Kabul diary week one

Established in 1955, it takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany,(as well as Banff and Cairo/Alexandria). It has been brought to Afghanistan by the Goethe Institute, and has chosen the Queen’s Palace for the exhibition, an astonishing location, with views over the mountains that form a chanin around the capital. Five international Afghan artists were selected in the process, which began two and a half years ago.

Zolayka Sherzad has made an oversized Chapan, the coat that Karzai wears. Zalmai photographs transformed weapons of war.

By the time we leave that night the lights across Kabul run up and down the hills. Certainly, this is progress. But the electricity comes from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. "They can just switch it off anytime they like," says a friend.

Thursday

My new friend Habib, who I met at dOCUMENTA, picks me up in his 1966 Russian Volga, and takes me to a school where 13,000 children go everyday, studying in two-hour shifts. He wants to show me the appalling condition it’s in. What he is most incensed about is the loo situation. They stink. They stink because there is no money to take away the waste. They cannot afford toilet paper. There is no water.

Kids wipe their hands on the walls. It does not bear thinking about.

As we talk, a boy of about 16, makes a rude hand gesture to my female American friend who has joined us on this mission. She is now incensed and tells Habib and the acting principal, who is with us.

They catch up to the boy and reprimand him. "This is what is wrong with Afghanistan," she says. "They have no respect for foreign women.

Nothing will change if this continues." She talks to another boy, who complains that there is no discipline in the school, and she says he must set an example, and adds, "why do you boys do that. You have mothers and sisters and cousins." He looks sheepish.

A few hundred dollars would fix the loo situation for six months, but more would need to be raised to put glass in the windows. People on an individual basis want to help, but no one is interested in changing the system – not USAID, which funds many projects, or the Ministry of Health or Education.

Friday

It’s the weekend and brunch is the main activity on a Friday. In the spring and summer what better way to spend it than outside eating at Le Jardin, which has recently opened its large premises and vast garden. I order Salade Nicoise, although the Afghans I am with don’t trust the cleanliness, and they go for omelettes. Someone orders a giant raspberry coloured macaron with vanilla ice cream. A little chewy but remarkable all the same.

An Afghan friend of mine arrives from Badakhshan. He has started a café in the capital, Faizabad, and with it a debating society. I love this idea.

Later we call a jeweller, who comes to the restaurant with his rings and things. Afghanistan has amazing gems – emeralds, lapis lazuli, and almost everything but diamonds. The first two are owned by the mafia.