Friday, January 18,
2013
Friday – the day off?
Who says Afghans rest – too much to do! Merweis from Rumi School came to
the Park Palace to meet with us and Mohammed Tawakaly and his friend Shukor
joined us as well to review and give suggestions for ZAANHA's new business school
for working street children. Merweis volunteered to draw
up a plan based on what we had presented as well as a budget. We are moving
right along!!
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| Shokor, Mohammed and Kathy waiting for the meeting to start |
And then it was off to Istanbul Restaurant, a new Turkish
restaurant where more friends of Mohammed and Shukor joined us. All prominent
Afghan businesspeople whom I was busily enlisting as mentors for our budding business
students!
Najib suggested we go to watch kite flying located where
former King Mohammed Zahir Shah is entombed.
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| Had to wait for the sheep to cross before we could continue to the top! |
Perched on a hilltop overlooking all of
eastern Kabul, the site is simply breathtaking! Many people do not realize how beautifully situated Kabul is -- it is completely surrounded by mountains and in this season, when they are covered with snow the effect is pure magic!
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| View from the top |
The main attraction, however
were the children who were involved in fierce kite flying competition. Some had
bloodied fingers from the razor sharp kite string they use to “cut” their
competitors kites. It was a gorgeous sunny day and even Kathy and I got involved in
the competition!
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| Kite flying in Kabul |
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| Conferring on strategy |
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| Enterprising tea seller |
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| Kathy gives it a try |
Tired, sated and happy, we returned to the Park Palace for
an early dinner and some rest.
Saturday, January 19,
2013
Today was our shopping day. Up and out by 9 as Kabul emporia
open early. First stop was Gangina, a collection of sophisticated boutiques
selling the best of Afghanistan – NEVER go to Gangina if you have less than an
hour! We found everything from colorfully embroidered sheepskin coats to
handmade carpets and soumaks to tunics, bags, cushion covers and the list goes
on and on – all made by hand and all representing master Afghan artisans. Located
in an old house, this bevy of shops is a must for anyone visiting Kabul.
From Gangina we made our way to the nearby Handicraft Center
– a small center selling old and new embroidery, tribal coats, leather goods
and my favorite, Abdul Jabbar and his brother Abdul Wahab who sell sheepskin coats.
There are A LOT of Afghan sheep, hence the plethora of sheepskin products.
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| Young sheepherder reins in his flock |
Abdul Jabbar was his usual welcoming self and proceeded to pull out many of his
new designs. Very tough to tear ourselves away!
Back to Zarif, where we visited with Nasima
and saw Sara Rahmani, a lovely and talented woman I worked with on my first
visit to Kabul in 2006 when she had a business designing and tailoring women’s
clothing.
Our last stop was Chicken Street – famed for it’s old/new
textile and jewelry shops. Najib took us to a place that rightfully deserves
the name “Aladdin’s Cave”. A collaboration of Afghans and Kashmiris (India),
the shop is chocker block full of all varieties of textiles.
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| Hand Embroidered Hats |
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| Embroidery from Nuristan Province |
We were taken upstairs to a series of windowless rooms, each packed
with colorful goods, that twisted and turned, ending in a room with a loom
where this enterprising business handweaves its own scarves. Nothing like
going directly to the source!
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| Loom in Back Room |
Security is out in full force -- Policemen, military personnel,
check points constantly rove the city armed with large and menacing looking
rifles. A large blimp equipped with high technology cameras roams the Kabul
skies searching for trouble.
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| Smile -- You're on camera! |
While there was a suicide bomber attack the day
before we arrived and a second attack since we’ve been here, we haven’t felt
the effects nor were even aware of the attack until we saw it on television.
Sunday, January 20,
2013
We're on our way to meet Engineer (Eng.) Yousef, founder of Aschiana, an
Afghan organization that provides literacy, vocational and health training as
well as hot meals to working Afghan street children. Aschaina serves over
11,800 working street children and ZAANHA has been working with them for over 3 years. On our way there, I saw the billboard pictured
below and wanted to share it with you. The translation of the Dari and Pashto is noted in
the caption.
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| "We Have the Right to be Literate" |
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| Children Working on the Street |
As we entered Aschiana’s building, you could hear the
squeals of children laughing, talking and dashing to their next classes –
wondrous sounds!
