Attorneys in Carpet Shop

Mirwais brought in Afghan food for lunch today for his customers. These are several attorneys at Camp Eggers. You can see Mirwais' carpets folded in the background. If someone wants to look at a carpet at the bottome of the pile, Mirwais and Salam must move the carpets that are above it to another pile. It is time consuming and heavy lifting is required. Mirwais and Salam have carpet folding down to a science.

The food was delicious as always. The nan bread is delicious, as well as the palaw rice and barbecued chicken and goat.

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Mirwais Raham

Mirwais owns several Afghan rug and carpet stores in Kabul and on coalition bases. I asked him if he had Persian rugs and he said "I only sell rugs that help my people--Afghans. Why would I want to help the Iranians?"

Over the past two months, Mirwais has become my friend. I go over to his shop for a cup of "chai" or tea. If you have three cups of tea--you are family. We called Ermie the other day about a Bokhara carpet and Mirwais told her that I was his "brother" and that he would sell us the carpet for a very fair price. It was heartwarming to have Mirwais call me his brother. Anyway, I had been asking Mirwais to bring some Afghan food for us. He said he couldn't do it Saturday (Shanbe), but he would do it Sunday (Yak Shanbe).

I didn't think that he would remember, but when I went to his shop on base at 1215 on Yak Shanbe--everyone in the shop was eating kebab, rice, nan, chicken, mantu, and vegetables. Several attorneys in the office wanted nan and pomegranates. Mirwais even remembered to bring the extra bread and pomegranates. I offered to pay Mirwais for the food but he refused. Afghan hospitality!

The food was delicious. Mirwais' wife had cooked it for us. She said that restaraunt food wasn't as good, so she would do it. She is nine months pregnant and due to deliver any day.

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ISAF Bazaar - Carpet

Carpet experts can tell where a rug is from by the design and workmanship. The best Afghan carpets come from Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat. The Turkmen are outstanding weavers and moved into Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded Turkmenistan in the 1920s. I read a study that said a drought killed the Qaraqul sheep in Afghanistan in the 1970s and thus, the older carpets are better than the new. It takes a woman about nine months to do a three square meter carpet by herself. The study said that she would earn about $80-90 for the carpet.

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ISAF Bazaar - Carpet

BThis is one of the carpets at the ISAF Bazaar. The Bazaars are usually held every Friday, or Jumma. The ISAF Bazaar is four or five times the size of the Camp Eggers' bazaar. We have gone over to ISAF the last several weeks for a European brunch and quick tour of the bazaar stalls. I am learning about oriental rugs. This is a fine example of the vendor's wares.

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ISAF Bazaar - Carpet

There are several carpet sellers on ISAF and Camp Eggers that are open throughout the week. One of the vendors on Eggers just sells Afghan carpets. His name is Mirwais and offers us tea each time we go in his shop. It is a calming respite to be able to drink some tea with friends and learn about carpets.

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Afghan tribal carpet - War Theme

I bought this tribal carpet at the bazaar last week. I have been wanting a war themed tribal carpet for 20 years after seeing Soviet era Afghan carpets in Okinawa, Japan. I still want a red and black Soviet era carpet, but couldn't resist this 2008 version.

I am learning about Afghan carpets, but I have much to learn. I have six months.

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