I thought it about time for an update, but really there isn't much new happening. You get into a routine here and the days fly by, but nothing very interesting happens. There is an awesome bug going around, and at least ten people got diarrhea. I thought I had escaped unscathed but as of this morning I had joined them. They are trying to figure out the source-whether it was something we all ate, or the possibility that our bottled water is contaminated. We did finally get our kitchen screened in..for a while the door and windows were completely open and the kitchen literally swarmed with hundreds of flies while you were cooking. When I first got here it completely horrified me, but after a few weeks you just laugh and move on with your life. I got to go out to dinner with a few of the staff last night, which was a nice break from the house. I ordered an authentic Afghan chicken kebab and it was amaaaaazing!
I'm now tutoring an older agfghan girl in English as well as my beginners English class, so I stay pretty busy. Our Bible classes are also going really well and I'm learning a lot. I'm starting to feel more settled in here and getting to know the people better. It's still hard, but it's Afghanistan, it's not exactly a vacation. But I know that the difficulties will shape me and make me stronger. I'm excited for the outreach portions of the year when we will go into the local villages and conduct teacher training and build schools. I'm told I'll have to wear a burqa when we go to the villages..THAT will be interesting! For now we have our discipleship training in the mornings and teach at the learning center in the afternoons.
Our first break is in July, three days before my birthday. I'm trying to think of somewhere fun to go. I've been suffering from heat exhaustion, so I'm basing a lot of my decision on the what the weather will be-the arctic circle is looking mighty fine at the moment. Or the Southern Hemisphere where it's the dead of winter. Australia, here I come! So...anybody feel like taking a vacation in July??? No, but seriously. I will meet you somewhere.
Hopefully I'll have something awesome to report on soon, but in the meantime I'm departing to listen to one of the short-term guys regal us with tales from his time in the Norwegian special forces. Who knew the Norwegians even HAD special forces? You learn something new everyday.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Electricity? Meh, who needs it.
I miss Bend weather. I miss (though I may recant this statement later) snow in May. The heat here is suffocating,the dust all-encompassing,the flies innumerable and we are discouraged from wearing sunglasses-"They would draw attention". I'm supposed to let my eyes fry as to not draw the attention that as a 5'10" white girl I ALREADY INHERENTLY COMMAND?!?!? We'll see how long I put up with that...covering my hair out of respect is one thing, but letting UV rays cook my retinas in an effort to not draw attention is a whole new ballgame. Arg.
After almost two weeks here I’ve learned that the staff are disorganized, to put it mildly. It has been a true test of character to stay calm and not get disgruntled with the lack of organization, preparedness, and communication. They are all really busy getting this school (which, ahem, has already started) ready, so I’ve felt a bit lonely. I’m sure once everything is taken care of and they can relax things will get better. All the students have arrived except for the Ugandan girl, they haven’t really heard from her in a while. And please, oh please, hopefully I will move into my own room in a few days.
Hmmm, what else? Today I taught a girls’ beginning English class, by myself. Now thanks to me 23 Afghan girls can successfully name a tomato and other assorted foods and vegetables. I am doing so much for this country. I also taught them the Hi-five, which I’m sure will go a long way in strengthening US-Afghanistan relations.
Some people have been wondering what a typical day looks like. Normally I get up around 6 to beat the line for the shower. Then it’s breakfast, quiet time, and then off to prayer and worship at 8. Classes start at 9:30, and we have had 1-2 speakers per week covering different topics. We break at 12:30 for lunch at the education office (I found myself frequently “fasting” lunch these days…office food still hasn’t grown on me). Afternoons usually vary-I teach Tuesday and Thursday, and other days I either have free time or am recruited for a project around the house. At 5 every weekday I have language lessons, which are pretty intense-my teacher throws 50-60 words at us per day. But as far as I can tell I’m doing pretty well. Then dinner at 6:30 (which I never fast-our house Brazilian cook is pretty good) and free time til bed, which shockingly usually happens at about 9:30 for me. It’s been nice to catch up on my sleep!
At the behest of a few outspoken family members, I will soon get pictures of me in my awesome and cutting edge Afghan clothes up on this thing. I’m still trying to get used to the severe restrictions placed on Western females-sometimes the symbolic oppressiveness of the headscarf REALLY chaps my hide-but I’m trying to avoid stubbornness. We’ll see how well I do.
