By Dawn Lloyd
Editor’s Note: Dawn Lloyd is a guest columnist that spends most of the year in Kabul, Afghanistan. Throughout the term, she’ll be sharing her experiences living in Kabul with Ethos. Any opinions she expresses are solely hers and are not necessarily held by the editorial staff.
Her other entries can be found here: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
As the plane descends over the snow-capped mountains encircling Kabul, I see the airport, a brownish gray that matches the predominant colors of the city. The airport typifies far more than just colors, though. Its security and level of organization makes a fitting introduction to the country as well. While there is usually a certain degree of commonality in both security and general quality, the Kabul airport is unique.
We land, and I climb down the steps, walk across the tarmac to the terminal, stand in line for passport control, and fight off the dozen porters who try to grab my suitcase for me, assuring me that it’s “their job.” What “their job” means is that they make their living from the tips they demand for putting suitcases on buses or x-ray machines. Working seven days a week, from approximately 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, they likely earn nearly as much as the average professional who earns $300 a month. It’s a difficult living for a salary that will barely allow them to buy food and share a house with their extended family, so I don’t begrudge them the attempts to get tips. I do, however, grow tired of the tug-of-war matches as they try to grab my bag despite my waving them off with a teshakur—“[no] thanks.”
I pull my suitcase away from the nearest porter who had already loaded it onto his trolley before I could stop him, and try to fill out the form to get a Disembarkation Card. I’m told we are supposed to obtain this card because it’s required when leaving the country. For two and a half years, on entering the airport I have watched the counter where we are supposed to get it, and have never once seen the table manned, so I have never gotten the card. Although there is, indeed, a card-checker who makes sure you have the card after getting your boarding pass and proceeding to security, he can be easily avoided by simply going out a different door.
***
As I leave, still without the card, I’m reminded of my outbound trip a month ago, and how outbound flights tend to go.
The first difference between Kabul and other airports is the security, starting with the approach. Considering the Taliban attacks, security is exceptionally tight. It starts approximately a mile away from the actual airport, with passengers having to get out of the vehicle and go through a simple pat down. Women go into a separate building with a female security guard. The building walls protect their modesty and assure that no men will leer at the women being frisked. Passengers are patted down two more times, tickets/passports are checked twice, and the bags are x-rayed three times before reaching the terminal. Last time I went through one of the bag x-ray checkpoints, the security guard tried to tell me it was illegal to take a $10.00 “Aladdin’s genie” souvenir lamp out of the country. I argued with him for several minutes before he eventually gave up on his attempt to get me to pay a bribe.
After going through the standard airport security metal detectors and baggage x-ray inside the terminal, I finally enter the waiting room. It was gifted by Japan just over four years ago, and is a vast improvement over the old terminal. Nevertheless, it’s still an experience in itself. There are no separate gates for boarding, just a large room serving all international flights. Although there is a television screen display, I have never seen it functioning. Instead, when the plane is ready to board, someone yells, “Air India, Air India, Air India.”
After the flight is called and tickets checked, I walk across the tarmac and wait for the plane. Many airlines, although I don’t think all, line up the checked luggage outside the plane. Just before boarding, all of the passengers have to identify their bags and hand them to the porters who load them on the plane (these porters don’t ask for tips). Carry-on bags are then hand checked one last time immediately before the passenger steps into the plane itself. At last the airport experience is over, the plane is boarded, and we wing our way to the rest of the world.
About the author: Dawn Lloyd is an American who got bored and set out to find adventure. Four continents later, she’s settled in Kabul where she teaches English at the American University of Afghanistan. She is Editor in Chief for The Colored Lens magazine and writes speculative fiction, a list of which can be found on her personal site.

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Kabul Dispatch: Touching Down in Afghanistan