Ch 7. Spring, chess, cricket and going with the flow
photo: Dragan Lekic. Before I met my Afghan friends I really didn’t know much about Afghanistan, probably as much as the average news reader. So I began reading books and articles on the internet, spoke to journalist friends who’d been there and spent hours sitting in the park speaking with the guys. We queued for … Read more
Winter in Paris Part 2 (a translator joins us)
Visiting Mehrab and Imran as December and then Christmas loomed on the horizon started becoming incredibly emotional for me. Yes, we would have fun and Imran would tease me for not being a strong Afghan that can take the cold….or I’d sip hot milky coffee, chatting away as all the faces I know heartily ate … Read more
Winter in Paris part 1
It’s been a long while since I updated this blog, a lot has happened. First there was a bit of to’ing and fro’ing. One of the boys, Jahandar, who’d arrived to Paris, exhausted and dirty from the razing of the Pashtun camp in Calais finally decided to return to Northern France. During his brief stay in … Read more
Lesson 4 – jokes, cricket, dinner and faux pas
Tuesday. I arrive to the park, find Mehrab and the boys. Who pops up but Jahandar, the lad I had taken to the hospital. Hey look at you, I joked as the young man who stood before me had almost completely transformed! The old Jahandar, dirty, exhausted, stinky, limping and emotionally burnt out from his … Read more
Lesson 3: Emergency room / Les Urgences
Today’s lesson ended with a whole other adventure that I didn’t anticipate. Our park is the gathering point for all Afghans passing through or living in Paris. I met some minors who’d been given accommodation and French schooling by the state. One spoke French with real confidence and told me that he’d been learning at … Read more
Lesson 2: Je suis, tu est, nous sommes…
After a week with a mild flu I return to the park to see my friends. As you’ll remember they’re a small group of best friends aged between 15-24, all have fled the war in Afghanistan, their common language is Pashto and some (but not all) are surviving together on the streets of Paris. Arriving … Read more
Lesson 1: Comment t’appelles tu?
Despite some preconceptions that Paris is a kind of living mausoleum, today I didn’t need to check my newspaper to know the date. Or a map to tell myself in which city I was sitting. Any time traveller, certainly one with even a passing interest in French history could pinpoint the date, the year, the … Read more
