Orphans are HOPE

Students performing a native dance

This week I witnessed a beautiful thing......Hope for Afghanistan in the work that is being done by AFCECO.

 Andeisha Fand was a refugee  during the Soviet invasion and the wars that followed, meeting her husband in the refugee camp.  Seeing the devastation of her country, she decided on a practical solution to the "ignorance, oppression, hatred and poverty so deeply inbedded in the society. " She brought 20 orphans to the school she was directing at the age of 2l, in 2004.

"When I saw how quickly they responded, I felt hope.  I thought that if we could do more than feed and house these children, if we could educate them, teach them to embrace equality, empower them with a sense of security, they might give back to thier country what their country desperately needs:  Afghan teachers, Afghan midwives, Afghan engineers and of course, Afghan leaders."

AFCECO has grown in six years to include 13 orphanages, serving almost 700 children in Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat as well as Afghan refugees in Pakistan.  This May they opened their New Leaning Center, serving all the children of its Kabul orphanages....providing all children from grades 6-12 with in-depth and advanced courses  that compliment and extend the public curriculum.  They also provide a wide variety of extracurricular programs.  It is housed in a beautiful, 3-story house that is full of life 6 days a week.

Ballet class performing for the Talent Show

I attended their talent show at this Learning Center.  What a testimony to the vision and care this couple have given to their country's orphans and their vision for the future of Afghanistan!  I thought it was too fantastic to be kept a secret.   Their website is  http://www.afceco.org/

A few more stark facts about Afghanistan children:

*There are two million children who are orphans and over 600,000 children sleep on the streets
*50% of the Afghan population is less than 18 years of age with almost no education
*There are an estimated 8,000 child soldiers in the country.
* More than 60% of children have wtinessed a violent death
*50% of children suffer from chronic malnutrition

Darul Aman Palace

Ever been in a palace?

Saturday beamed in with ideal temps and clear skies.  What to do?  Jon had the day off, it was a national day of mourning for the recently assasinated former President Rabbani....no offices or business open.....

so we went sightseeing with newly arrived visitors at the guest house nearby.  Our first stop was such a success, we got no further!  Zamir, our escort, sweet-talked the guards into letting us walk through the bombed-out palace sitting high above the city.  It speaks of yesteryear, an era of grandeur that is not quite forgotten.

With a little research, we found it was built around

1920 by Amanullah Khan, the first King of the newly independent Afghanistan.  The intention was for it to house the seat of Parliament in the near 

future.....and to be part of a new capital city on the outskirts of Kabul.  The name Darul Aman means

Abode of Peace or Abode of Aman.  Today the highway leading into town (4 lanes, recently paved) is Darulaman Road and ends at the palace.

Jon rides there every day to work, then takes a right to Afshar Hospital.  We are 'posing' in our PLAIN HARDWARE t-shirts a friend sent us so we can add to the bulletin board at the hardware store in Plain, Washington....".where in the world have you worn these shirts?"  We will take them to Nepal with us also.

Back to the history.....Built in the neo-classical style, it was beauty fit-for-a-king.  Sadly, King Amanullah Khan was ousted in 1929 and the palace went unused, stood empty for decades.  A fire gutted it in 1969, after which it was restored for use by the Defense  Ministry in the 70's and 8o's.....that is, until 1978 when the Communists set it on fire.

Queen's Palace

The Queen also had a palace nearby....The Tajbeg Palace.  One account says the family lived there.  It has also been devastated.   The last king of Afghanistan reigned from 1933-1973, Zahir Shah.  No mention is made of his residence, so we assume it was not in the palaces.  The Civil War that ocurred after the Soviets left in the early 90's, was no kinder to the edifices.  As you can see, bullet holes abound, and destruction rampant.  Seems so sad for such a grand place to be wasted so utterly.  The expansive garden area around the palace was full of trees and plants.

 

We were able to climb to the top floor and walk in the cleared pathways to many more rooms than I am showing here.  I prayed no earthquake struck while we were there, although there were plenty of other danger points along the way.

It was a treat to have been able to see this.  Thank you Zamir and Haroom....our guest house guides.

Teaching

Looks like Jon and Marita are both teachers this year!  I hadn't planned on that, but the need arose.
For me, it's teaching english as a second language, or, in the case of most afghans, a third or fourth language,  Dari and Pashto being the two official languages among some twenty plus ethnic groups.

