Louise is a Broad ... Abroad

Malawi December 2005

Here are some samples from the 21 pictures from my brief Malawi December 2005 tour.

Ghana Projects

Some of my photos documenting project visits in Ghana are at my Flickr account.

Slide Show Movie of Afghan Photos

Here are my most interesting Afghanistan photos: the prefered version will be set to some cool music; the smaller one does not have the soundtrack.

The World Vision clients features several families and the case workers.

From Mujahidin to Women’s Clothes Tailor

From Mujahidin to Women’s Clothes Tailor

For those who have made a career of being Mujahidin, the adaptation to civilian life is a little hard. This man was 22 years in the armed struggle, now he hopes to make a living as a tailor. He says that despite the economic hardships, peace is better.

Others are more bitter. An ex-officer I talked to said that he may have looked like he laid his gun but in his heart all he laid down was his pen , i.e. he signed for DDR (disarmamant, domobilization and Reintegration) but he is not happy. He had men under him, respect. Now he has an embproidery shop. Why did he not join the new army. He was rejected for some reason and he is very bitter. He had studied in Russia, had skills, knew how to repair tanks. He chose to open an embroidery shop because he is old and didn’t wantto become a mechanic or a construction worker.
Another older veteran, presently unemployed also said that if the Mujahiding came back he would join immediately.
The younger ones are pretty happy to have a trade and have no interest in returning to the old days. They have a whole future ahead of them. Some were just there for a year.

Ex-Combatants

Ex-Combatants

A group of ex-Combatants in Kabul.

These former combatants are waiting for their monthly training stipend. They are allowed to the World Vision’s office in small groups for security reasons.

Swords to Sewing Machines

Swords to Sewing Machines

A very unusual situation, this man is being trained by his wife who took up tailoring to support the family while he was away. She certainly seemed the entrepreneurial one in the family. Apparently she is also training her brother (absent). She is hoping that the guys can open a shop so she can stop tailoring to take care of their two children.

Job Placement Assistants

Mountain Job Placement Assistants

Here I stand with the Parwan province staff. These men are “Job Placement Assistants”. They go around to the apprentices’ (x-coms) job placements supposedly on a regular basis to encourage them and see that they are attending their training. The trainees have a syllabus to follow and these chaps go around and apply tests to see if they know the skills they are supposed to acquire. A tougher job here than in Kabul, where folks are more sophisticated I am told.

Learning some “Dairie”

On Thursday we went out of Kabul to meet project staff and beneficiaries. The region is Parwan, about one hour drive north of Kabul. To kill time, I started to improve my language skills in the local language "Dairie". I am not sure how it is actually spelled. I am writing how it sounds. It is basically a variation of Farsi (which I don’t speak). The vocabulary and grammar seem quite easy. The words are short thus fairly easy to remember.  For example kiria=village;  shawjhar=husband;  zarat=road;  good=joob (j pronounced like Spansih -j);  ma=I;  shama=you;  yak=one; do=two; sei=three; chor=four; tashakor=thank you; chetor astit?=how are you?;  joob astoom=I am well. 

Boz maybeeneem = See you later…

Good Meetings!

Had a very good session with the project staff: Management, Admin staff and Job Placement Officers and Assistants. I did a participatory ranking exercise with them to assess the various components of the project. It turned out well. Next time, we’ll analyse the results and look for solutions for improvements, where necessary.

There was a large meeting of all the implementation partners (IPs) at the UNDP yesterday to which they invited me; an excellent move in terms of the evaluation. They did a Power Point presentation of the results of an overall evaluation of the DDR project, of all the IPs not just WV. It is useful as one more tool to assess the WV project against the others.

Today I focused on some interviews. Flexibility is key: some things can be planned in advance, others not. Tomorrow, we’re going to another site (safe) outside of Kabul (Parwan). Looking forward to it!

Stuck in Traffic …

Herat is supposed to be more free but movements in Kabul are extremely restricted: guest house – locked car – office – locked car – meeting place – locked car – office – locked car – guest house – locked car – restaurant – locked car – guest house, etc. etc.. Every house/office in Kabul is a walled in compound. So you move from walled in compound to walled in compound.

The car gets checked for homemade bombs every time it enters the World Vision compound where the office and guest house are located. There are three guards on duty at all times. The curtains in the rooms facing the street on the second floor facing the street where the living quarters are located are drawn 24 hours a day, especially as there is a Mosque across the street.

The streets in the centre of the city are very bustling with people and cars but basically are out of bounds for foreigners. You see it all from the car. It is not possible to get out to check out stores or outdoor fruit and vegetable stands that fill the streets or just walk around.

Traffic in the centre of Kabul is terrible and has grown enormously since 2001. It’s bumper to bumper during the day. A fifteen minute trip can easily take an hour. There are also traffic stoppages any time someone important from the government moves around. Traffic is stopped and safe passage is secured. There whereabouts are never known in advance.