That’s all for now, my access to internet all depends on if we have power, which has been a crapshoot lately so I should post this and stop pressing my luck. I miss you guys back home but am learning a lot here. So for now I bid you all goodnight and KhudAafez!
After almost two weeks here I’ve learned that the staff are disorganized, to put it mildly. It has been a true test of character to stay calm and not get disgruntled with the lack of organization, preparedness, and communication. They are all really busy getting this school (which, ahem, has already started) ready, so I’ve felt a bit lonely. I’m sure once everything is taken care of and they can relax things will get better. All the students have arrived except for the Ugandan girl, they haven’t really heard from her in a while. And please, oh please, hopefully I will move into my own room in a few days.
Hmmm, what else? Today I taught a girls’ beginning English class, by myself. Now thanks to me 23 Afghan girls can successfully name a tomato and other assorted foods and vegetables. I am doing so much for this country. I also taught them the Hi-five, which I’m sure will go a long way in strengthening US-Afghanistan relations.
Some people have been wondering what a typical day looks like. Normally I get up around 6 to beat the line for the shower. Then it’s breakfast, quiet time, and then off to prayer and worship at 8. Classes start at 9:30, and we have had 1-2 speakers per week covering different topics. We break at 12:30 for lunch at the education office (I found myself frequently “fasting” lunch these days…office food still hasn’t grown on me). Afternoons usually vary-I teach Tuesday and Thursday, and other days I either have free time or am recruited for a project around the house. At 5 every weekday I have language lessons, which are pretty intense-my teacher throws 50-60 words at us per day. But as far as I can tell I’m doing pretty well. Then dinner at 6:30 (which I never fast-our house Brazilian cook is pretty good) and free time til bed, which shockingly usually happens at about 9:30 for me. It’s been nice to catch up on my sleep!
At the behest of a few outspoken family members, I will soon get pictures of me in my awesome and cutting edge Afghan clothes up on this thing. I’m still trying to get used to the severe restrictions placed on Western females-sometimes the symbolic oppressiveness of the headscarf REALLY chaps my hide-but I’m trying to avoid stubbornness. We’ll see how well I do.
That’s all for now, my access to internet all depends on if we have power, which has been a crapshoot lately so I should post this and stop pressing my luck. I miss you guys back home but am learning a lot here. So for now I bid you all goodnight and KhudAafez!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Would you like some food with your grease?
I’m still trying to get used to Afghan cuisine. We eat sitting on the floor around a plastic mat, men on one side and women on the other. You can’t sit criss-cross applesauce here, so you sit with your feet to one side. And yeah, you eat with your hands, but they have cutlery sitting around for us westerners just in case. Usually it’s long rice, raisins, carrots and beef, soaked and I mean SOAKED in fat…they drown everything here in oil and fat, so while it tastes great the thought of it is a little unappetizing. I can’t exactly go throw on my gym shorts and run it off, you know? After one week I find myself lacking an appetite…you don’t get a lot of variety here. Oh well. I have to eat eventually. In other news, there are also no couches in most homes-you sit on really thick cushions on the floor. It’s actually quite comfortable.
For those who don’t know and are interested, I have to be really careful how I dress here. Women have to be completely covered (at least while out in public) except for their face, hands and feet. Most of the foreign women here wear jeans and Punjabis, which are long tunics. They are pretty comfortable and if you pick out the material and have them made they can be somewhat nice-looking. We also wear headscarves whenever we’re outside the house. But once inside, as long as there are no Afghan visitors, we can wear short sleeves and remove our scarves. We still can’t wear tank tops and shorts since our Afghan guard/handyman is usually around. We also can’t really travel anywhere by ourselves, not even the half mile from the girls house to the main house…we always have to get one of the guys to drive us or go in a large group, but even then never at night. It’s also scorching hot here...daytime temps are already into the 90’s and 120 will be normal come June or July. One of the staff told me that Mazar once held the highest temperature on record. Yuck.
