Building new lives on foundations of friendship.
by Bob & Patty Tunnell

I can’t tell you how excited the entire team was to finally get to travel to Barek Aub today – the first visit ever for 8 of our 14 team members – and we couldn’t wait to begin the activities and work we had planned over the coming days out there.
 
Upon arrival the team took a tour of the medical clinic.  The first thing several of the returning team members noticed was there are more supplies, new equipment, and a well stocked pharmacy.  With an increased quality of patient care there has been a corresponding increase in the trust the residents have in the clinic’s medical care and thus lots more patients.  Vaccinations and preventative care is up and the infant mortality rate is down.
 
After the tour the team split up – the women to meet with the village’s women who work as Community Health Workers, and the men to meet with the village’s elders.  I’ll share our experience meeting with the elders first, then I’ll let my wife, Patty, describe their experience meeting with the other women.
 
The men of the team met with eight of the village elders and several other men and boys from the village.  And rather than squeeze into a home, we were seated in the great outdoors on a hillside by the clinic on blankets and rugs.  After the customary introductory remarks, Abdul Zahir and I each shared our visions for the next steps in development for Barek Aub with our hosts  translating.  The elders and leaders of Barek Aub are eager to move toward self sufficiency and independence and I was very pleased to be able to share just a couple of our partner organization’s plans toward those goals which are in the final stages of planning and will be in place very soon
 
It was great… the national staff and the long term development team that lives here in Afghanistan does weeks (ok, months) of hard work and planning, then we get to swoop in like the “Pros from Dover” and present The Plan.  Couldn’t have written a better script myself. <g>
 
In all seriousness, I’m sure the elders have already heard all about the developmental and micro-enterprise projects that are in the works, but that didn’t stop them from showering us with praise for our passion to help and persistence in coming back over and over until the projects are completed… and then coming back again.
 
As promised, here’s Patty’s report on the women’s meeting.
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Have you ever had an experience that you know you'll remember forever?  When sharing it with friends you think, “Remember the day that we (fill in the blank)?  That was the best day...”  Today was that day for me.

We (the women of our team) met with the women Community Health Workers.  We walked into a room of about fifteen women and our translator Latifah started briefing us about the women and their roles in the village.  They are volunteers who are learning skills in community development – child sickness, nutrition, dental hygiene, skin diseases, etc.  They in turn teach other women the skills they have learned.  In the process of teaching others they are learning to build relationships as each woman is responsible for teaching ten families and essentially mentoring them.  So many women in this country are isolated so this is a wonderful way for them to be more connected.

I’ve got to admit I was having a little bit of a hard time listening as I was very eager to reconnect with several of the woman we recognized from a year ago.  I started to shake hands with a few of the women when one of them said she remembered LaNae and me from last year because we cried for them.  Pretty soon other woman said they remembered us too and had missed us and were very happy to see us again.  And once again I couldn’t hold back the tears.

But this time it was different.  One of the older women started crying and saying that she was also crying because she was happy, too.   Last year they did not understand “tears of joy.”  This year they do.  The door had been opened to just sit, hug, cry, laugh, and just be friends.

As women do all around the world we exchanged stories, asked about each other’s families and children, admired what each was wearing, and how we decorated ourselves with earrings, henna or makeup.  One of the teenage girls knew I liked her henna so she ran to get it and quickly offered to decorate a few of our hands.  What a treat and a way of remembering a special day!

It was quite an honor for me to be able to close our meeting by saying a few words for our team.  I thanked them for inviting us into their country, their homes, and their hearts.  Shared the proverb of “home is where your heart is” and expressed that our physical home may be in another country, but we know we have a home here in Barek Aub.   We told them our hearts were filled with joy at being able to be here again to share their lives and for making us feel so welcome.  We assured them that we pray for them always – for good health for them and their families.

This was most definitely a, “Remember that day that we…?” kind of day.
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Before leaving Barek Aub for the day, we took a trip up to the well that was Flatirons’ first project at Barek Aub back in the fall of 2007.  Our hosts explained to the group how the entire water project was based on faith as the government officials said there wasn’t enough water in the area and it would never work.  But they forged ahead and now Barek Aub is blessed with a water system that has exceeded everyone’s expectations.  There are still developmental problems to be sure, but the basic system is one that will serve Barek Aub for many years to come.
 
As our host was explaining the water project to our team, he said he realized that he had never formally thanked the people of Flatirons for their love gift that made the entire water project a reality.  So the bottom photo below is our host’s official “Thank You!” to the Flatirons family from the entire Barek Aub family – two families united in love and by a commitment to common goals.
 
Off to get some rest now as we’ve got a big day planned for tomorrow.  Please pray to continue to pray for continued strength and additional TP as the “Kabul Diet” seems to be working its way through various team members this week.  Thank you for your never ending support!
 
--Bob
 
It was impossible to get all the ladies in one photo, but here are Katie, Kristy,
Keri, and Pat sharing some time and love with their sisters in Barek Aub.


No caption needed.


“Thank You!” from the Barek Aub family to the Flatirons family!