Events

I'm not sure where to start so I just will. Last Friday April 24th we did a clean-up event along the river in town. We did it for earth day. We also plantend two mulberry trees nearby. We picked up 29 bags of garbage everything from plastic bottles to animal bones. We got two big truck tires out of the river and did a lot of good. We went with 9 students from the American Corner and we just walked down to the river from the American Corner it was only like a 10 minute walk. We picked up trash for about 1 1/2 hours and planned trees for a 1/2 hour. Youths even said that it was "fun" and wanted to go back and do it again. We could have picked up 60-70 bags of garbage there was a lot. Then we took the garbage to a dump adjacent to where we picked up the garbage so at least all the garbage was in one place. We all felt good about helping out. If we have time we'll do it again. By that I mean if I have time to organize it again- which is very questionable. By the way each tree cost 5 somoni or about $1.25.
Then on Sunday the 26th Bakhtiyor from IREX organized a big trip to the orphanage near Khujand. 28 kids came out for this all day event. We went around and picked up garbage. Then we talked to people and gave them sweet rolls. There were adults, elderly, teenages and babies all living in this orphanage. Us men passed out sweet rolls to the men and the girls visited the women and the children. I tried to go into where the children were but the smell made me gag and I felt like I was going to vomit so I couldn't go in. Later for lunch we all gave them juice with their lunch. Then we designed posters for their orphange just wishing them the best and trying to brighten the place up. We then presented the posters it was inspiring. We also had time to just hang out with some of the people and with each other.
Then this Friday May 1, I went with my univ. class to a theater/museum on the outskirts of Khujand called Arbob. It was built during Soviet times. We went on a tour of the place and saw the little museum it was a lot of fun. Many kids had never been there before even though it's not far away. Then we had a picnic lunch and played some games. Most notably baseball. The kids just love playing baseball. Now they want to start a league. We were able to take local vans both to and from this Arbob so it was quick and easy. We were home by 1 pm. About 13 students came.
The other night I met a man at this internnet cafe who was an Afghan. He spoke good English and knew a lot of American slang because he worked as an interpreter for NATO troops in his country. He's going back to continue his work in June. He was the second interpreter I've ran into here from Afghanistan. He was very friendly and interesting to talk to. He said the Afghans say that NATO stands for "No action only talk." But he was hoping for the best for his country. He knew how much money you can get from killing a coalition soldier and all sorts of information about different guns. He thought people just needed jobs so they wouldn't turn to violence and extremism. I agree. He had no illusion about how long it will take to bring peace and stability and prosperity to Afghanistan. he knew it would be a long time.

Then I went outside to a sidewalk beer place and had a 35 cent mug of beer and an man that is moving to Denver started talking to me in very broken English. Where ever I go I attract attention.