Habiba receives English books sent by her mentor Carol Fallon via Marla (center) and presented by Najib.
Habiba and her daughter.
The foundation of Habiba's pre-school.
Hostess with the mostest, Katrin, and Toni, Khatera and Marla.A man had to leave Farah’s class today. The topic got too hot to handle. Farah, who as some of you know, used to make her living as a dressmaker in Iran, was teaching the AWBF trainers “How to make better fitting clothing.” It was a reprise of the workshop she held on Sunday, just for the Bpeace Associates. The women wanted to know how to use tailoring tricks to make a woman’s bust look larger. It was at that point that the lone male in the room figured he better excuse himself. Both Farah and the ladies breathed a sigh of relief and laughed their way through the rest of the lessons.
In response to the seamstresses wanting to know what was trendy and new in the US, Farah pointed to Bermuda walking shorts in the fashion magazines she brought. Oh, said the ladies, that would never work here in Kabul. People would laugh at us, thinking our pants were short because we ran out of fabric.
Meanwhile, back at the hotel, it was a full morning of Hanifa Askar (Oscar) Ali and her English school. She has agreed to drop the computer side of the school for now and just focus on the English school, and later use the positive cash flow to re-engage the computer school. So here was the three-ring circus: Khatera was conducting personnel interviews (she is a PhD professional at this at Personnel Decisions International) with the four candidates Hanifa was considering to manage the school and be the head English teacher. Ladan was chatting up the candidates to assess their English conversation skills while they waited for Khatera. Marla, Laila and Toni worked with Hanifa on her Forward Plan. After most of the team leaves Kabul, Farah will work with Hanifa on the curriculum for her school. After a very busy 3 hours, with Toni emphasizing to Hanifa that Bpeace believes in her, but the amount of people and time dedicated to her will not continue at this level. We will have to give another Associate a chance. Marla wrapped up the pro-bono consulting sessions by presenting Hanifa with books that her mentor Carol Fallon had sent.
Where was Wendy? Doing her usual: In a meeting with Nasima or BN—her girls. She loves them so.
In the pm, we took the hot dusty ride up to Habiba’s construction site for her pre-school (actually that was the day before. We have our days screwed up. But we’ll right about it now.) Bpeace had raised $30,000 last year to help Habiba build a pre-school for 500 students in District 6, a middle-class area of Kabul. The septic was in, and the walls of the foundation had been formed with stone. But the foundation cement still had not been poured. They were behind schedule because of an early rainy spring. Habiba believes the school will be finished in about four months. Not knowing the pace of Afghan construction, we couldn’t comment. She showed us the revised blueprints where she had made changes in response to comments from Pam Massenburg’s architect friend David Ashen. She increased the number of bathrooms from two to 10 (thank goodness). Habiba is still nearly $30,000 short to finish construction (about one-third of the cost). And then she has to find another $10,000 to furnish the school. Toni’s Forward Plan with her focused on additional fundraising.
Roshan, one of the telecom companies here, reached out to us to help with the Bpeace Gala on May 9. Since they financially support the Ashiana School for street children, they offered us some of the artwork created by the children to auction off at the Bpeace Gala. So Ray, suitcase in hand, went with Najib to pick out some interesting pieces. Stay tuned for more details. They are also giving us three snappy phones to auction off.
In the evening we had a fabulous dinner at Katrin Fakiri’s large Afghan home. It’s always a treat when you’re on the road to be invited to someone’s home. Katrin invited Bpeace Associates Kamela and Latifa and some other friends as well. Ray was the only man in a room full 14 women. (He looked pretty content.) The conversation got a little crazy when we got around the subject of good looking Afghan men. (In order to keep this blog PG, we’ll stop here.)
In response to the seamstresses wanting to know what was trendy and new in the US, Farah pointed to Bermuda walking shorts in the fashion magazines she brought. Oh, said the ladies, that would never work here in Kabul. People would laugh at us, thinking our pants were short because we ran out of fabric.