The following pictures are of many of the children in their classrooms -- can you resist them?? You know I can't!
Our goals were to review our ideas for the business school, apprize Eng. Yousef of the collaboration with Rumi School, have his feedback to incorporate on our plan and secure his buy in for the school. The meeting went very well and Eng. Yousef will join us at the grand planning meeting at Rumi on Tuesday. Our business school for working street children is coming together!
Wali Mohammed and Leoqat were the first 2 working street
boys ZAANHA sent to private school and we were looking forward to meeting them
as well as the additional 3 children who we now send to private school. We are looking to add girls too in 2013.
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| Wendy sits with the working street boys ZAANHA sends to private school. We are looking to add girls too. |
I wish
you could have heard Leoqat greet me in English “Hello Madam, how are you?
Welcome to Afghanistan”
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| Wali Mohammed on the left and Leoqat on the right |
His words were the sweetest music I could have heard!!
This is a child who is very bright, but never had the chance to for an education. After starting school, he and his friend Wali Mohammed asked if we
could give them each $15 a month for English lessons and the result is what
I’ve reported.
Last year I visited Wali Mohammed’s home to meet his mother
and siblings. His mother was quite stiff – many walls between us! This year she greeted me with hugs and smiles – she told us that since Wali Mohammed had started
school, he’s learned to respect his elders and when asked to do something, he
does it. Nice!!!
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| Wali Mohammed's mother is seated on left and Leoqat's mother is on the right. |
When I asked the boys what their new schooling has meant to
them. Leoqat replied with a big smile that now he can read directions on street
signs as well read shop keepers signs in
both English and Dari!
Dear readers, you are the ZAANHA community and I hope
you as you read this that you too will bask in the glow of the accomplishments
of these children that you have helped to make possible.
Monday, January 21,
2013
A Most Busy Day
Loaded with AHA Moments
Hot water at The Park Palace is in limited supply and it IS
cold here! So, I suggested to Kathy, that rather than using extra water to wash
our hair, we go to the hairdresser – it would accomplish 2 goals – we'd have clean hair
and a cultural experience. As we went from beauty parlor to beauty parlor, each
telling us they had no water (and we thinking that running water was not
functioning at the moment), we were never able to find a salon to help us and yet
there were many on the street! As we began to run late, we decided to forego
this experience. Najib, not quite understanding what the problem was told us
that when Afghan women go to the beauty parlor, they wash their hair at home
and then go to the salon to have their hair styled! I asked, “You mean no one
has their hair washed at the salon???” "No they don’t" was the reply. Different customs;
different culture.
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| If you go, make sure you wash your hair beforehand! |
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| Shaping into loaves |
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| Baking the bread in a tandoor oven |
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| Bread for sale! |
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| Artistry in ice cream |
For those of you who know me well, you know well of my
predilection for sweets, particularly well made cookies and ice cream. When I
first tasted Afghan ice cream, I was hooked!! Good bye gelato, hello shiriyakh!
So of course, one of my first questions to Najib was “Is there anyplace making
that wonderful ice cream in the winter?” And leave it to Najib, to find shiriyakh
for us! It was about 11am and we had just finished tasting the piping hot bread
I mentioned above. We crossed the street to the restaurant offering shiriyakh
and asked if it was available. With typical Afghan graciousness, the man told
us if we could wait for 25 minutes, we would have freshly made shiriyakh and we
did! DELIZIOSO!!
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| Shiriyakh |
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| Kathy and Wendy indulge -- Kathy's now hooked! |
If you wanted to talk to the second in command at Citibank,
would you simply walk into the bank and expect him or her to see you? I could
not even being to imagine doing so! And so when Kathy and I wanted to speak
with anyone who might talk with us at Azizi Bank, one of the largest in
Afghanistan, to ask for funding for our business school, guess to whose office we
were shown? The Vice Chair of the bank! Of course we didn’t have an appointment.
He graciously agreed to see us and we ended up explaining our plan for 30
minutes. Mr. Omaid said he would put us in touch with the chief of marketing
whom he believed could help us further – we LIKE doing business this way – cut
through the red tape like a hot knife through butter and go directly to the
top!