For these first six weeks I have been teaching the beginning english class......of four women and nine men. And it's at the unorthodox hour of 6:15 am...until 7:45!   Not everyone shows up at the same time, thank goodness, as we only have chairs for ten!  The desk and bookshelf become seats for the late-comers.  All of my students are either professional men or students, working to improve their grasp on english.....we focus on pronunciation as they are very conscious of their mistakes.  It's interesting that my work with the Kindergartners and First Graders at ISK reveal the same difficulties......'th' is nearly impossible for them to say properly.

Beginning the 2nd of October I will take over the  class of a teacher leaving for Canada with her pilot husband... to have another baby.  That will be an afternoon class from 3-4:30 on Sundays and Tuesdays.  My morning class is on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Both are held in the small office space while other classes hold forth in the large room next door.  I wonder how many students I need to get the large room?!

  This is my walking route to the language school. 

A block from our house, my choice is to turn right onto this river road and cross the footbridge visible in the left corner beyond the dumpster.......or continue across the bridge and pass by a dumpster on the next corner.  The dumpsters are just temporary storage places for garbage......they are continually emptied of 'fresh' garbage so people and animals can 'recycle' the contents!  It is sad to see a mother and children sorting thru the stinking contents.  I don't mind the fat-bottomed sheep scrounging for food as much, but I do live in fear of seeing our own castoffs strewn around the street.

Children with Librarian Charlene learning the rules

        After my early morning class I get picked up by an ISK driver and driven to the INT. School of KABUL to volunteer there.  For Sept. I've been a classroom aide in Kindie thru third on two days, then library aide two days.  As of October, I will shed the classroom and just do the library.  Being the land of dust and dirt, the library books have to be washed, and sometimes scrubbed, off after each checkout.  I examine them also for repair needs.  Then I reshelve them.  My fingers inevitably are black after shelving, just from touching the spines of other books.  Today was 'doughnut Wednesday' for the staff....as is every Wed., so I'm making sure I work on Wednesdays!  The 'French' bakery here bakes them....pretty good, too. I am also invited to eat lunch in the faculty room the days I work...yum!

Jon teaches and leads his faculty in a mini-retreat at our house.........

Hope Family Medicine Afghanistan Residency Program is based upon six values:  Patient First, Respect, Integrity, Stewardship, Sanctity of Life and Life-long Learning.

Learning is much of what I do.  I discover how patients and families understand their disease, how they search long and hard for answers spending time and money going from private to "free" government doctors,  herbalists, "pharmacists" (no special documentation required, nor prescription needed), from one hospital to another, one town to another, an not unusually, one country (Afghanistan) to another (Pakistan).  I learn how the residents have been taught, what equipment we have and don't have, who does and does not make decisions, how hospital, home and community politics work.  I discover due process :  we just got 2 ultrasound machines out of customs after 6 months of negotiations, previously hearing of one fellow who had 160 pages of documentation with 80 signatures to get a table for his office.  I understand statistics of "progress" in pediatric care may be confabulated for the benefit of continued funding.

I experience the importance of not causing shame when correction is needed, that decision by community is more powerful, and more likely to occur, than individual pronouncement; that my priorities are better achieved by patient listening than focussed direction.  And, tragically, as demonstrated again last night across town, we are at a loss to explain how even those you know may rise up against you.  We face three days of national mourning with the assassination of Rabanni, former President of Afghanistan.

More importantly, we experienced the joy of hospitality as we hosted all the faculty for a time away to set some priorities for the residency.  They are  a playful, dedicated, bright, compassionate group.  Afghanistan is in good hands with their leadership.  It is my pleasure to work with them.  I welcomed them in the name of Allah, whose hospitality and mercy is often mentioned but whose welcome for close relationship is a learning process for us all.

               

May learning never end.....may His joy find you in it!

Jon and Marita

From day to day....

I think back a week ago.....Micah Levi (pronounced Le-VEE) was born to Corey and Natalie.  We have waited for this baby it seems like forever.  Finally he was told to 'exit!'  Then it had to be a C-section.  Most foreigners go to their home country to have babies, but Corey and Natalie chose to have an Afghan birth at our sister, CURE Hospital.   Everyone is grateful he arrived safely!
After a few weeks here in the city, they will return to their city of service to resume their leadership development training.  One happy family!

An Excursion

  

Last Saturday we got to go on an excursion out of town.  One of the employees in the business
office at the hospital offered to take us to Qargha and the Barbur Gardens.  We jumped at the chance!  Qargha is a man-made lake created by the Russians with a rock dam.  The water comes from the Paghman mountains in the west.  There is some recreation on the lake, and some agriculture in the lakebed at one end.

