There are some cool things that I’ve done here in Afghanistan, but haven’t written about because of my stupid obsession with having things in chronological order. Some here comes some stuff in no particular order whatsoever…

Having lunch at Hashmat’s place with his father. Once again it was one of those occasions where I was the only woman, but as usual the Afghan hospitality was wonderful. We enjoyed a great meal of Qabuli Plau, Sabsi, Kebab, Cornflour pudding and many other wonderful things.

Horse riding in the mountains

Horse riding in the mountains
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

Horse riding early in the morning at Mirwais’s place early in the morning. We traveled out of Kabul to visit Mirwais at 5am in the morning. We arrived at his place in the village where he keeps 4 horses. We rode for hours in the hills around Kabul. These were not the type of horses that you find at an Australian riding school that slowly follow behind each other. These were strong, unruly buzkashi horses that took all of my power and energy to control. There was no one telling me to go slower or coaching me in how to ride. There was just me hanging on for dear life.

It was another occasion where I was the only woman, and I managed to impress all the men in our party with my riding abilities as well as draw a crowd from the local children who were eager to watch a western woman on a horse.

Kyle shooting

Kyle shooting
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

After our ride, we returned for tea and a spot of shooting. And I managed to sufficiently earn the respect of these old mujhadeen fighters by being the first to hit the target, with my first shot none the less.

Better still Mirwais does not speak English, only Dari and Russian, so I had a good opportunity to brush up on my language skills.

It was heaps of fun.

Hanging out with the Afghan AIESEC Alumni. Last week we went to Ryat’s place for dinner, where we were once again served the traditional fair of Qabuli Plau, and Sabsi, but this time with the addition of sausages! Once again I was the only woman.

This bunch of crazy Afghans mad up the first ever Afghan AIESEC delegation. And do they know how to party!! After dinner we headed to a local restaurant for tea and shisha and a spot of live local music. We squished 11 of us into a tiny booth and laughed and danced until early morning.

Brodie Cooking

Brodie Cooking
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

Having Brodie here for the last week has been wonderful. He is a super health freak who has only made me realize how unhealthy I have been for the last 3 months. He drinks no caffeine and eats no sugar. And meditates 2 times a day.

He actually managed to get me and Sascha into gear to actually cook something, rather than having cheese and bread for dinner. We had a great stir fry with daal. And as Brodie said, every mouthful had me feeling healthier already.

Music at Breakfast

Music at Breakfast
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

We’ve also arranged some sightseeing activities in honor of his visit, including another trip out to Mirwais’s place for breakfast and a spot of horse riding. Only this time we had a visit from some traditional musicians as well.

Having him at the conference really added something special for the AIESECers and he certainly helped in a major way with the preparations in the last stretch.

Most of all it was fun catch up on old friends and talking AIESEC for hours and hours.

Janwanshir and Me

Janwanshir and Me
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

Finally I have attended an Afghan Wedding. Jawanshir invited me to attend the wedding of his brother. It was a love marriage, as opposed to an arranged marriage, and it was beautiful. There were about 1000 guests. Men in one hall and girls in another. They had a video link between the 2 halls, which is apparently important as a potential meeting ground for new couples.

The place was decked out in green everything, as green is the colour of islam. The bride’s first dress is green, the second is traditional and the third is white.

Girls in Traditional Costume

Girls in Traditional Costume
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

Before the wedding I had complained to Jawanshir that I had nothing to wear and he said that he would bring me traditional clothes to wear. What I didn’t realize was the by wearing the traditional clothes, I was then part of the wedding party and was required to do some dances, have photos with the bride and take part in the henna ritual, but I was so happy to be involved.

I was really lucky to have seen an Afghan wedding, as they are one of the most important parts of Afghan culture, and usually the biggest event in the life of any Afghan.

Conference Banners

Conference Banners
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

The promotional materials are what most impressed me about this conference, mainly because printing 6 banners, 4 stands, 800 pens, 800 folders, 800 notepads, 800 bags and one huge mega banner, is not something we'd ever be able to afford to do in Australia.

Preparing conference folders

Preparing conference folders
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

Wali, Sabir, Fahim and Jawanshir came in to provide some relief when we realised that we had made a mistake on the agenda and that we had to reprint 400 agendas and re-pack 400 folders. Nice work guys.

Registration

Registration
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

Zohal and Naheed kept their cool during registration, even if I didn't. Everybody pitched in to register, tag and bag the 100 students who turned up 15 minutes before we were due to start.

Things are running smoothly after our conference which was a success, even if it seem like it might all collapse mant times. It was very professional, well received by students and business alike and had excellent media coverage.

The banners, posters, folders, pens and delegates bags finally arrived less than 10 hours before we were due to start, so we had a late night and early morning packing everything. But thanks to the guards and house staff at Cetenagroup, we managed to pull through.

