Sylvia's Journal

Today I got a taste of the distress, despair and distrust that is pervading the ministry at all levels. It is no wonder that we have a hard time to get people to focus on things other than themselves. The stories about what is happening that everyone is spinning around them – for themselves and others to believe – are having the opposite effect of the inspired leadership we are after.

Nowadays it seems that our more or less neutral presence – we don’t take sides – allows people to vent. Much of that venting happens in Dari but I can now at least understand the general gist of the venting – to know that it is about things or people.

Through all this we are soldiering on – we with our work plan to implement and our consultants with their two-week scopes of work to complete. This is difficult even under the best of circumstances. If there are predictable but entirely unexpected holidays called for the next day (there are three calendars operating here side by side: solar Muslim, lunar Afghan and western Gregorian), it is time to slow down and let the chips fall where they may. Breathe, breathe…

We had our second women’s meeting and the program for International Women’s Day is shaping up nicely. We have a mistress of ceremonies, an opening prayer, an opening prayer poem, a slide show with lovely pictures of Afghans (Yo Afghan Yo) and a singer who sings about unity (we are all one people).

One of my staff produced a very professional slideshow about the status of women in Afghanistan, with pictures and statistics, which she will conclude with a reflection that should produce some intentions to take action within people’s own families.

One of the pictures she selected is that of a young nervous looking girl, 14 years at most, sitting next to a man who looks about 73 on a dais during a wedding ceremony. When I asked the women how they felt watching these pictures and statistics, I had expected (and hoped) to hear about anger and outrage but all I got was sadness and pity. In my opinions the latter emotions are too light to trigger the kind of action that is needed here.

One of the women checked out a whole bunch of videos on YouTube. I rejected most of them: they were either about women in the armed services with the words ‘Women Armed’ flashing in bright red letters across the screen. It just didn’t seem to transmit the right message.

There were also many videos about women cut, burned, mutilated, crying and other images that would bring you to despair in seconds; also not quite the message we wanted to convey. Finally we found a 5 minute clip about progress (some of it thanks to US taxpayers) that lifted our spirits. That’s the one we selected.

We are also working on a quiz with chocolates as prizes. We will ask anhyone who wants to rise and speak about important women in their lives; then Rabia our receptionist will read another poem. And finally we will provide gifts for the women and then we have lunch. It should be a lovely day of celebrating women and calling everyone to action. Every little bit helps.

The day ended late again because of our weekly phone call with Boston and so I arrived home at the same time as our dinner guest, Catherine, who works for the US government in remote bases.

Her last post was Nooristan, formerly called Kaffiristan, the land of the unbelievers. Now it is the land of Light. It is a place of stunning beauty, the setting for Kipling’s ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ and the place of some fierce fighting. Catherine and her armed fellows worked quietly on good governance, meeting with the highest and the lowest people in the Province, dispensing advice and resources to make life a little lighter.