Solution?
Buy identical handmade coats with your friends for 55 dollars.
I feel pimptastic about these coats.
Now I'm going to lay some Afghanistan fun facts on you, and lead you down a path of knowledge, which will eventually end with a vaguely comedic tie in to these coats.
1) The most popular car in Afghanistan is a Toyota Corolla. Not Toyota itself. Specifically the Corolla. I have seen one or two Camrys, and a couple 4-Runners, and somewhere in the range of 7,000 Corollas since I arrived in Kabul. There's no such thing as credit here in Afghanistan, everything is paid for with cash, and all the Corollas come used from other countries. Afghanistan is the Corolla graveyard. Parents send their Corolla's to Kabul to die, and tell their children that the family car is having the time of it's life on some luxurious roads somewhere.
2) Afghans like their status symbols. Having a particular this or that elevates them in the eyes of their friends, much like, well every other country in the world. Now, Toyota is the number one most recognized brand in the country (Roshan is number two). People LOVE their Toyotas. I have to imagine this is because Toyotas run forever, and under the extreme duress of the roads and driving here.....thats a plus. Now the funny part is that we have seen other cars, like a honda for example, that has a Toyota emblem yanked from somewhere else and pasted on their car. Everyone wants to be seen driving a Toyota.
3) Which leads to the coats. When we went to buy our coats we were presented with a box that had inside tags from every major brand of fancy coat maker - from Armani to Hugo Boss. The idea being to sew the tag onto the outside of your homemade coat (the tags we normally remove) so that everyone knows you are wearing the latest fashions.
Weird stuff.
