it's friday morning...wrote this yesterday but was unable to post it due to spotty internet. better late than never! read on below...
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salaam alaikum!
we're taking a bit of a siesta as i write this. ha ha...americans using a spanish custom in afghanistan. hilarious!
early morning today, but it was wonderful. chatting with the team over tea out in the garden/yard of the guest house here in kabul. all the homes have large 6'+ high walls surrounding the property, so it made for a quiet morning. after a delicious breakfast we headed out to barek aub (or bareekab, as it is sometimes written). it was about an hour drive north, on the way to bagram (afghan city with a large US air base). i enjoyed the scenery as we rode out; getting more of a feel for kabul province. i'm still searching for the right word to describe the landscape out here. ...i'll keep working on that. in one sense it reminds me of a desert version of interlaken, switzerland. big mountains jutting out of nowhere in a dry valley. thanks to the rainiest spring in the past 30 years, there is still some greenery, desert style, but still green.
so barek aub.
felt a bit surreal after all this time hearing about this place in the other side of the world. i felt like a sponge, soaking it up. perhaps it will hit me later. we went to the clinic, given a tour by the head doctor for the organization (a woman!), one of the staff, and one of the trainers (also a woman). it was great to see where the community development and training takes place. totally random--they have leap frog books (like the ones we have for kids in the states to learn numbers, animals, etc) but theirs are oriented to public health. you touch one page and it starts to tell you about various vaccinations. touch another and it discusses nutrition. so cool. what a great use of technology! :)
oh, back track a few minutes. driving into barek aub, as we approached the clinic, there was a gathering of women and children outside, waiting their turn to be seen. almost all of the women were in chardaris (burkas). before we got close, their chardaris were up, showing their faces as they visited with each other. as we, unknown foreigners, approached, they quickly put their chardaris down, veiling themselves fully. interesting to see. (also cool, once they got more used to us and realized where we were from--flatirons community--some of them lifted their veils again.)
we hope to go back out to barek aub a couple more times, so i will try to keep this posting about it relatively brief. it was wonderful to get to see the clinic, the school, ...the people after all this time of hearing about them at flatirons. what a change these things have made in the lives of the people! all of us agree...there is HOPE for these people. hope in the eyes of these people.
a highlight: standing at the pumphouse (well), hanging with some kiddos...once sweet, beautiful afghan girl grabbed my hand and just held it for a while. my heart melted right there.
we took the long way back "home", going out to bagram--which is the green end of the valley, driving back on the istalif road. i had the wonderful pleasure of riding with an american family that has moved to kabul to work with the people, share hope and love. i was able to chat with them about their lives and their faith. wow. that was really neat.
we took a big lunch, typed the first half of this blog during semi-siesta time, sorted some gear/meds, and headed out into kabul city to get more of a tour. a couple highlights: seeing the soccer field where so many lives were taken by the taliban--and getting to hear one of the staff talk about their experience during the war; watching ISAF (international military peeps) soldiers playing soccer with some afghan guys up on the kite flying hill; sharing laughs with the team and staff; overlooking the city of kabul from "prayer hill", a hill inthe middle of the city...named by some of the staff who go up there to pray for the city and its people; drinking pakastani chai (yum!) while sharing highlights of the day with the team.
already, i am in love with this country and its people. there is beauty. there is hope.
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