A little light in the craziness

We spent February on a fantastic trip home. Much needed recuperation. However, when we got back, it was like the Embassy had been taken over by werewolves. The stress was almost tangible in the air. More than one person said that February was the hardest month they have had here hands-down. One theory is that everyone is hitting the 6-7 month point and the constant grind is just wearing everyone down. Anyway, it's been hard to not get sucked in to the vortex of doom, which is why I am so thankful for today.

A friend at lunch invited me to go with her to check out a school run by Women for Afghan Women. I fought back my laziness and impulse to say I had too much work and went. SO glad I did.

The school is in effect a boarding school/shelter for children whose mothers are in prison. If this school did not exist, the kids would still be in prison with their mothers. In Afghanistan children live with their mothers in prison until 7 years old, at that point they are supposed to go live with other family. In reality, sometimes the kids go to orphanages. Some end up on the street. The ones who do live with other family are almost always stigmatized because of their mothers' situation.

The place is brimming with happiness. These kids were so excited to be there. In the first classroom, one little girl sang us two songs, which immediately made the other little ones (7ish) want to read us their lessons. They started learning to read just 3 months ago. The next classroom was for computer class and it was full of 10-14 year olds. The oldest girl at the school was in there. She's 14 and her younger brother and sister are both there too. She's been learning English and was both excited and embarrassed to show off her skills. As a result, we got a quite loud and exuberant welcome that she giggled all the way through and hid her face in her teacher's shoulder when she was done.

Their stories are hard - how could they not be with this population of kids? One girl's mother died in prison, but they have not told her yet. That sounds awful until you hear the back story. The mother killed all the rest of her children. This girl is the only survivor and she doesn't remember it or her mother. I don't know if that's because she's repressed the memory or if it's because she was very small when it happened. Another little one, the youngest, is only 4, and is not supposed to be there. The school is supposed to get the kids at age 7. However, she was being abused in the prison and somehow the school administrators managed to get her out. When we met her today, we asked how old she is. She said "4" and the teacher almost started to cry. Apparently until today she would say "7" - she knew she wasn't supposed to be there and she was scared she would have to go back to the prison.

The good news is that the school administrator is incredible and she has literally tried to plan for everything. She has an in-house psychologist who works with the kids and agreements with the local hospitals to provide medical care. Tomorrow is the first day of the new school year in Kabul. Most of these kids have never been to a "real" school and she has arranged for them to go to public school with supplemental lessons at "home". The stated goal of the women running the school is to keep the kids until they are old enough to go to college.