Surviving in a city of soldiers in Afghanistan

This is by far the easiest and most enjoyable book I have ever read on Afghanistan. And here I do not imply that Afghanistan is an easy subject. Afghanistan is still a quagmire and the author herself acknowledges that if the Afghan government cannot provide security, the Taleban will exploit that absence and return. Kate Fearon knows what she is talking about. She worked in Afghanistan as the Governance Adviser on rule of issues to the Helmand provincial Reconstruction Team in Lashkar Gah between 2009 and 2010. She has done similar work in Northern Ireland, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While most books on Afghanistan have been written from a political standpoint, “City of Soldiers: A Year of Life, Death, and Survival in Afghanistan” is a memoir laced with humor and compassion, a portrait of expatriates, locals, military and civilians alike working in a harsh environment. Kate Fearon willingly chose “something completely different,” but how different was it really to live in war-torn Afghanistan?
What is so compelling about this story are the details and interesting information about everyday life, which are missing from most books about Afghanistan. Fearon immerses herself in the moment, nothing escapes her attention and she has the knack to see exactly what interests the reader, like the importance of wearing body armor.
When Fearon learned upon her arrival in Kabul that her luggage including her 22 lb. body armor had been left behind in Dubai, she knew she would never be able to travel to Lashkar Gah without it.
No regular commercial flights operate inside the country and the only way to travel to another city is on a military flight. To reach Lashkar Gah, Fearon boarded the massive C-130 Hercules that you enter at the back and strap yourself in.
“No cabin crew, no flatbeds here. There are no armrests, so no arguments about the etiquette of whose elbow can go where. No, we are squashed in, wearing our body armor and helmets,” Fearon wrote.
After landing at Camp Bastion in the middle of the Helmand desert, a Chinook helicopter takes Fearon to her final destination Lashkar Gah. Its two rotor metal blades expand due to the pressure of the speed and the rotation and they can raise so much dust that the helicopter is hardly visible. The flights took nearly 16 hours, driving could take half that time in normal circumstances, but “there is a war, and so I turn up at my new job, to meet my new boss five days late.”
Most of Fearon’s time is spent on a 1,000-square foot compound, which has helipads, tents, living and working accommodation, and a cookhouse. Hygiene is of paramount importance. An outbreak of anything in a confined area can have disastrous consequences. “Diarrhea and vomiting can fell a camp more quickly than the Taleban can. I can add another thing to my list of things that are necessary to win a war: first logistics, second cleanliness.”
Because there is so little to do on the camp, a great effort is made to provide food, which is both “magnificent and munificent” (it comes in great amounts). Breakfasts are lavish buffets filled with everything one can dream of from the hash browns to the feather light buttery croissants. While lunch is mainly salad, the omelet bar or pizza bar, dinners are “spectacular” with an endless variety of dishes and desserts. Theme evenings such as Sri Lankan night or Italian Night and Philippines Night are even organized.
Fearful that she would not have access to fresh fruit and vegetables, Kate Fearon had taken with her stacks of multivitamins but she ended up by eating even more fruit than she does at home. Incidentally, the Helmand province has been nicknamed in Pashto, the local language, “da ghaloo danou aow mehou godam,” the “grain and fruit store.”
On one occasion, when her flight to Kabul is delayed, Fearon ends us spending long hours in the Lashkar Gah airfield tents. She is given an army ration, which turns out to be the coolest thing she has ever seen! The meal consists of an outer reinforced-foil bag containing spearmint green inner bags.
“I put cold water into the plastic bag. I put the ration pack inside. I twirl the ration pack around the corners of the plastic bag. And then the magic happens: as soon as I’m done twirling, a head of steam builds up and pillows the bag, like microwave-in the-bag popcorn. I almost burn my hand because of the steam… In less than five minutes the tortellini has heated so much that it cooks the sauce it’s sitting in, and it’s ready to eat, in the absence of any visible heat source: no fire, no microwave, no gas oven… And the tortellini tastes great.”
Apart from eating, and working, a lot of time is spent inside one’s room because there is nowhere to go. You cannot go to a restaurant, to a mall nor even walk in the city. Living in such a harsh environment requires a psychological assessment, which is repeated every year. Permanent staff members of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have access to mental health professionals every six weeks. The rest of the people, experts, consultants and contractors mainly talk to friends when they need to talk. In such a confined space, friends are easily made and they play an important role.
“People to laugh with, people to vent with, people to be with, people who have an understanding of what you are about, people with whom you can really be yourself.”
The core of Fearon’s work is doing basic community planning: a basic plan for community security, one for justice and one for economic and social development. At the time of her assignment, NATO was still fighting the Taleban. Anyone dealing with the Afghanistan Social Outreach Program is taking a big risk. The Taleban resort to kidnappings and beatings in order to dissuade men and women from attending the meetings. The Taleban also have guns, mobile “courts,” enough people to intimidate, and a parallel public administration.
Kate Fearon strongly believes that literacy and education should be the cornerstone of the international effort. “Land can be taken, but no matter what else you lose, no one can ever take an education away from you.”
At the end of her assignment with the Helmand Valley Authority Project, Fearon insists on a long-term commitment, “considering and agreeing on what we want the political end-state to be some 25 or even 50 years from now, and working collectively and inclusively as internationals and nationals, toward delivering that. Some long-term vision and leadership from both civilian and military components would go a long way toward realizing that.”
Afghan men and women are still being killed, injured and intimidated because of their involvement in the community councils. The most difficult is to continue and fulfill the commitment but as Fearon says:
“As long as that desire for change is present, should we not be too?”
City of Soldiers has its funny and light moments but it also gives a pertinent insight into the challenges and problems facing Afghanistan. The book describes the shielded life of the foreigners working in the country due to a total lack of security. Security is the key to restoring peace and prosperity in Afghanistan.

Email: [email protected]