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| Azizi Bank branch in Kabul |
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| Project done by the girls |
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| Project done by the girls |
We have 6 girls in the class and because they do not have permission from their families to have their pictures shown, I have included a couple of photos of the projects they worked on over the past year. The girls effusively and proudly greeted us in English and we learned about what they’ve learned and what these daily lessons mean to them. Most have dreams to be teachers and one wants to be a software engineer. They believe their newly acquired English and computer skills will help learn more of the world outside of Afghanistan.
Tuesday, January 22,
2013
This is a day I’ve been waiting for! We gathered with key
people from Rumi School and Aschiana to hammer out a plan and budget for the
new business school for working street children that will be housed at Rumi.
After several hours, we have a rudimentary plan! Working street children who
have completed 12th grade will go through an application process and be approved by Aschiana and Rumi to be admitted to the program. The first class
will be 20 students.
The education of these children is barely basic and Rumi will
start by teaching the children from the beginning the most important subjects
needed for business – Dari, English, math, computers etc. and how these
subjects relate to business. Becoming extremely proficient is a priority and we estimated 2 years for this training interspersed with business courses. The third year will be spent with more
training as well as internships at local companies with Afghan business people
mentoring the students. The students themselves will also be required to mentor the new
incoming students and will be asked to mentor for a minimum of 5 years.
I am GREATLY enthused about this program! Our business
school for working street children is the first of its kind in Afghanistan and
when completed will allow the children to join local businesses or start small
businesses of their own. How satisfying is that!!!
And we couldn’t ask for better partners than Rumi (which has
over 2,000 students in its 3 schools in Kabul and plans to expand to Mazar,
Herat and Jalalabad over the next several year) and Aschiana (which has been
helping with working street children since 1995). Stay tuned for more
news!
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| Some of ZAANHA's partners for the business school for working street children |
Leaving Rumi, we stopped at a local market and bought 300
pairs of socks for the children we saw at Aschiana, many of whom were barefoot with only
sandals covering their feet in this cold weather.
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| We sure depleted his supply! |
And then off to Najib’s home for dinner where we engaged in
a delicious Afghan meal – fish this time – and were able to spend time with
Najib’s charming wife Mahbooba as well as his 4 perfectly mannered sons. My have they grown!
I love and marvel at Afghan
children's beautiful manners. Without exception, all of the children Kathy and I visited and engaged
with were courteous, quiet, gracious, humble and charming -- regardless of economic status. They showed respect
for their elders. And while they are still children and most likely, when not in
our presence, will be playing, be noisy and raucous, when they are with adults,
even for hours on end, one can’t help but be most impressed with their fine and gracious manners and respect for others.
Wednesday, January
23, 2013
The days have sprouted wings, flying swiftly away! My
morning started with reading an email from the head of marketing at Azizi Bank
– she wants to meet with us this morning! Immediately, we juggled our
appointments to accommodate her and were at Azizi headquarters promptly at
10am. Shown into her spacious office, she could not have been more gracious.
While her department doesn’t have funds for our business school for working
street children, she told us Azizi does have a foundation and she will speak
with the head of the foundation to see if they can give us some funds. She loved our concept and will try to get us some funds. While
there is no commitment, we were floating on air as we left for our lunch
with Soraya Omar, former country director of Bpeace, the organization that
introduced me to Afghanistan.
After lunch, we headed out to Aschiana for another meeting
with Eng. Yousef as well as Nazar, the general manager who had been away when
we arrived in Kabul. We saw Wali Mohammed and Leoqat one last time and gave
them watches. I loved observing them as they read the directions on how to set the date
and time for their new watches -- they wouldn't have been able to so so last year!
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| Wali Mohammed and Leoqat read directions on how to set their new watches |
Running late, we dashed back (as much as one can dash in
Kabul traffic!) to the hotel to leave off our things and then head out to
Bakhtnazira’s (BN) home for dinner. BN
was the first woman entrepreneur I met and worked with in Afghanistan and I
have known her and her family since 2006. Her youngest daughter, Hadia, was our
inspiration for sending Afghan children to school. When she started in school 5 years ago, we paid a portion of her schooling – she was promoted to a class for gifted children after only a year
in school and was also top in her English class – just goes to show what
happens when a child is given a chance!
