Email written on the 14th of August 2007
This was written during my internship with IDLO in 2007, a year after my one month teaching experience with Afghan Street Children.
I spent most of today speaking to my supervisor about Afghanistan. Sumit knows the big people, the hard cruel facts of Afghan politics, the corrupt institutions, disillusioned social workers, prideful judges, squander of wealth and lack of accountability at the expense of people already fooled by 25yrs of war and destruction. By the end of the conversation, I must have had this forlorn lost look, he said ‘Natasha, don’t look so sad’.
Two mornings on my way to work, I passed Aschiana. That same blue gates. I miss those children terribly. Unfortunately I only have Saturday’s off – so just a day a week to visit the children. Im sure Saturday would be my favourite day of the week! Hmm..even the fabulous opportunity to research and write a recommendation paper for an offence of rape pale in comparison to interaction and relationships with the children.
Working with institutions divorces me from the Afghanistan and what makes it what it is- its people, their stories, their hopes. I must say this trip has been the most comfortable – air conditioned room and office, good food , my own toilet, TV, 24-hr Internet and electricity, and I take hot showers in the morning!! (instead of missing showers for a whole week haha). But I miss the sand in my shoes, unkept grained hair, soiled finger and toe nails, rice with bland beans, the long bumpy travels, sitting on the dirty floor with the children, fanning flies away from my face, babysitting the servant’s children, escaping social gatherings to talk to Ustaz Najibullah, sleeping on the balcony floor at night, feeding the guard dog, watching the female teachers make fun of the Taliban….
It is like you cannot say you’ve been to Afghanistan if the whole time you stay in a 5-star hotel, especially so in Afghanistan when the people make so much of what the country is.
