and expectations widely to recieve. ……

Since Saturday  (Friday is always weekend here) I am very busy to get my Visa extended. Every day I visited at least one or two offices, to find out, how and where to extend the Visa, to follow advises, to visit other offices before, to get needed papers, to try to change my type of visa, …. to complain about inflexibility and unfairness in reguards to Visa fees and regulations at the foreign ministery, with no success, hihi,…. and to show up at different places for two or three times, because of different issues…..

Every time I like to walk all the way, in the tradition of peace walks, here in the city. It turned out, that the officer in the Afghanian embassey in Tehran/Iran gave me so many wrong informations….. You maid remember that he told me, that I could get the Visa for Afghanistan also in the Mashhad embassey…. But I had to travel back to Tehran to apply there….. He also first gave me wrong Visa, which I had to return, it was for a truck driver….. he wanted to earn some extra black money…. and told me, that I can extend easily my then given tourist visa up to 1 year when I am in Afghanistan. Here now the tourist visa is only extendable for another month and it can’t be changed into another Visa-status. That’s the main reason I went to the foreign ministry. Anyway I want to stay 2 or 2 and a 1/2 month longer to start walking after the nearly finished monsun, beginning or mid of September in Parkistan. Also the Visa fee, which is extremely high at 80$ is combined with another tourist tax of 50$. Just for 1 month. Another 3 times multiple entry Visa for 3 month cost ‚only‘ 150 $, but once having a tourist visa the status can’t be changed. (Who knows, maybe with some extra money). But the door did not open for that yet.

Also I continued working on finding a possibility to find a free place to stay. So, the day before yesterday finally the break through. Dill, the women I contacted on couchsurfing earlier, was all the time busy in the background,  to connect with friends and friends of friends to find me a place. Yesterday she wanted to meet with me at 1.30pm in my hotel. After some back and forth messages I understood she is now down at the hotel at 2pm something. But no Dill to see. Traffic jam. After some more time waiting, the director of the Hotel Spinzak, who payed a part of my hotel fee out of his own pocket, meets me in the lobby, surprised, that I am there with all of my luggage ready to leave (I could not say goodbye earlier, he was not there all day, but I left him a letter and some more peace birds) offered me, that I can stay in his privat home for free (now he believes, that I don’t have money) Also the offer stands for later on. The nephew behind the reception is suddenly very exited and offers any kind of help I need. But then, just after I made my decision, to stay with the director,  at 16.20pm Dill is there. I give her another chance, because she is so didicated all the time. A friend, Kahlil, of her arrives and another waiting period is rising up, because we wait for the Kahlils friend Attel, who travels today back from another province and is also in a traffic jam. Kahlil and Dill have not seen each other for a long while, never the less we all 3 don’t know each other, they leave me by the side, also able to talk in English, they fall in a kind of trance and a ocean of dari Farsi words are changing between them. I get kind of inpatient after a while, calming myself down with making peace birds, sitting even at another place, with no reaction from the ocean side. Finally I am ready again, to take the offer of the director, when they turn there attention towards me…. starting a bit a conversation. It’s already around 6pm when Attel arrives. We have dinner. Dill is more or less living now in India, came only back for the celebrations after Ramadan, involved in organising fashion shows in India and Attel, with a good looking face and body is surching for opportunities to model. Ha….. They did not know each other before…..

Finally we are leaving, I have a invitation to Dills family for a lunch or dinner in the next days, Kahlil offers any help whenever whatever and we get in a taxi to Attels ‚Royal hostel‘. He with his two siblings have a noble character and I am warmly welcomed. Attel, very tired from the trip, has to arrange a new room for me. The only, very important need I have, is, that I can somehow hang my two days old mosquito net somewhere over my bed….. Faiz, one of the brothers is explaning me everything here. It’s a hostel for young students, lots of them just 17. They have some green area around the complex and I have some trees in front of my room. All is kind and calm. It’s there programs, how to keep it calm, by not allowing music and partys. After everything is fixed, Attel is still around and we started a nice conversation. He wanted to know, what I all did until now. And I have to be a bit with myself to start a satisfying answer even for myself. I speak about, that I had to open space to even find a free place to stay. To overcome obstacles in the believe or structure of this countries people, to work through inner and outer walls, to get little sparks of light through it. Also walls which are surrounding people and properties. I used the peace walks through the city to understand what’s going on in this country, to recognize and understand where and how protection walls are builded around every and each human. And I said and realized, that I was working with this walls, I met everywhere. – With walls and borders I have anyway a lot to do on the peace walk, even thinking back to the very starts in 2007, when I walked for 5 years, every year 4 month, through Germany and all surrounding countries. – it was a even emotional release for me to understand for myself and to express, to find words, that working with the walls was my main work until now here? !!!! Now having found my first privat place in Kabul, another period will start……

This morning the tourist ministery, who did not call back yet, had to be visited. They wanted to call me back, when my paper is signed. To my surprise, Faiz and two other guys want to join. Faiz yesterday ask me, if he could join the walk, also in Parkistan…. And so on. So I introduce the three into the peace walk technics, walking in silence, massaging with the feet Afghanistan and the planet, how to be in your heart, while walking…. And we really did a fantastic peace walk to the office…… There, after they spoke with the officers, finally the fee here is ‚only 40$‘ and for the Visa it’s ‚only 50$‘, together ‚just 90$‘. Uppps? This is 40 $ less than what I knew before. Anyway. We will see tomorrow, the papers have to be processed to the Visa office.

I am so impressed by the support and easiness of the wonderful peace walk in the morning and I enjoy the nobleness of the family and how it’s generates to there young guest. How it makes them also open, gives space, to listen, what i have to say. Just beautiful.

Love

Th?mas

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