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| Hadia when I first met her |
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| Hadia is a young lady today |
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| Salad |
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| Kabuli Pilau |
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| Chicken with Peppers |
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| Piping Hot Shola (note the steam) |
Shola
Ingredients for 4-6 people:
2 c. rice;
1 c. lentils;
1 medium onions;
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic;
½ c. chicken stock;
2 T. tomato paste
;
salt/pepper
; 1 tsp. cumin
Wash the lentils and soak them for a few hours. To make hasten the
softening process, boil them in water for a bit prior to cooking Shola. If you
boil them then drain them in a strainer and rinse them once more.
Chop up one of the onions finely and fry it in a medium or large pot
(should be the same pot you make the Shola in) with some oil. Add the minced
garlic to the pot after the onions have fried a bit and stir. Add 1.5 - 2 T. of
the tomato paste to the onion and garlic and stir the contents together. Add
chicken stock, salt, pepper, and cumin at this time. Pour about 3 cups of water
in the pot and add the lentils to the pot. Set the pots temperature to medium
and place a lid on the pot. Allow the lentils to cook for 10 minutes.
Wash the rice then add it to the pot with the lentils. Pour water over the
rice, so that it stands at least 1” above the rice. Allow the rice to cook and
the water to evaporate. Note: the more water you use the softer (and stickier)
the Shola becomes. When most of the water has evaporated you can place a towel
or cloth over the lid of the pot and place it on top of the pot for it to cook
an additional 30 minutes. You can eat the Shola as is now or proceed as shown
below if you want to add meat.
With Meat: Chop up a medium
sized onion and in a medium pot saute the onion in oil until it slightly turns
golden. Add the ground meat to the pot and stir well. Add salt, pepper, ground
red pepper, and turmeric to the meat. Once the meat has cooked add 2 T. tomato
paste and stir all. Then add 1.5 to 2 c. of water to the pot and allow the meat
to cook for at least 30 minutes on medium heat (cover the pot with the lid).
Once most of the water is dried up the meat sauce should be ready.
Once you are ready to serve the dish you will fill your serving platter
with Shola and then if serving with meat, you can make a well in the center of
the shola and add the meat sauce in the center. Top the meat sauce with some
beaten Greek yogurt . You could also sprinkle some finely chopped mint over
all. If you like you can even make stew
meat or meatballs to serve with the Shola.
Thursday, January 24,
2013
Our remaining time is very short – today is our last full
day in Kabul.
5 years ago Fatema ran Afghanistan’s only woman owned
furniture making business. I had the good fortune to mentor Fatema and hosted
her at my home when she came to the US a few years ago to learn best practices for her
business. Fatema’s workshop was originally housed in a large tent – tempestuous
winters destroyed the tent twice and a year ago Fatema decided that if she were
to continue her business she would need a building. She already had brought a
small piece of land for this eventuality. 2 generous US donors and ZAANHA contributed
funds to start the building. I saw the
beginnings of construction when I was in Kabul last May.
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| Construction Started May, 2012 |
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| New Office, January 2013 |
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| Carpenter Working on New Order |
I was grinning like a kid when we
arrived to find her new workshop almost finished and her employees busily
working on a new order – 40 chairs and 10 tables! No more worries about the tent caving in and
disrupting her business!!
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| New Chair |
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| Fatema and I are really happy! |
From Fatema’s we hurried back to town to meet with Sora,
another woman I worked with whose dream was to open a potato chip company.
Afghan farmers grow a variety of potatoes that makes the best chips. That dream
has not yet been realized, but Sora is planning for a day in the future when
her vision will become reality.
Najib pointed out that we hadn’t really done any sightseeing
and suggested before we head back to the hotel, we visit the Blue Mosque and we
quickly agreed.
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| Kathy and I fit in some sightseeing |
We finished up our last minute shopping and errands, called
our Afghan friends to say good bye and headed back to the Park Palace to pack
for an early Friday departure.
Friday, January 25,
2013
Najib greeted us at 8:30am and helped me get my bags into the
car for the ride to the airport. I wonder if there is a word in Dari that means
the same as “arrivederci” – “until we see each other again” rather than “Good
Bye”.
