Day Two

Spent the morning on the computer. Besides the blog and checking my email, I had to check the Twins scores. Folks, fellow Minnesotans, how could you let the Twins get swept by Detroit? Sounds like Mauer was out for the entire series. It's hard to check the Twins website because the pages take so long to load. I finally found a page with just the standings and bookmarked it so I can get the results more quickly.

Also spent some time making sure I had the clothes I need for our trip north which is much more conservative than Kabul. Debbie is loaning me this delicious long black coat with some embroidery on it which makes it make my Pakistani scarf perfectly.

Mae Dawn came over to help make plans for all the things we want to do when we come back from the north. Visit the orphanage, visit the U of Kabul, find some playgrounds to take pictures of for our project, get my shopping done for Masouda, perhaps visit the ISK, the K-12 school for internationals to investigate teaching music. It will be a very busy week.

Late yesterday afternoon, Brian and I went to sit in on a class at the Institute for Leadership Development which has just started up in Kabul. Students were arriving late because of a big traffic tie-up. A huge machine was working on the road so all traffic going one direction was diverted to another street. The police there were very busy keeping traffic moving.

It was the beginning class of a new semester. Only one woman in the class; apparently there had been five last semester. They were using a John Maxwell book Developing the Leader Within You. They were discussing a chapter on Positive Change.



Lively discussion. Very friendly people all of them. The men all wanted to shake my hand, so very progressive. These are the leaders of Afghanistan in the days to come. Several doctors in the group. One mullah, as we learned later.

At the break, the director of the school invited us to his home where his wife and two children fed us dinner, including a hot fudge sundae cake for dessert. Very western food, but very Afghani home, all sitting on toshaks, with a tablecloth spread on the floor in front of us. When she served us dessert, she switched to a more decorative tablecloth. I am going to have to do some serious physical rehab if I'm to be sitting on toshaks a lot! Expect to run into that today as we have lunch in a locals home at one of the communities we visit.

Also joining us for supper was a young Afghani man currently working for the UN. He is a graduate of ILD at the University of Herat and had just spent two years in the US getting a Master's Degree in Diplomacy. Next year he is going back to study at Notre Dame to get some additional law studies to add to his law degree obtained here in Afghanistan. Very open, honest frank discussion about the future of Afghanistan and its citizens. With people like that in the leadership pipeline, there is great hope for the future.