Up on the roof in Kabul.
Wendy and Suria in yarn heaven.
Put your right hand in....and do the hokey pokey. 
Laila, Khatera, Hanifa, Ray and Kamala with the much desired Dell laptop.Marla ditched the rest of the mission team today, grabbed Najib and went in search of men at various NGOs (yes, Dan, tis true). She was looking for an NGO on-the-ground partner to help us with the new Associates, especially an organization who can provide technical assistance in the food processing area.
Speaking of food stuffs, who knew that our Associate Afifa owns land with grape vines that she dries into raisins and sells to Pakistan for packaging. She’s been in the Bpeace program for two years and only now do we learn (in addition to her handicraft business) that she wants to build Afghanistan’s first raisin- packaging factory. Last year her idea was a fish farm. We don’t see the connection, but we’re here to listen to her business dreams and see how we can make it happen.
Dreams do get rained on…and then they can get moldy. Wendy was still coping with the leaky roof at the Rangeen Kaman Artisans shop, moving hundreds of dollars of products out of harms way. With amazing tenacity, she was up on the roof with a contractor trying to figure out what exactly was going on. We’re encountering a cultural divide here. This leak was discovered several weeks ago. Why didn’t the RKA partners put a plastic tarp on the roof as they tried to get in touch with the elusive landlord?
Suria, our knitting wizard of an Associate, received a big bonus from Wendy, a very large plastic garbage bag of beautiful balls of yarn from a store in Kent, Connecticut. When Wendy saw they were having a sale, she thought of Suria and stopped in to see if they would consider making a small donation of yarn. When she’s not addressing leaky roofs, Wendy is quite a salesperson. She secured over $1,400 worth of donated yarn, enough to fill 4 large garbage bags. Wendy was able to cart only one bag over on this trip.
Khatera and Toni, along with Bpeace Associate Kamala, spent a good deal of time with Hanifa Askar Ali, making suggestions on how to improve her English and Computer school. Hanifa’s distance mentor Carol Fallon and Marla has mined several resources in Kabul for Hanifa to hire better teachers and acquire easier curriculum. When Hanifa said one competitive English school she visited was teaching the parts of the body by doing the “Hokey Pokey,” Toni heard a great photo op and went to work.
Because she was denied a visa for two different trips to the US, Hanifa never did receive her own laptop from Bpeace. But today she did, and we were thrilled to deliver it to her.
Speaking of food stuffs, who knew that our Associate Afifa owns land with grape vines that she dries into raisins and sells to Pakistan for packaging. She’s been in the Bpeace program for two years and only now do we learn (in addition to her handicraft business) that she wants to build Afghanistan’s first raisin- packaging factory. Last year her idea was a fish farm. We don’t see the connection, but we’re here to listen to her business dreams and see how we can make it happen.
Dreams do get rained on…and then they can get moldy. Wendy was still coping with the leaky roof at the Rangeen Kaman Artisans shop, moving hundreds of dollars of products out of harms way. With amazing tenacity, she was up on the roof with a contractor trying to figure out what exactly was going on. We’re encountering a cultural divide here. This leak was discovered several weeks ago. Why didn’t the RKA partners put a plastic tarp on the roof as they tried to get in touch with the elusive landlord?
Suria, our knitting wizard of an Associate, received a big bonus from Wendy, a very large plastic garbage bag of beautiful balls of yarn from a store in Kent, Connecticut. When Wendy saw they were having a sale, she thought of Suria and stopped in to see if they would consider making a small donation of yarn. When she’s not addressing leaky roofs, Wendy is quite a salesperson. She secured over $1,400 worth of donated yarn, enough to fill 4 large garbage bags. Wendy was able to cart only one bag over on this trip.
Khatera and Toni, along with Bpeace Associate Kamala, spent a good deal of time with Hanifa Askar Ali, making suggestions on how to improve her English and Computer school. Hanifa’s distance mentor Carol Fallon and Marla has mined several resources in Kabul for Hanifa to hire better teachers and acquire easier curriculum. When Hanifa said one competitive English school she visited was teaching the parts of the body by doing the “Hokey Pokey,” Toni heard a great photo op and went to work.
Because she was denied a visa for two different trips to the US, Hanifa never did receive her own laptop from Bpeace. But today she did, and we were thrilled to deliver it to her.
7 comments:
Bpeace B Rockin' it! Good going on such a good project! Booyah!
Glad to see everyone is there safely and now busily @ work!!! Also great to hear and see the shopping taking place at RKA!! BTW, What happened to the dressing room?????
I would pay money to see the airport as calm as you described it. Getting out of there in December was one of the most stressful moments in my life!!!
Please tell my brothers Najib and Khan Aga that I send my warm regards!
Be safe everyone
Steve
Wonderful to hear from all of you. Glad you are there safely and enjoying some shopping and dancing. So cold and rainy in NY; definitely not spring-y!! Lauren
and the news from new york...debbie rodriguez's book about the beauty school got a great review in the times today by william grimes.
read the following today and thought of all of you with great pride--
(toni, no snickering!!)
Before we do anything, we should always ask ourselves whether we will be able to do it properly and complete it. If the answer is no, we should not start. Leaving tasks uncompleted creates a habit for the future. So once we have begun something, we should be sure not to go back on our decision. Self-confidence is not to be confused with pride. Pride is thinking highly of oneself without good reason. Self-confidence is knowing that one has the ability to do something properly and being determined not to give up. Ordinary beings are prepared to make a good deal of effort for relatively insignificant ends. We have promised to work for the immensely more important goal of liberating all beings, so we should cultivate great self-confidence, thinking, Even if I am the only one to do so, I will benefit all beings. --The Dalai Lama, A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night
how prevalent are leaky roofs? perhaps this confirms a market for our construction ladies!
love to all--XXL
Reading your comments just spurred me on to send out 20 more donation requests for our upcoming gala!! You all fill me with inspiration. Keep safe and hope all goes well.
With love and hugs,
Susan
question: is that a pool table behind the hokey pokey dance line? XXL
I love the hokey pokey story. Have you seen the bumper sticker:
"What if the hokey pokey really IS what it's all about?"
I'm thrilled to hear the consulting time put in with Hanifa. She's a smart business woman...and needs some help with her teachers.
Athena
Post a Comment