Our team was safe and secure at our guest house and we were all asleep throughout the entire attack, only aware of it when we woke up this morning.  We sent out quick notices via email and social media to family and friends to be sure everyone knew we were OK.

 

Attacks of this magnitude are not common in Kabul and this one in particular cast a pall of sadness over the entire region.  The Afghan people desperately want peace in their homeland.

 

Although we were never in jeopardy, our hosts wanted to wait until the chaos in the area subsided before we headed out to Barek Aub for the final time on this trip.  So we left the guest house a little late, but were eventually allowed to try to complete our day as planned.

 

When we arrived at Barek Aub, we immediately got to take part in a very heart warming story begun in Colorado by the daughter of one of our team members, LaNae's daughter Britney.  (Way to go, Brit!!)  I don't have room for the entire story here, but basically one of Brit's teachers was so taken with Brit's passion for Afghanistan (with a mom who goes there  every year, who wouldn't be passionate about it!) that she used the occasion to prompt intensive study about Afghanistan and the region.  The class eventually decided they wanted to do a fundraising drive for Afghan school kids and picked the Barek Aub school as their beneficiary.  By placing 5-gallon jugs around the town of Mead, CO, the class was able to raise about $700 which was used to buy a TV, DVD player, chairs, desks, blackboards, and a variety of supplies here in Afghanistan.  (The TV and DVD player will be powered by battery, since there is still no power in BA.)

 

LaNae made a formal presentation to the headmaster of the Barek Aub school, telling him the entire story.  Following the presentation, the guys on our team helped unload the donated items and then began the task of assembling the desks which came in boxes laughingly labeled, "some assembly required."  The women departed for the Clinic to meet first with the remaining 20 ladies taking part in the Literacy Program then about 40 Community Health Workers.

 

Assembling the desks was an interesting challenge for the guys and after about a half-hour of assembling, disassembling, re-assembling, and re-disassembling desks and parts of desks, Robb commented, "I came halfway around the world only to find out that Afghan men are just like American men -- none of us will read the directions!!"

 

It was a comedy of errors watching the four of us and an equal number of Afghan men trying to assemble all the parts of the desks as if we were in a race and pretending that we each knew what we were doing!  I think we eventually got the first desk done in a little more than an hour with no broken parts and thankfully no one got injured.  The second desk took about 45 minutes and the third only about 30.  By now we were a well oiled, lean, mean, desk assembling machine!

 

All kidding aside, it was a wonderful experience working literally hand-in-hand with the Afghan men, most of whom spoke no English, communicating only through gestures with one another, and figuring out how to work together as a team to get the desks built properly and as efficiently as possible.  We assembled some pretty neat desks and also built some great relationships.

 

Meanwhile the women of our team were over at the Clinic meeting with the remaining women of the Literacy Program who had been busy voting last Sunday!  They next met with the Community Health Workers who are a vital part of the rebuilding plan at Barek Aub.  The CHW's are the women who go door-to-door meeting with women in every household to teach them about birth control, burn prevention, general health education, relationship development, and other skills essential for their families to enjoy a healthy life.

 

Our ladies shared stories about their personal lives with both groups of women and heard the same from a variety of women from Barek Aub.  One of the topics was marriage: in Afghanistan most marriages are arranged, but a small percentage are purely for love.  One of our gals stated that things were similar in America: our marriages aren't arranged, but sometimes we marry for love and sometimes for money!  THAT really got the discussion going and kept our translators scrambling for nearly 3 hours!

 

Our team members commented that they've never seen the women at Barek Aub speak so freely and that it's obvious they are really bonding with the women from our teams whenever we're there.  It was easy to notice the posture and body language of the women, who initially sat very rigid and formal, begin to relax and lean in to the conversation as they realized they weren't going to be interrogated, exploited, or judged but rather understood, accepted, and loved.  It's a beautiful thing to see relationships forged through candid and intimate dialogue like this.

 

But eventually it was time to say "Passan Meybenem" (See you later!) to our friends at Barek Aub for the last time this trip.  So after some tearful goodbyes we headed back to the guest house so Ron, Tim, and Jeri could catch their flight back to Denver.

 

After lunch some of the remaining members of the team were able to deliver a portable heart defibrillator to the Cure International Hospital in Kabul that had been donated by the Lafayette Fire Department.  The defibrillator had been replaced by the LFD because it was obsolete, but it was still in good working condition so we made arrangements to bring it from Colorado and donate it to Cure's Medical Director, Dr. Manning, for their cardiac care unit.  And they were thrilled to receive it!  After we made the official presentation, Dr. Manning treated us to a complete tour of the hospital including the maternity ward.  Afghan babies are so cute!!  (I swear... one of the women on our team MADE me write that!)

 

After we returned from the hospital we spent some more time in the guest house courtyard debriefing, processing, and sharing among ourselves and with our Afghan host.  There are a lot of thoughts and feelings to sort out after the last couple of days and getting our host's perspective really helped us make sense out of some of what we had witnessed.

 

After dinner we began the packing process and hit the sack early.  Although it wasn't a day full of hard work, it was certainly one of the most exhausting.

 

Everyone on the team is very thankful that we've been blessed to see the growth, although there's still a long way to go, at Barek Aub and at Istalif.  Because it reminds us that, despite the attempts by a fractional minority to control through oppression and fear, the overwhelming majority of Afghans desperately want a future of stability and peace.

 

Throughout the day we've received hundreds of texts, emails, tweets, and Facebook posts wishing us and the Afghan people well and offering support.  Unfortunately we can neither reply to them all nor thank you enough for sending them.  But we have passed your thoughts and well wishes on to our Afghan hosts and they send back a warm "Tashakor!"

 

Signing off for now... I can hardly believe we've only one more day here before starting the long trip home.  I'll try to send one more update before jumping on the plane.  Thank you again for all your life giving support and prayers.

 

--Bob