Finally in Kabul

Posted By: Erica

I arrived in Kabul yesterday afternoon. An Afghan partner organization here is providing my housing and office space, so they sent out a driver and staff to meet me, help me with my bags and take me to my new home here. In the evening, the Co-Director of the Afghan organization invited about 15 Afghan dignitaries to the house for dinner – all serving in various important positions in the UN offices here, or in the Karzai government.

The conversation was all in Pashtu so I did not catch much, aside from a few one-on-one chats in English with my nearest table guests. Most of the conversation seemed focused on jokes and local gossip, or on the development of different construction projects in Kabul and around Afghanistan. One man in the office of Karzai’s Chief of Staff pulled aside my co-director to see about getting more materials for two girls’ schools he knew about just outside of Kabul. I guess no detail is too small given the needs here.

I have a book full of phone number and email addresses of people I should meet up with in Kabul who might have information on civilian casualties, on the US and NATO humanitarian aid funds, or other information relevant to my CIVIC mission. If I am successful in contacting all of them, I will have more substantive updates and copious tea and coffee in the next few days.