The dam overshadows the Kabul Golf Course, which appears to still be in the development phase!A little research reveals that it is the only golf course in Afghanistan....not surprising considering 30 years of war.  It last re-opened in 2004.  It is not the popular 'desert golf' of the Middle East, but the brown-black variety (mixture of sand and oil to keep the wind from blowing away the course!)
 Below is the third hole to the left of the right bunch of trees, headed down hill toward the river.  Note the dam in the upper left corner and pray for a no earthquake day!

Our young driver then drove us the 7 km back to town to visit the Gardens of Babur......a Persian-syle garden developed around 1528.  It contains the tomb of the 1st Mughal emperor, Babur.  A stone water-course runs between an avenue of trees arranged in 14 terraces. .. The Shahjahani Mosque is built on the 13th, nearest to Mecca, with Babur's tomb on the 14th.  Both had to be restored after an earthquake in 1842.  The restoration of the gardens has given the people of Kabul much to be proud of.....

It was a fun day..
and we were grateful for the
invitation.  We shared a lunch at BBQ Tonite in Kabul before
being dropped off at home.  N. is a particularly focused young man...no marriage for a long while as he wants education and travel first.  His job at the hospital helps support his parents and siblings...how do they
get ahead when they have all these responsibilities?  That's the dilemma of most young students.

Eid-Murabak

Owen talks with young men dressed in their new Eid clothes as we walked to visit a friend.

 During Eid, the tradition is to visit neighbors and friends, briefly.  I was invited to go with Debbie to her friend's home and so I met Zakia and family....her Mullah brother, elderly father, husband , sister and 7children and a few cousins. She was excited that another 'elderly' lady had come to her home.  Debbie translated for me though I pretty much knew what was transpiring.   They begin to prepare a room for guests by laying a tablecloth on the floor surrounded by toshaks.....long pillows to sit on.  Then they put plates of nuts, raisins, cookies, cake on the cloth and wait with tea to serve guests. So, you nibble and sip and visit!  They were kind to stack two dense pillows for me to sit on.  The lower to the floor I sit, the harder  the rising up is!  We learned her story as children milled around and the men talked among themselves.  When the 84 yr. old grandfather entered the room, everyone, including me, stood and bowed....same when he left....except they insisted I stay put!  After an hour or so, we took pictures of  Debbie and Zakia and the children before rising to leave.  It still took awhile and she promised to have me back and feed me something that would not make me fat!  Debbie said to not take it wrongly....ha.  Zakia has a house business of making and selling tortillas and chips.  I told her I wanted to buy some soon!  I was glad I'd gone!  Thank you, Debbie.

Marita with Zakria and her 14-yr-old daughter

Kite-flying
on our way
home.











Jon and Bill decided to make an Eid visit of their own....to the
Police station in front of our house!

"Since our biggest neighbor is  district 3 Police Station, I thought it would be fair enough to take them some goodies.  I have no idea how many policemen are actually behind the 15 foot high razor wired walls with turrets on the corners.  Usually only 2 or 3 armed officers stand by the steel cross arm at the north entrance of the half block complex, it's bare south wall facing our gate.  

Trying out her newly set up gas range, Jan made two batches of brownies.

When Dr. Bill and I first carried our bag of freshly baked brownies up the street, there was some obvious event going on at the intersection.  The situation was unclear, but seemed more than just a minor traffic accident with several cars blocking the way and at least three of the large forest green armored pickups each with a gun turret mounted on it's bed, surrounded by over 50 attentive policemen with a few on the corners keeping watch.  I saw one guard on the third  floor balcony of a neighboring house alert to the process.  Bill had an appointment to keep;  he went on ahead.  I returned home with our gift to wait for a calmer season.

Indeed, later this afternoon the street was quiet after the first day of rain since our arrival.  We walked along the edge of the now muddied street , around the corner and up to the armed sentry.  "Eid Mubarak"  I said,  "Happiness to you at Eid".  He was suspicious, took the bag without looking and passed it to the 5 soldiers having tea sitting behind the steel swing arm but in front of the concrete and stucco wall.  One invited us to join them with "Chai", but obviously did not have authority to do that.  Reassuring  them the gift  was not a bomb, we told them it certainly was good to eat as they cautiously viewed the dark brown crumbly chunks.  Another took a taste with subdued response.   They were politely grateful, but we likely will never know if it was a hit in the barracks. or even made it inside the wall.  Nevertheless, we visited our neighbors with a blessing of brownies."