Thursday, September 10, 2009

September 9, 2009

A few days ago, Gulalai found a four foot snake in the alley between our houses. It looks like a rattler until you get to the tail which is pointed, no rattle. – she’s a biologist who has studied snakes and says all snakes with pointed tails are venomous. I didn’t get to see the head which was chopped off by the guard with a shovel but she says it was also in the shape of a venomous snake. There is no anti venom in Afghanistan. But still it was sad to see such an amazing creature be put in the ground. Other colleagues have encountered a huge yellow scorpion and giant spiders. Theoretically this is all scarier to me than any Talib.
It’s barely past the second week and I’m once again in love with my students. I’m having all of them keep journals: Yesterday there was an IED ( Unidentified Exploding Device) at the airport- the airport as a site is a first since I’ve been here- and 3 students reported that they had been on their way to the spot but late or 5 minutes away when it went off. A woman student in a severe black chador just got a car- I have yet to see any woman driving though I know that one of my acquaintances does. Another woman wrote about taking public transportation for the first time in her life. How many of you have taken public transportation?

The first assignment for Advanced Comp students is a Talk of the Town from Kabul a la the New Yorker- this is really a huge challenge for them, but if they can do it I think it will be great.

Today Hjalmar came over to visit-this is so rare that it is noteworthy-Hjalmar is the Bolivian-German in-country director of the ARDO (Afghan Human Rights and Democracy Organization) theater project I began working with in the spring- he has asked me to mentor the group he’s working with. He’s funded by a transitional justice org in Brussels that is also funding three international theater people (Columbia, Switzerland and US-the Columbian is a political activist who’s written a one man play about his life and death exp in Columbia) -they will do workshops all over the country (puppetry, clowns, etc ) with orphanages , women’s shelters etc and I’ll be able to bring some of my students which is great since my proposal for Intro to Theater didn’t fly this semester and many were disappointed. A little bit of positive in a very bleak picture. He corroborates what I hear over and over again. The majority of foreigners working with NGO’s and the UN don’t give a shit about Afghanistan and are just here to collect their 10 or 15 thou danger pay a month for 2 yrs(mine is 1500), add it to their resume and move up the ladder to some safe European posting.

It’s good that I love my students bec they may be one of the very few things going for me here- it’s even harder to leave the guest house this semester – today the city is celebrating of Massoud, there are tanks all over the place, we are barred from leaving and this is the beginning of a 4- day weekend.

I’m sitting outside hoping for internet connection which we haven’t had for 2 days and there are all these baby birds feeding in the grass.

I put up some of my photos to prompt my 17! Creative Writing students

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