Camp Nathan Smith (CNS), home to the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT), is located in Kandahar City itself. You can see, hear, and smell the city easily from our location, unlike Kabul where you easily forget you’re in Afghanistan while living in the “Ring of Steel”. One of the sounds is the call to prayer from one of the several mosques that are near CNS. Five times a day. Every day. Starting at 5am. It’s a problem here for a couple of reasons that I’ll get into in a moment.

First of all I need to say there is obviously nothing wrong with the call to prayer itself. I first heard it in Southern Serbia (which has a significant Muslim population) and again in Egypt (which also has a significant Muslim population – in case you weren’t aware). In both instances they were what I’ve called hauntingly beautiful. In fact, I was moved to tears in Cairo the first time I heard the call to prayer broadcast near my hotel. That’s pretty powerful for a non-believer to admit. The Imam singing had a rhythmic melody that conveyed both his devotion to his religion and his pride in knowing he could rock the mike. That’s not the case in Kandahar.

The mosques near KPRT are very loud. They in fact have been equipped with high-tech PA systems bought by the Canadians when they ran CNS. The mosques gratefully accepted these pimped up public announcement systems and the next thing you know it’s Karaoke night in Kandahar – five times a day. There’s one guy that sounds like Carol Brunette doing her famous Tarzan yell, only I don’t think he’s trying to be funny. We laughed at first, now we mainly howl in response to his particular call.

In addition to being very loud the various Mosques are also not beginning the call to prayer at the correct time of day (some start at 4:30am) nor are some singing the correct prayer. That’s what a leading Imam who visited KPRT told recently told us. And of course he reminded us that we (the internationals) created this problem by handing out all those high fidelity systems, once again proving that the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions.

That’s all from KPRT. I had a great Christmas and Solstice with some great friends and I’m about to celebrate New Year’s Eve with them now. Happy New Year everyone!

Love and respect,

Billy.