Meanwhile, back at the hotel, it was a full morning of Hanifa Askar (Oscar) Ali and her English school. She has agreed to drop the computer side of the school for now and just focus on the English school, and later use the positive cash flow to re-engage the computer school. So here was the three-ring circus: Khatera was conducting personnel interviews (she is a PhD professional at this at Personnel Decisions International) with the four candidates Hanifa was considering to manage the school and be the head English teacher. Ladan was chatting up the candidates to assess their English conversation skills while they waited for Khatera. Marla, Laila and Toni worked with Hanifa on her Forward Plan. After most of the team leaves Kabul, Farah will work with Hanifa on the curriculum for her school. After a very busy 3 hours, with Toni emphasizing to Hanifa that Bpeace believes in her, but the amount of people and time dedicated to her will not continue at this level. We will have to give another Associate a chance. Marla wrapped up the pro-bono consulting sessions by presenting Hanifa with books that her mentor Carol Fallon had sent.
Where was Wendy? Doing her usual: In a meeting with Nasima or BN—her girls. She loves them so.
In the pm, we took the hot dusty ride up to Habiba’s construction site for her pre-school (actually that was the day before. We have our days screwed up. But we’ll right about it now.) Bpeace had raised $30,000 last year to help Habiba build a pre-school for 500 students in District 6, a middle-class area of Kabul. The septic was in, and the walls of the foundation had been formed with stone. But the foundation cement still had not been poured. They were behind schedule because of an early rainy spring. Habiba believes the school will be finished in about four months. Not knowing the pace of Afghan construction, we couldn’t comment. She showed us the revised blueprints where she had made changes in response to comments from Pam Massenburg’s architect friend David Ashen. She increased the number of bathrooms from two to 10 (thank goodness). Habiba is still nearly $30,000 short to finish construction (about one-third of the cost). And then she has to find another $10,000 to furnish the school. Toni’s Forward Plan with her focused on additional fundraising.
Roshan, one of the telecom companies here, reached out to us to help with the Bpeace Gala on May 9. Since they financially support the Ashiana School for street children, they offered us some of the artwork created by the children to auction off at the Bpeace Gala. So Ray, suitcase in hand, went with Najib to pick out some interesting pieces. Stay tuned for more details. They are also giving us three snappy phones to auction off.
In the evening we had a fabulous dinner at Katrin Fakiri’s large Afghan home. It’s always a treat when you’re on the road to be invited to someone’s home. Katrin invited Bpeace Associates Kamela and Latifa and some other friends as well. Ray was the only man in a room full 14 women. (He looked pretty content.) The conversation got a little crazy when we got around the subject of good looking Afghan men. (In order to keep this blog PG, we’ll stop here.)
5 comments:
Hi, I am in my dorm room with Laurie and Dana. We all send our love. A friend of our family works in Serena as a purchase manager, which includes buying food for the hotel. His name is Suhail Tahmass and Dana and Laurie think you should go and say hi. And Tell him I said said hi too. See you at the GALA. Be safe. Love, Palwasha
I'm one of Athena's friends reading the blog, and it is such a thrill for me to see how your work has built upon itself. Congrats.
And reading about the relationships you have is one of the most gratifying aspects of the blog. I LOVE that your reputation has spread throughout Kabul.
Heather
Athens, GA, USA
Toni & Team....
It is amazing how sophisticated the program has become; all the training that is taking place and the "12 month forward" plans. It's all very exciting.
Very rewarding to see everyone looking so well. Hope Wendy is feeling better...Stay off the roof!!
Pam V.
I blew up the picture of the dinner table at Katrin's to see if those were dumplings on the table but couldn't make out the dishes. Of course was longing for the bread too. My next mission can not come soon enough. Need to coordinate with pomegranate season in Kandahar!
Oh yeh, it's not about the food is it? Congratulations on another big day of accomplishments and networking.
Kate B.
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Tailor Master Required and Pattern Making Software
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