Last Days in Afghanistan (For a While)
April 30, 2017
It is now my last couple of days in Afghanistan. I have very mixed feelings; I have worked in parts of this incredible country for the last four years. The loss of working which such wonderful people, fully engaged and motivated to learn as much as they can, weighs heavily on my heart. However, five weeks is a long time to be away from home. I can’t wait to get my anchor, my wife, my children and grand-kids (and, I have to admit, Bruno, my dog!). It will be great to spend a few days of recovery, and to eat food that is not based upon meat and carbohydrates!
I have no internet, so it is an ideal time to write a blog. It has been a fascinating couple of days. It is wonderful to watch Education Officers take what I’ve written, and directly apply it in Dari. They are interpreting complex qualitative data (written questionnaires), and, after a two-day process have a complete summary of the information, including recommendations. I watch them as they work totally in Dari, are completely engaged, and come up with valid, reliable, in-depth results.
Today, I’m largely working with the Swedish Committee of Afghanistan (SWA) coupled with the GIZ (German) Education Officers. I found out in talking with them, that they have implemented the Mentorship Programme throughout most of their remote areas, including the small community-based schools. Next year they are planning to roll out the same initiative, but this time grouping together an experienced teacher, a beginning teacher and a community-based teacher. This is all without any of my input, but just based on the workshops they attended led by a colleague and I supported by the written materials. It is very humbling and rewarding to watch this process.
I also had a fascinating talk with one of the participants who oversees the SWA programme in Kunduz, and area under Taliban control. It taught me to not believe much of what we hear in the press. He has the complete support of the Taliban government who not only support the students going to school, but send out school inspectors to make sure the teachers are attending and doing their job. They support the hiring of the best teachers for the schools, not those who are ‘connected’. This is opposite to the government (i.e. officials appointed from Kabul) who were described as corrupt, not doing their work, and trying to manipulate the hiring of positions according to what is best for those in control.
On a lighter matter – Is that a goose? Is the goose riding on the motorcycle? Yes! (Picture above). My driver got quite a kick out of this; he also had never seen anything like this and took the pictures.