Travel Writing - How to get to know the rest of the World !

 Afghanistan and Travel Writing

I just finished reading A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, by Eric Newby. This classic travel lit book has been sitting on my shelf unread for several years.  I love crazy exploration stories, I love mountains, but I had a hard time making myself read this one.  The country of Afghanistan makes me angry. I think of the Taliban and I want to cry.  Years ago I read The Kite Runner and that lovely book upset me so much I threw it against a wall and broke the spine.  Since that time I have avoided anything to do with this part of the world.  But, I have a deep desire to study and read travel lit, to learn about all countries, and to be open for learning.  The point, at least one good point of travel lit is the opening up of our experiences to understand people from other places and cultures. If reading is a way of destroying prejudices, then I have to put aside my prejudice in order to read. 

 A Short Walk was written in the 1950’s, when two Englishmen decided to just up and travel to the Afghanistan area and climb a 19,000 foot mountain as well as explore a region that was fairly unknown.  Eric Newby writes as if he and a friend chose to take this trip on a lark, and that he and the friend were just regular guys, having to learn how to climb and to wear crampons and use ropes.  He manages to get across the folly of their lack of skills, as well as the difficulty of the trip in such a way that the reader might think he or she could just hop up and do the same.  His style of writing hides his adventurous spirit and the fact he and his friend were skilled, healthy, perhaps crazy, but also capable of taking on this adventure.  I was exhausted with him when the trip ended, and I loved the final paragraph when he meets another hardened traveler.  

I searched for the Hindu Kush on Youtube, and found a couple of guys walking in a National Park that looked stunning, beautiful and reminded me a little of Colorado or Montana.  The elevation was high, and the ground was covered in low brown grass, with pines and cedars along the edges of the trail. In the distance rose tall snow covered mountains, hiding the fact that these bald hills were already at an extremely high elevation.  The person filming used a cell phone, and he rushed the camera around dizzyingly, but the area seemed empty of human life, desolate and truly wilderness.  I also found a video by a British woman who was much better at her filming skills. She walked the streets of Kabul, visited a couple of markets, restaurants, and interviewed people in their homes.  This was uploaded only 3 weeks ago, since the return of and horrible regulations from the Taliban.  She is allowed to visit, video and walk the streets but the women she talked with could not be filmed. They were excluded from being in any of the shops, the parks, and most of the restaurants.   When the videographer met with one woman and her children they discussed the importance of the education for the boys.  The fate of the entire household weighed on the boys shoulders as she couldn’t work, her girl children couldn’t study or work and her husband had run off.  Not only are these decisions cruel they are stupid, hamstringing families, and communities from the progress they could have with better policies.  

But, watching the video I also watched the faces of the regular men and boys, and some smaller girls, and people were friendly, hospitable, and open. In the background I could see women, and at that time their faces weren’t covered, they were shopping and walking with families. There were enforcers about, but the average person seemed relaxed and happy to have the war over and violence gone.  Perhaps over time as a new generation is raised by people who remembered the world pre Taliban, however short that was, perhaps they can return to something better for all of their citizens.  

Of course, since the Youtube video was released, rules have changed for the local women, and now faces and voices of women are not permitted in public.  Despite the hospitality and friendliness of the people she met, women are loosing ground daily.  They are basically non-citizens in their own country.  

When A Short Walk was written, women were generally kept out of sight, or covered their faces when the men walked by.  Some of the communities seemed worse for the women than others.  In at least one town the writers saw women and girls enjoying life, laughing and living.  In another town women were working, carrying baskets so heavy their fingers shook as they held the baskets of firewood, and they were obviously worn down.  

Both the book and the videos gave me more hope than despair, and that was better than I expected.  If Afghanistan ever opens up and becomes a modern world, it will have some of the most beautiful nature, rugged mountains and friendly people any explorer could hope to visit.