We’ve had a couple classes already, but we haven’t technically started yet since there are still a few more students to arrive who are having trouble getting here-a girl from Uganda and a family from Pakistan. Crazy how we all ended up in Afghanistan…and that I’m the only American student! We also do several hours of prayer and worship every morning which really unites us as a team.
It’s nice that I have internet access pretty much every evening, so I’m obviously a little blog happy. But I’m sure my mother doesn’t mind. Hi Mom. I also found out that I’ll have to get a cell phone while here…oh, to text again!!! And I’ll be moving into a permanent room soon…hooray for not sleeping on the floor!
Until next time, live long and prosper.
For those who don’t know and are interested, I have to be really careful how I dress here. Women have to be completely covered (at least while out in public) except for their face, hands and feet. Most of the foreign women here wear jeans and Punjabis, which are long tunics. They are pretty comfortable and if you pick out the material and have them made they can be somewhat nice-looking. We also wear headscarves whenever we’re outside the house. But once inside, as long as there are no Afghan visitors, we can wear short sleeves and remove our scarves. We still can’t wear tank tops and shorts since our Afghan guard/handyman is usually around. We also can’t really travel anywhere by ourselves, not even the half mile from the girls house to the main house…we always have to get one of the guys to drive us or go in a large group, but even then never at night. It’s also scorching hot here...daytime temps are already into the 90’s and 120 will be normal come June or July. One of the staff told me that Mazar once held the highest temperature on record. Yuck.
We’ve had a couple classes already, but we haven’t technically started yet since there are still a few more students to arrive who are having trouble getting here-a girl from Uganda and a family from Pakistan. Crazy how we all ended up in Afghanistan…and that I’m the only American student! We also do several hours of prayer and worship every morning which really unites us as a team.
It’s nice that I have internet access pretty much every evening, so I’m obviously a little blog happy. But I’m sure my mother doesn’t mind. Hi Mom. I also found out that I’ll have to get a cell phone while here…oh, to text again!!! And I’ll be moving into a permanent room soon…hooray for not sleeping on the floor!
Until next time, live long and prosper.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Pictures!
Here are some pictures of our house, shower, etc. and nan, the holy bread that they serve at every meal. I'm living in the lap of luxury, I know :)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
If you need me, I will be on my mattress
Now I will describe Afghanistan. I’ve been told that it is the 2nd poorest nation on earth, and you can tell. Very few roads are paved, and most are nearly impassable. The road our house is on has huge mounds of dirt and gravel, massive potholes and trenches, trash and puddles of sewage. I can’t imagine what it will be like in the rainy season. The streets are constantly full of people, and the way they drive is insane (I would also like to mention that 95% of the cars in Mazar are Toyota Corollas. I finally saw my first Camry today and did a little fist pump. Gotta represent the Camry love, right Mike?) I was surprised to find that most women still choose to wear the burqa-while it’s not required, I’d say that 75% of woman still wear them. We went to the market today to get some food and proper clothes for me so I got to get a good look at the people. I also picked up a really nice dress-type coat, it’s black with blue beading and makes me look snazzy.
All houses here are behind high walls, and you get in through a main gate that opens into a central courtyard area. Because of construction on our house, I’m currently on a mattress in the living room with two other girls, one from Bolivia and one from Brazil. It’s not all that bad, we have a tv and dvd player, and as I type we’re watching Sense and Sensibility (I haven’t seen this one before. Geez Jane Austin, lay off the drama and emotional angst). Our shower consists of a single cement room that also hosts a “squatty”, which is your standard hole in the floor covered by a toilet seat. It’s also really easy to lock yourself in. Did that on my first squatty usage and had to be rescued by our Afghan houseman CoCo. I’m soooo excited to get pictures of all this good stuff on here.
Along with the girls’ house there is also the main house down the road where we eat our meals and have classes and glorious wireless internet. Last night at dinner (which was chili-our cook is Brazilian) I learned that the bread here, called nan, is considered holy-you’re not allowed to throw it away or even lay it upside down. I’m not looking forward to my first dinner party in an Afghan home, because there are a million social customs and rules like that which govern your every move and word as a guest in someone’s home. But I’m sure that after a while all this stuff will sink in and won’t be so overwhelming. Classes start tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll get a good idea of what this next year will look like. In the meantime, I miss you all back home and hope everyone is doing great, and as always, feel free to send out a prayer for me and Afghanistan.
