Arda is a colorful and hopeful wanderer of the world. The Afghan boy is 18 and in the back and forth of different languages I try to make sense of the many stories and adventures he tells. His father worked at a bank and the family moved from Karachi to Mazari Sharif when he was a toddler. After the death of his mother, at 9, he moved back to Pakistan and started working there. At about 14 he moved back to Afghanistan and held a number of jobs as a barber and as an Urdu-Pashtu translator for US troups since he speaks English well.
Here we interrupt for a moment. We have a good wifi moment and get on Google Earth. He gets excited when we manage zoom in close to where he thinks his shop was in Mazari Sharif.
A little later he goes to India for about 2 years – and after a visit to Thailand and Nepal returns to his family in Afghanistan. The war is still raging and he decides to leave at the start of 2017. First he goes to Iran and after 6 weeks continues to Turkey. At Izmir he fails 12 times to cross to Greece by boat – finally after 6 weeks he made it across in April.
At OHF he laughs a lot, likes to tell stories, cuts many men’s hair – preferably in cool, asymmetrical designs.
Arda is optimistic and believes in goodness and equality of all people – he will walk around the world, he says. First, we walk to the (pebble) beach.
