That trip was a little less costly than our 300 dollars one way flight with the UN plane. At that time we could have lived on that single fare for an entire month. But we never saw the magnificent snow-capped mountains that stretch between Kabul and Mazar. The plane provided us first row seats to this spectacular landscape.
We are lodged in a rather odd guesthouse that is clearly not catering to westerners. Signs and names are all written in Dari, including the name of the hotel. If it is appealing to any foreigners it would be Russians. The second language on the guesthouse business card is Cyrillic. This is no surprise as the old USSR is not far from here.
The place looks like some builder got a hold of pattern books with architectural flourishes from the oddest places, and then copied and distributed them pell-mell across the building and its various add-ons. The prevailing colors are pink and pastel green, except my room which is tinted pastel yellow and violet, like an Easter basket arrangement.
To its credit (and my surprise) the guesthouse has wireless (it works for a while); to its discredit the bathroom turned out to be without towels, soap or toilet paper. Someone had to go out and get it and came back with two brand new towels, 2 new toothbrushes, a big bar of ‘luxury’ soap, a large tube of toothpaste and a small bottle of anti-dandruff shampoo. Ask and the universe will provide.
When we arrived at the hotel at least 40 pairs of (men’s) shoes were outside the door. It looked like a second hand shoe market. I put my shoes among the others. My small clogs were hopelessly out of place between all the large and pointy shoes. But then I discovered that there was a separate shelf for the women’s shoes inside the entrance – a small shelf; after all how many women use hotels? As with anything else here women have a separate place for just about everything, even their shoes.
And so we all walk around the hotel in our socks or slippers – it feels a little intimate, as if you are among family. And in some ways I am – there are many people here I have known since early 2008 when I started working with the provincial teams. We are in this unusual and enviable position that we have the resources (thank you American taxpayer) to bring the provincial teams together not just once, not just twice, but every year at least a few times. As a result we are developing deep experience, deep knowledge and repeated skill practice rather than the usual shallow exposure that people get in one-off workshops.
When the program for the day was over the facilitation team started their end-of-day huddle and did all the things, and more, that I taught them a long time ago when I was still part of the team. But now I was excused, as all was done in Dari and it is their show, not mine anymore.
Sylvia's Journal 
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