Both days went down without too many problems. We were constantly running at least ½ and hour behind, but everyone put that down to “Afghan time” so we were forgiven.

The Career Building Seminar on Sunday was more successful than I thought it would be, with students really interested in attending the workshops. I don’t know whether it was because this is how they would get lunch or qualify for the second day, but there was a really good turn out.

Particularly the Careers Fair was great, with students who were not even coming to the conference all giving plenty of attention to the represented companies.

The Leadership Development Summit at the Intercontinental Hotel on Monday also went remarkably well. We had some small problems with registration, and then after the first hour, the microphone stopped working, but other than that it was great. Having it at a hotel was really impressive and made the day a whole lot easier for us.

The speakers were generally interesting. Particularly a discussion on leadership, lead by Brodie Boland, raised some interesting questions and got great feedback.

We were also able to add in some cool Afghan cultural elements on this day by having some traditional musicians. At lunch time, a whole bunch of the boys danced the Atun, a national dance.

In the evening the musicians returned to play just for the AIESECers and we had our own little party in the Intercontinental Hotel, on top of Kabul.

One of the coolest things ever has been watching the news and listening to the radio in the last 2 days and hearing AIESEC mentioned everywhere, even if I don’t understand really what they’re saying.

After 2 months work, I really feel like I’ve been able to contribute something to AIESEC in Afghanistan. They now have some good contacts, media exposure, and if all the finances work out, we might even turn a small profit, enough to run the office for the next little while anyway.

Not only that, but I’ve learned so much from doing it. I feel like I’ve got enough experience building partnerships and raising funds to come back and kick ass on the Australian MC.

Also, it has been great to see new Afghan AIESECers begining to fall into AIESEC through this project. Mansoor and Jawanshir have made me so pround by really taking on responsibility and dealing with my phrase "solve it". But the whole conference team including Asad, Sadaf, Zuhal, Zuhra, Naheid, Fraedoon, Abdullah, Fahim and Hashmat have all been a big part of making it happen.

Most of all Connie, who has been with me since the beginning, who has been my friend and confidant, has pushed and fought to make this conference happen on the CETENAGROUP side.

Cheers Guys

Local Musicians

Local Musicians
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

These are muscians from the Agha Khan Foundation which is where music Afghan music gurus practice. These guys demand respect and they got it. They really added to the vibe of the conference. It was professional and sophisticated.

Connie, Mahmood, Shoiab and Me

Connie, Mahmood, Shoiab and Me
Originally uploaded by Kyle Liddell.

Here we are at the end of our conference felling pretty chuffed with ourselves.

Afghan Post and a Sorry Lesson!!

Yesterday a parcel arrived for me that has been almost 4 months coming!!!

Before I left Australia, I sent some souvineers and things to my sister in India thinking that I would pick them up when I visited her in January to bring them with me to Afghanistan.

Unfortunatly, the package missed me by about 3 days. So Skye set about posting it onto Afghanistan. She went through a great ordeal trying to make the package comply with Indian postal standards. She finally left the package and 500 rupeeswith a friend to let them do the best they could.

So after all this, yesterday, a note arrived saying that my parcel was ready to be collected at the central post office. The Guard where I live gave the post man 4 dollars and passed on this note to me.

So I happily headed on down to the central post office to collect my goodies. Paying on the way 2 dollars for the cab. I arrive at the post office, show all of my documents and am asked to pay another 4 dollars to collect my parcel.

When I say that I have already paid the 4 dollars for my parcel everybody laughs heartly and says I've been had. So in my outrage, I make a complaint to the postmaster, that his distributers are collecting money in this way. I think that I am doing my civic duty by reporting this. And quite frankly I'm sick and tired of being ripped off and over charged. I may be a foreigner, but I'm not made of money!

I then return to collect my parcel, thinking I can happily go home and savour the moment of opening it. But this is not to be. The parcel had to be opened by a customs officer and I list of the items recorded.

So we go through it
one skirt
4 AIESEC t-shirts
business cards
stuffed kangaroo
australian pens
koala lighter
and 2 packets of tampons

This was a rather embrassing point not only for me haveing the 5 or so customs men passing them around wondering what they were, but also for the local AIESECer, Mansoor, who had to explain to the customs men what they were. These types of things are kept extremely private in Afghanistan and most men wouldn't even know what a period was!!

So we finally leave the post office and after the 2 dollar taxi ride back to the office I was wishing that it had been lost in the mail.

But the story does not end here. It turns out that as a result of my complaint, the distribution post man is being investigated and faces the possibility of loosing his job. Further, he did not actually ask for the 4 dollars that he collected from the Guard here at my office, but rather it is something that he is regularly given when he comes here, because the workers here know how low his salary is.

Good one Kyle. So tomorrow, when the post master comes to investigate, I have to try and explain the whole situation and withdraw my complaint.

All this heartache over 1 skirt, 4 t-shirts, some souvineers and a couple of packs of tampons!