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The water supply at the Save office in Belcheragh. Most water in Afghanistan is from wells or taken directly from rivers. |
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The delegation, Save employees, and drivers, enjoy breakfast. The women
eat separately. |
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Today's breakfast, cheese, Nan, and powered milk, err,
Klim. |
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Guzman and Habib (pouring tea). Habib was one of our interpreters. He
was curious about American weddings, did they need to be large? In
Afghanistan, you have to invite the entire village to your wedding,
otherwise you disrespect your wife and you are laughed at by the community.
Wedding costs are a huge burden. I told him American weddings can be large
or small, driven by the desires of the couple. |
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Walking to the local school. Chip and his camera are an instant hit with
the students. Boys have school in the morning, girls in the afternoon. |
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Listen to the bell, first period! A closer look determines it's actually a gear from an old
Soviet tank, but it sounds pretty good. |
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This is a fourth grade class in Dari, a dialect of Farsi and one of the
official languages of Afghanistan. These kids mostly speak Uzbek. |
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A sixth grade biology class, in the new school building. |
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The biology teacher. |
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This hill is across the valley behind the hill. A man is plowing the
hillside with an ox, you can see him as a dot in the middle of the picture
at the top of the brown area. |
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Steve and Donovan talk with Donna. |
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Lucienne talks with some school officials. |
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Kids are kids everywhere. They loved my camera. |
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A lone woman hurries along a Belcheragh street. |
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Another house, another health class taught by volunteers trained by
Save. At this place, we were not allowed to take pictures of the children,
but when Michael Speaks asked to photograph the loom, the woman of the house
came running! |
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I'm not sure her husband approved, but she wanted us to see her in
action. I was impressed. |
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Save had a "Child to Child" program in Belcheragh, designed to empower
children to voice their grievances, and ask for help. Here we were invited
to hear a presentation by the group to the town elders. The group's
message had to do with bullying around the town well. The answer they
proposed was digging more wells. |
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Here the town elders react to the presentation. They asked Save to dig
more wells for them. Donna and Lucienne responded that it was the town's
problem, and they needed to come up with a plan. Everyone agreed to meet in
two weeks time to discuss solutions. I felt that we had been plopped into
the middle of a very complex situation. I don't think that Save had intended
for the presentation to take this particular direction. However, the
children were clearly empowered (if somewhat influenced), and I have to say
it felt like the usual political process: messy, but working. |
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Sir Ben at - if I may say so - his best. He thanked everyone involved,
with dignity, and praised the process, the outcome (a meeting in two weeks),
and most of all, the voices of the children. |
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Bridges are in short supply in Afghanistan. Another example - like the
climb up Kilimanjaro from our previous trip - of "Save the Children, Kill
the Adults". |
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We had to wait for the donkey to move away from the river's exit before
our driver would attempt the crossing. |
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Enjoy the guardrails you pass on your travels, and think about what it
would be like without them. |
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Guess who this is? Anyone? Anyone? He's a policeman. Lucienne asked
about his uniform, and he showed us his police belt. Nice guy, though. |
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Taken through the car windshield, down the street. |
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Just cool. |
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Donna (the shawl is there, she always let it slip back) and a Save employee. |