"Interiors of Afghan homes?" Topic

Hey all!

Just planning a new project, but needed a bit of help, either from someone in the know or maybe someone with first hand knowledge… Anyone know what sorts of bits you would find in a rural Afghan home? I have looked around the Internet a bit but not having a ton of luck… Would there be a table and chair, or would everyone sit on the floor? What sorts of furniture could you find? Wall decorations? This will be a Taliban home, not sure if that hopes… Anyway, if anyone can help I'd appreciate it!

Thanks!

Everyone would sit on the floor on rugs. Beds are little more than a thin mattress or pallet of blankets. There might be a TV. All electrical items would be run off a car battery in the courtyard. There might be a pile of car batteries, switched out of the Toyota HiAce or HiLux to keep them charged.

Cooking will either be over a small fire of a propane burner. Pressure cookers are common. An assortment of pots of course.

Room arrangements will run from a single room with single door and maybe a small window to any number of rooms. Multi-room affairs are more often part of a larger compound.

Hope this helps.

Ahhh okay, thanks. So… I am doing a pretty small space. A bunch of rugs on the floor. I can do a small mattress with a few blankets, maybe a little straw poking out of the mattress? I can try to sculpt or make a TV… same maybe with either a propane tank or some batteries. A small low table is fine I assume?

Hey, any ideas if there should be any wall decorations, or not really? I know there can't exactly be a painting of Mohammed or anything, but would there be posters or something like that?

Anyway, thanks much man, I appreciate it… a bit out of my wheelhouse!:)

Seeing your other post puts it together. Consider a laptop for a house being taken down by a SOF team. Perhaps a gasoline generator instead of the batteries. Posters, maybe not. But maybe.

A couple of these:

And these:

Here's the pressure cooker I mentioned:

link

All the pictured items are used either for IEDs or remote launch of 82mm rockets.

This will be a Taliban home, not sure if that hopes… Anyway, if anyone can help I'd appreciate it!

cell phones and walkie talkies.
For what the British call 'ing'

doh, silly bleeper, drop me a PM if you want to know what the beep was.

Radios like this:

Cell phones like this:

Before or after the Rangers kick in the door?

I read an account by a Brit who decided to trek across Afghanistan, IIRC sometime just before 9/11. He described entering some houses with a strange dichotomy of objects— for example, there might be a niche or shrine which contained a copy of the Holy Koran (which no one in the house could read, or understand the Arabic if they could have read it), while on another wall might be a poster of a red Italian sports car (which no one in the house would have known how to operate). The former was all they really knew about Islam, the latter all they really knew about the West. That, of course, was very rural Afghanistan, where life hasn't changed at all (aside from the posters) since before the last time any Brits trekked through (welcome or not).

Don't forget wildlife-sheep, goats for company.

Almost always 2-3 kids and sometimes a scraggly dog

That, of course, was very rural Afghanistan, where life hasn't changed at all (aside from the posters) since before the last time any Brits trekked through (welcome or not).

Are you counting Alexander as a Brit, then?

Delta India Charlie Kilo ing….

'To monitor or track allied movements whilst ostentatiously unarmed, to avoid retaliatory fire under ROE, whilst providing continous real time targeting information via mobile phone to third party mortar, missile or IED operators who are themselves out of LOS…'

Also don't forget a brace of AKM's and the odd RPG propped up in the corner…just to celebrate weddings, of course!

Maybe a few dead goats to be able to claim compo off the next CIMIC team that comes through…

Yep, I will have a few AKs… I also DO have some sheep… Maybe I can put one outside.

but they don't look like western sheep – they look more like a cross between a goat and a sheep – goat body with a sheep's coat is the best way to describe them.

Also outside you need the ubiquitous heap of refuse and detritus; plastic water bottles, food tins etc awaiting recycling :) (these are all necessary for the aforementioned sheep to graze on – I kid you not!!!!!!

After 3 years out here nothing surprises me anymore – I've even seen small cows (not calves) being transported on the back of a pushbike, and a taxi for the shepherd and about a dozen sheep (plus the taxi driver obviously)

Okay, another question folks!

I am doing the ground on the outside using sand, and plastering the inside…

But what do I do the FLOORS of an afghan hut/house in? Sand? Plaster? Wood?

Help MOST appreciated!:)