Soon after, both the United States and Norway sent in shipments of blankets and tents. The amount of aid remains modest, however, and allocating the limited supplies has sometimes created peculiar difficulties. The 324 tents donated by Norway are outfitted with double insulation and heaters. People would fight over them. There might be a riot.
People there live in the stark openness under nothing more than thin plastic sheets strung to poles.
Little is given them. They purchase the plastic from vendors at 20 cents a meter. Women spin wool into yarn to earn money, but a day's pay is only barely an antidote for hunger, enough for the purchase of five loaves of flat bread. Traditionally, men do not do such work, so instead they stand around idly, waiting for something to fetch their attention away from the melancholia. At Jalozai, the temperature still dips in the evenings, and almost any gust is enough to lift the plastic walls off their moorings.