We talked about life and death in a way that would be unthinkable in the US. We had Ted over for dinner. Much of the evening we brooded over whether his school for young girls and boys can survive – with survival also referring to people living rather than dying, or to be more precise, being shot by angry fathers, uncles or brothers.
Two of what we refer to as ‘his girls’ have first names that mean ‘bad omen.’ How’s that for a vision of your baby girl? Yet both of these bad omens are now in the US studying to become the Afghan intelligentsia. But with the Taliban talking to Karzai and maybe even with the Americans, what good will that do to girls? Most of Afghanistan’s male and female intelligentsia is now living someplace else. They know on which side their bread is buttered.
Having Ted for dinner is an emotional roller coaster ride. On the one hand there are the stories of the blossoming of female talent and self-confidence, which I have witnessed myself, and on the other hand the threats, the abrupt ending of promising school careers for (forced) marriage, and always, always the possibility of an angry man with a gun storming into his home and wrecking havoc.
Over a delicious leg of lamb dinner accompanied by a bottle of Mateus Rose that Ted brought us, we pondered the future of the SOLA school. Ted’s is beginning to come to the conclusion that investing in brick and mortar in this place is increasingly unattractive as the situation in Afghanistan (though not quite in Kabul) deteriorates. Could the school be someplace else?
Axel and I invoked the Quaker belief that one day ‘way will open,’ even if that opening is right now obscured from view. Ted’s trip to the US may help open the way, or it may not. We will add some of our connections to the ones he already has. After all that is how the world works, even, or especially, for these young Afghan girls and boys whose families have placed all their hopes in a better education for them, even for the two bad omens.
Sylvia's Journal 
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