Sylvia's Journal

Today was a day of diving; diving below the surface of superficial reasoning, asking people about their ‘theories of change,’ and first having to explain what that was in words that made them realize they already had them. There are countless assumptions about positive change contained in activities that are not being articulated and so can never be tested. In the meantime the activities continue, as if….

This is not just an Afghan thing; the theories of change behind US interventions here, military or otherwise, are loaded with assumptions of the ‘if this…then that’ kind. The election process is one of those where many of these assumptions fell flat on their faces.

It kills me to think how much money was spent on the elections by my and other governments to end up with a result that doesn’t come close to the original intent: building trust in government by the people and for the people, or something like that. The assumptions were all wrong. At least we know that now, but how many more elections do we have to go through before acknowledging that the assumptions were all wrong and that a change in course is needed? Sometimes it feels as if we prefer to continue doing the wrong things before admitting that we don’t know the right things to do.

I was also diving today into tasks that shouldn’t me mine but had become mine because others are not doing what they should be doing because it never occurred to them that they were supposed to have been doing something.

I keep telling myself that this is why I am here; that if the capacity building was easy it would already have been accomplished in the last 9 years and that if all was done as I think it should be done, my presence here would be superfluous. Thus, the diving is both frustrating and satisfying at the same time.

I came home early and put my jammies on ready for an early dinner and early to bed. But Axel had invited one of his students over for a last review of his (US) school application essay before he heads out to the US later this week.

The boy was one of the successful applicants to the YES program that puts Afghan students for a year in a US High School. But the visas didn’t come through in time and so he and some other boys missed half the year. But they are going now for the 2nd semester.

Axel spent the afternoon saying his goodbyes and wishing them godspeed, an emotional experience because he has gotten very fond of his students.

As a good woman would in this place, I retired upstairs to the bedroom and left the menfolk downstairs. If or when I get bored I will get dressed again and join them.