An Afghan Star

Here is a great story from Mike Guarino, an AIESECer from George Washington University who went on a traineeship in Afghanistan. After you've read the story, check out a YouTube clip here. Enjoy!
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As much as American Idol is gripping viewers these days, if you by some strange reason decided to google 'Afghan Idol', you may or may not find a few interesting articles and YouTube videos about a TV station in Afghanistan that has created the popular sensation known as Afghan Star. In 2005-2006, I was fortunate enough to have an AIESEC traineeship with that company--Tolo TV.

By far the most entertaining, challenging and fun work-related experience I had was being a part of the first season of the Afghan Star television program, Afghanistan's version of American Idol. I started out helping one of the young reporters to coordinate the distribution of Afghan Star t-shirts in Kabul and other major cities in Afghanistan. These limited edition t-shirts provided instant street cred amongst the youth of Kabul. Later on, I was serving as 'photographer' during the live shows in which the top 10 candidates were narrowed down to 3 final contestants.

My final project was a true test: to coordinate the afghan star 'celebrity makeover' for the final 3 contestants--Sami the ego-maniac, Seeyar the polite lady's man, and Shekeb the unpredictable star. Having absolutely no experience in the health and beauty makeover industry, I asked around and tried to find a reliable, skilled hair stylist that could work on our precious stars, who were at this point very famous in Afghanistan and extremely fussy about their appearances.

Although there was a lack of mixed-sex hair stylists in Kabul and the surrounding environs, I was referred to an ex-patriot woman from Thailand who ran the beauty parlor at the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, which is one of the only major hotels in Afghanistan and at the same time manages to do a superb job at making you feel as if you're in a 1970's era James Bond movie, with Soviet decour and sketchy people abound. The hairdresser did not want to be bothered and hadn't even heard of the television station, not to mention the Afghan Star program. When she said she already had appointments with a clients all day during the day we needed to arrive, I begged her to fit us in, and she finally agreed, albeit begrudgingly.

The day of the makeover arrived, I was waiting for the three stars to arrive at our office, and after two hours of waiting for everyone to arrive, we finally departed--extremely late. I was nervous, fully expecting the hairdresser to dismiss us at once. Luckily, after some negotiating/getting yelled at, she accomodated us--camera crew and all--and the madness began.

Sami was meticulous about his hair and insisted that it was perfect and did not need it to be cut. As an unecessary aside, the puffy, combed back look was so similar to mine that he actually pointed it out in through a translator and complimented me on my hair. As he nit-picked at the hairdresser's every move and she began to grow frustrated, the Tolo reporter, Mujeeb, was asking Sami questions and luckily something came up that suddenly inspired Sami and his artistic sense. While sitting in the hairdresser's chair, he broke out into a famous, poetic song in Farsi, clearly eating up the attention and fame he was creating for himself on camera. Later on, Shekeb got into the chair and with his whimsical attitude, began to joke around and flirt with the hairdresser in broken english, as she responded in her own broken English. Fortunately they got along pretty well and there were no mis-translations or accidental insults thrown either way at the fiesty hairdresser or the sensitive stars.

We managed to get through the rest of the makeover session without any serious hitches or botched haircuts. As we drove the van back across Kabul to the Tolo TV office, I remember thinking, "wow, that was great". It ranked as one of the more crazy, stressful, and awesome experiences I can remember from Afghanistan. I knew for certain that I was going to seriously miss the sponteneity of Kabul when I returned back home.

Being the only American working for the first private tv station in Afghanistan was a quintessential AIESEC experience because there were so many new things developing that I was able to see happen first hand, all the while developing friendships with people that still remain strong since 2006. Shekeb Hamdard ended up winning the 1st season of Afghan Star (and went on to produce some stellar music videos now available on youtube) while the program is currently in the final stages of its season #3.