For those who have read the Kite Runner, I don’t need to tell you the importance of kites in Kabul. So I asked Afzal if we could go find the most famous kite maker of them all, Noor Agha.
We went to an area of Kabul that has nothing but kite shops, and Afzal asked where the kite maker’s shop was. To make a long and wonderful story short, two of the guys hopped in the car with us, guiding us up a hill and telling us to wait while they disappeared past the cemetery and around the corner to see if he had time to see us. They led him back up the hill, where he told us we were Western visitor #24 at his shop. He said
he was tired, but said we were invited in—he just needed a minute to clear his 
wives (2) out of the shop. Minutes later, we went down a narrow lane, and were lead into a little courtyard fill with pigeons.
Over the next 90 minutes or so, we were given a full explanation of kite making secrets, while Noor Agha and his son worked on a kite. It was a wonderful experience. They brought us Cokes, and regaled us with kite making facts—the bamboo comes from Bangladesh, the paper from India. The key is the bamboo, and the glue that holds the kite together.
The pictures posted here are just a sample—I will post the rest to my Flickr account, Insh'Allah, (and the power doesn't go out) which you can see at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbormet. The scorpion is his symbol, and the script on the kite is his signature. And check out the story about Noor Agha in the March 5 edition of Time, which gets a couple of more hits to its website than I do to mine—though the overall intelligence of readers of this blog is far superior.
wives (2) out of the shop. Minutes later, we went down a narrow lane, and were lead into a little courtyard fill with pigeons.Over the next 90 minutes or so, we were given a full explanation of kite making secrets, while Noor Agha and his son worked on a kite. It was a wonderful experience. They brought us Cokes, and regaled us with kite making facts—the bamboo comes from Bangladesh, the paper from India. The key is the bamboo, and the glue that holds the kite together.
The pictures posted here are just a sample—I will post the rest to my Flickr account, Insh'Allah, (and the power doesn't go out) which you can see at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbormet. The scorpion is his symbol, and the script on the kite is his signature. And check out the story about Noor Agha in the March 5 edition of Time, which gets a couple of more hits to its website than I do to mine—though the overall intelligence of readers of this blog is far superior.
Oh ya--I bought the kite he made, and the little yellow kite that was made by his son. What wonderful memories they will provide!!!
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