All houses here are behind high walls, and you get in through a main gate that opens into a central courtyard area. Because of construction on our house, I’m currently on a mattress in the living room with two other girls, one from Bolivia and one from Brazil. It’s not all that bad, we have a tv and dvd player, and as I type we’re watching Sense and Sensibility (I haven’t seen this one before. Geez Jane Austin, lay off the drama and emotional angst). Our shower consists of a single cement room that also hosts a “squatty”, which is your standard hole in the floor covered by a toilet seat. It’s also really easy to lock yourself in. Did that on my first squatty usage and had to be rescued by our Afghan houseman CoCo. I’m soooo excited to get pictures of all this good stuff on here.
Along with the girls’ house there is also the main house down the road where we eat our meals and have classes and glorious wireless internet. Last night at dinner (which was chili-our cook is Brazilian) I learned that the bread here, called nan, is considered holy-you’re not allowed to throw it away or even lay it upside down. I’m not looking forward to my first dinner party in an Afghan home, because there are a million social customs and rules like that which govern your every move and word as a guest in someone’s home. But I’m sure that after a while all this stuff will sink in and won’t be so overwhelming. Classes start tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll get a good idea of what this next year will look like. In the meantime, I miss you all back home and hope everyone is doing great, and as always, feel free to send out a prayer for me and Afghanistan.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Welcome to Afghanistan
I started and abandoned many drafts for this first blog. Most of them were of the whiny sort, complaining about my long and ridiculous three days of travel (never, if you can avoid it, fly into Dubai. That airport was designed by monkeys, maybe even monkeys on crack), my lack of instruction from my leaders and my being dropped into the cesspool that is Afghanistan without any type of life preserver. So I am choosing to focus on the positive. I got here with all of my luggage, have yet to be groped (apparently all Afghan men live under the assumption that Western women are whores and wish for nothing more than to have their butts grabbed), and God is taking care of me. Example:
By some mysterious lack of foresight, I did not withdraw any cash before leaving the Houston airport. I was very worried, as there are few ATM’s in Kabul and none in Mazar, so I was horrified that I had let myself leave the states with ten bucks in my pocket. But God was awesome. On my flight from Dubai to Kabul, the airline was doing a promotion. They did a random seat drawing, and yours truly walked away with $125 cash in my pocket. Miracle, no? God provided me what I needed when I needed it, because as soon as I landed I was immediately driven to buy a plane ticket to Mazar, then had to pay for taxis and a night at a guesthouse-I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had that money!
I finally made it to Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday afternoon and became acquainted with everyone here. Along with a long term school there are also many short term groups that come through, right now there is one here for six more weeks. Everyone is really nice and helpful. In Afghanistan Friday is the holy day, so their weekend is Friday and Saturday, so I’ve had a whole day to relax and recover before the program gets started Sunday. I’ll report on living conditions in Afghanistan in my next post, cuz good night, that’s a doozy. I’d appreciate any prayer I could get right now…it’s going to be a long, rough year.
By some mysterious lack of foresight, I did not withdraw any cash before leaving the Houston airport. I was very worried, as there are few ATM’s in Kabul and none in Mazar, so I was horrified that I had let myself leave the states with ten bucks in my pocket. But God was awesome. On my flight from Dubai to Kabul, the airline was doing a promotion. They did a random seat drawing, and yours truly walked away with $125 cash in my pocket. Miracle, no? God provided me what I needed when I needed it, because as soon as I landed I was immediately driven to buy a plane ticket to Mazar, then had to pay for taxis and a night at a guesthouse-I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had that money!
I finally made it to Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday afternoon and became acquainted with everyone here. Along with a long term school there are also many short term groups that come through, right now there is one here for six more weeks. Everyone is really nice and helpful. In Afghanistan Friday is the holy day, so their weekend is Friday and Saturday, so I’ve had a whole day to relax and recover before the program gets started Sunday. I’ll report on living conditions in Afghanistan in my next post, cuz good night, that’s a doozy. I’d appreciate any prayer I could get right now…it’s going to be a long, rough year.
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