Some Sights Around Eggers Compound in Kabul

I took a couple of photos today of some odd stuff at Eggers.  The first shot shows the specific place the military has deemed appropriate for cigar smoking. 

What's interesting about this, and I don't know if this was intended to be humorous, but the Afghan Air Improvement Committee (whatever that is) allows open incineration of paper products every day in metal bins.  Kabul is known to have some of the worst air pollution in the world because of the open burning and the surrounding mountains that keep the smog in place throughout the year.

Adjacent to the cigar smoking area was this remnant of an old Afghan mosaic:

                                          
Eggers is located near the old and new US Embassies.  The neighborhood that existed before the Russian and Taliban occupation/destruction must have been a nice area.  The houses were large and had protective walls around the courtyards.  After the destruction (Russian/Taliban/US), the US moved in and created a "Green Zone" just like the one that existed in Baghdad.  The US now leases all of this neighborhood (for millions of dollars) and is free to modify all of the buildings for its use.  Here, an old, traditional mosaic shows the ravages of war and the US presence -- it now is positioned below a row of electrical junction boxes powering this portion of the compound.  When the US leaves, most of this neighborhood will have to be razed and rebuilt by the Afghans who own the property.  No big deal, I think, since they are becoming rich with US lease dollars.