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In Kabul, my weekly shopping trips for food and other necessities take me from ancient to modern settings. I slog through the muddy alley off Flower Street to pick out fresh fruit and vegetables from the stalls and to have the butcher cut a kilo of lamb off the raw meat hanging from a hook in his open air shop. Such stalls and shops have been fixtures in Kabul since the city began. I buy packaged foods and dairy products in the “foreigners” stores Shari Naw. I start in tiny shops with limited inventories stacked to the ceiling that still look the like those I visited 36 years ago. Next, I push a small shopping cart down the aisles of modest “super markets” with organized inventories that include Nivea moisturizer cream, Bob’s Hamburger Relish and Nestle’s instant Cappuccino packets. Finally, I join my housemates on a trip to the only stores in Kabul with bar code scanning and moving belts-- the establishments near the ISAF compound that carry the items forbidden by Islam, pork and alcohol. These stores are surrounded by sandbag barricades and protected by armed guards who check our identification badges or passports as we enter the compounds.
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I have also experienced the full range of vendors in shopping for clothes. In search of Halloween costumes, my housemates and I roamed through alleys with open air stalls and bought shirts from sidewalk vendors near the Kabul River. I searched for shoes in tiny shops near Chicken Street that carry women’s and men’s clothes packed in cellophane and made in China. I have found better shoes in “wedding shops” near Park Cinema. Today I set out in the midst of a snowfall with my friend Hamida and her twelve year old daughter to augment our winter wardrobes with some ready-made clothes from new vertical malls on Ansari Street—Roshan Tower and Kabul City Center.
Construction in Roshan Tower has been continuous for two years. Negotiating the expanding building requires a level of stamina beyond tolerance of inconveniences caused by renovation efforts in American and European malls. There are no “We’re sorry for the inconvenience” signs here, even though parts of the mall lose electricity without warning, climbing five flights of stairs is the only option for reaching shops on upper floors, specialty stores on each level are located off side hallways that end abruptly at granite walls and stairs to sixth floor lead to a incomplete floor without any safety warning signs. Of course there is no mall directory or customer service desk.
Kabul City Center, on the other hand is chic and high tech. The sky light on the eighth floor bathes the entire area in light, even on an overcast, snowy day. Glass, cream colored granite and brass fixtures on every level create an atmosphere not unlike the vertical mall on Market Street in San Francisco. Escalators have been installed, but red velvet ropes prevent their being used until electrical support for them is worked out. The ropes did not stop everyone, however, as an older man wearing a brown felt pakhol on his head and a heavy jacket over his traditional shawlwar kamize grinned broadly as he scurried down the inert stairs of the escalator that is supposed to take shoppers up to the second floor.
Despite the trappings of a shopping mall in Europe or the United States, Kabul City Center has yet to attract shops with the resources to stock extensive inventories. Consequently, a satisfactory shopping trip even to these fashionable stores requires compromises. Male shopkeepers try to convince you to buy a pink or white suit instead of the brown or black one that you are looking for. They are rarely able to estimate your size and usually hand you something to try on that would only fit half of your body. Hamida and I established that quality of material, color and style were non-negotiable criteria in the garments that we were seeking. Size, however, could be adjusted, as there are many tailors in Kabul who can alter ready made garments in less than 24 hours. Hamida was lucky, as she found a black and white wool skirt and a cherry red chenille shawlwar kamize that fit her perfectly. I was not so fortunate. Two hours after purchase, I turned over to a tailor (who is also our guesthouse manager) the brown pant coat and the long black skirt that I bought today. Both items were made for women taller and more robust than I am.
Adjoining the Kabul City Center mall is the Landmark Hotel with a perpetual sheet of water sliding over a granite slab in a lobby that is furnished with cream leather sofas and mahogany tables. A glass enclosed elevator takes patrons from the first level to their rooms and to the Shaimana Restaurant on the eighth floor. Hamida and I treated ourselves and her patient daughter to a buffet lunch in the Indian restaurant as we took in the view of the city covered in snow. The setting reminded me of the Sheraton Hotel conference room from which I watched a blizzard descend on Seattle 18 years ago. I never imagined that I would be looking at Kabul from such a place.
