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Blog Entry 9 of 9 flatironsinafghanistan
This is a journal about the humanitarian trips to Afghanistan that Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette is sponsoring.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~flatirons

Day 7: Return to Barek Aub

Contributed by: Flatirons Church Afghan Trip   on 4/29/2008

Except for the increased police presence on the streets of Kabul, today seemed just like an other day, despite yesterday's events at the soccer stadium.

We saw police officers dressed in green at all the major intersections - usually we'd see one or maybe two at each of the intersections, and there were extra security checkpoints leading in and out of Kabul.

Otherwise, children were still going to school, vendors were still selling fruit and vegetables, bicycle parts and goldfish (as pets) and drivers were still veering in and out of traffic while pedestrians nonchalantly crossed the streets at any location they pleased.

Even for people on the team, yesterday's events didn't linger on our feelings, except for disappointment for our SOZO International hosts because of the work that went into yesterday's shortened celebration and what it meant to the people.

We returned to Barek Aub today to drop off the rest of our school supplies to the older children. We also visited the site of the well that Flatirons helped pay for, and the spot for the future reservoir (which is mostly just a concrete box about the size of a small bedroom) that will help supply water to the future residents.

The valley Barek Aub is located in is immense, with tall mountains walling in the area. Right now, small patches of houses are scattered about, but Afghanistan's plan is turn the area into a city. Engineers and planners have mapped out where everything is supposed to go (although some of the residents have built their houses contrary to plans) and are just waiting for everything to take shape.

The children weren't there to receive the bags of supplies directly, but people living nearby still meandered out to say 'hi' in their own way. We took a mini-tour of the school, first because the school is just a tent with a small chalkboard on one side and desks in the middle, and second because it felt like it was 95 degrees in there. We couldn't imagine the heat once summer hits.

We had a lazy afternoon, which allowed people to check over photos, catch up in their journals or just enjoy the Kabul weather, which has been spectacularly sunny the entire time here. Our only distress came with trying to fit the rugs everyone bought into duffel bags to take home.

We've had more guests tonight, this time four members of the U.S. military. They talked a little bit about what they're doing and their thoughts about the war (going good here, not so great in Iraq). Now they're politely chatting away with everyone in the guest house, our last night here.

On some levels, we're all ready to go, but we don't want to leave.

We're ready to see friends and family again. We've done our best acclimating to a culture with increased levels of modesty (not that modesty is a bad thing), but has left us on guard much of the time.

But on the other hand, we see everything that's going on here - both the good and the bad, and we want to help. I don't think anyone of us would be here if we felt otherwise.

Things are not good here - 30 years of war have led to corruption, poverty and poor health and education facilities if they exist here at all. Afghanistan has enemies in and around its borders. Natural disasters have taken its toll.

But we don't see complacency or an acceptance of their situation. People are working or they actively look for work. New infrastructure is being built. Food is being grown. The beggars we do see have reached a level of desperation and need rarely seen in the United States.

And we see the Afghan workers here with SOZO, spending day after day making tangible differences in their community and their country that most people can only dream about, and that's something we've been proud to be apart of.

I also think we're dreading another 36-hour journey back to DIA.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Flatirons Church Afghan Trip has posted 9 blog entries and 0 comments since joining on 4/23/2008. Flatirons Church Afghan Trip 's average blog rating is 5.
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