Moving

Finally got the word last week to book my ticket to Afghanistan! Planning to depart Sep 23 and come back Oct 10. Now comes all the work of planning what to take.

I've been off-line for awhile. My house finally sold to a lovely family who couldn't wait to get in. They were mowing lawns, trimming hedges, cleaning gutters all while we were packing up my stuff. Put most of my things into storage and moved my office and bedroom to my brother Jim's home in Prior Lake. People keep asking if I'm sad about leaving the house. Not that I am known for being in touch with my feelings, but my primary feeling has been one of relief! I lived there from July 2002 to August 2010 - the longest I've lived in any one place since I left my parents' home.

I will miss living in Mounds View. Having been part of the Streets & Utilities Task Force and then sitting on the Streets & Utilities Committee for two years, I felt a close connection to the community. I'm still teaching up there one day a week, so will get to visit my Caribou Coffee baristas and my favorite hairdresser Nicole at Cost Cutters!

Kabul in Winter

Just finished reading Ann Jones' Kabul in Winter, published in 2006. Tough book to read, not because she doesn't write well because she does. There are several other books I have started but not finished because they were so negative, but this one I couldn't let go of because Ann is so much like me - same age, many of the same passions. There are three sections, In the Streets, In the Prisons and In the Schools. Having spent so many years working in jails and prisons here in the US, I found the Prisons sections fascinating but frightening. And the section on Schools was downright discouraging.

I've read quite a few books by American women living in the Afghan culture. This is the first one that made me question my ability to have any useful function in Afghanistan. Not that I'm getting cold feet yet. But if I thought that going there would enable me to get away from the materialistic culture of the US, it seems that so many of the worst sort of Americans are over there now, milking the aid environment in the worst possible ways.

Signing On

I found my round tuit! Now I can finally start the blog that I've been thinking about for well over a year. I plan to share some of the steps of my journey to this place and also to post as I continue in my forays.

My interest in Afghanistan began two years ago in July 2008 while listening to Dan Batchelder talk about Morningstar Development's work building community centers in various areas in Afghanistan. Something in me said "This would be something worth doing." As I was saddled with a huge house, it didn't seem as though going to Afghanistan was something I could look forward to for a long time. But in February 2009, I was struck by the realization that if I "lost" the house, I could be free to go. It was necessary to let go of that American Dream of home ownership in order to realize the next dream. And now, I have a definite date of August 17, 2010, when I will no longer be a home owner! Next stop - Afghanistan!