Mission Accomplished
Posted by Dina Fesler on December 11th 2009 in NEED Magazine, Organizations, Photo Essays
One of the founders of NEED, Kelly Kinnunen, is working on a video documentary project in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is traveling with Dina Fesler of the nonprofit Children’s Culture Connection. Among other places, they have been visiting Charahee Qambar, an IDP camp where people are living in desperate conditions with very little aid. Dina emailed an update about what they are doing and we wanted to share it with you.
If I thought the past two weeks have been busy, they’ve been nothing compared to the past two days of running around getting the last video footage for our project before we leave. It’s been a wild carnival ride as Habibi, our driver, whizzes us all over Kabul in his little Toyota while Najib lines up appointments on his cell phone as fast as I can think of things to put on the list, which includes interviewing a bank and a radio station, attending a girls basketball game and a conference for disabled land mine victims, taking three more kids to the hospital and attending a wedding. Somehow Najib stays calm and collected throughout all this. I guess praying five times a day really helps him stay centered. Maybe I should try that, too.
Yesterday, of all the things Najib managed to line up for us, the only one he was having trouble arranging was an invitation to an Afghan wedding. As I already mentioned, Najib is a master networker who seems to know half of Afghanistan so I could tell it was bugging him that this wasn’t coming together. Every day when I asked him if we scored a wedding invite he’d quietly say “not yet.” Unexpectedly, while we were at the International Disabled Persons Day conference (Afghanistan works especially hard to take care of the many victims of the landmines laid during the wars. Would you believe that of the ten million land mines buried in Afghanistan, more than 3 million are still active?), Najib overheard a manager in the hall talking about a wedding that would be held there the next day.
So in a last-chance-Hail-Mary-pass effort, today we showed up on the doorstep of this wedding where Najib somehow convinced the parents of the bride to let us crash. He explained that we are making a film to teach American students about Afghan culture and that they would be doing a great thing to help children of the world unite. I’m telling you, the guy has a gift.
At Afghan weddings there are actually two parties in separate rooms for men and women. Kelly and Najib went to the guys party and I went solo into the gals party to schmooze my way through hundreds of women dolled up in their glitziest gowns (like an explosion in a sequin factory), tons of jewelry and even more makeup. It was amazing to be in the middle of this wild celebration with Afghan music blaring, women dancing and shimmying and gyrating all over the dance floor, confetti flying and children chasing one another around the room just like at an American wedding.
Of course, I was getting plenty of strange looks from the guests with no way of explaining why in the world I was there, so my strategy was to smile as much as possible, say tashakur (”thank you,” the only Dari word I know) to every woman I saw, and fawn over their children.
I sat at a table in the back to keep a low profile but, with tremendous hospitality, the mother of the bride brought me to the front table to hang with her friends. After a lot of dancing they served a huge meal of lamb and rice and naan, and finally, the bride and groom slowly entered the room and went up on the stage while bursts of confetti rained down from overhead.
Because Najib thinks of absolutely everything, he ran to a nearby store, bought gifts and had them specially wrapped so I had something to take on stage to present to the bride and groom. Despite being very surprised to discover a strange foreigner at their wedding, they were incredibly gracious. Afghan hospitality!
While I pack my luggage to fly back home, I can’t stop thinking about how much the Afghans amaze and impress me. Two weeks ago when we first landed I imagined a depressed, war-torn country, bullets and rockets flying by every street corner, and I would have considered myself lucky to get out with my life. What I discovered was completely different. Yes, it is a depressed, war-torn country, but it is filled with the most passionate and loving people I have ever met. People who truly care about and look out for one another. Even though every day is a struggle for them as they rebuild their country (again), they do it with class and dignity. Even though they haven’t managed to catch a break in over 30 years, they refuse to let the world get them down. They have shown me what endurance is, because no matter how many roadblocks get thrown in their way, they find a way to keep on going. They are deeply religious people, but not in a way that others need to fear. They are not bitter and they don’t hold grudges against those who have wronged them in the past. They are survivors.
Afghanistan remains a dangerous place, but it was hard to worry about death in a place that makes me feel so alive.
This will be my last post from Kabul as we are leaving in just a few hours, but I will continue to post updates about the children being served by the Helmand Children’s Medical Fund on the NEED blog. Thanks for hanging in with me on this crazy adventure. Thanks also to all of you who opened your hearts (and wallets) to help children in the IDP camp get the medical help that they need. You have made a difference in the lives of these children, and when their families realize where this money is coming from they are overwhelmed by this outpouring of love from some American civilians. These people now know who Americans really are, and instead of being afraid of us (and us of them), some seeds of peace have been planted. I think that is a beautiful beginning.
HCMF Donations at War Kids Relief Children’s Culture Connection 
