The streets are flooded, rivers of mud flow through the broken avenues and not a person is to be seen on the streets.
Every time I look out my window I wonder where the children have gone on such a day.
Its cold wet and muddy, cars don’t even dare venture out into this mess, where do the children find refuge?
No matter how far I train my eyes I cant see any of them roaming the streets, working or begging, life has come to a standstill in the downpour.
Seeing this only heightens the sense of urgency I feel.
We have a great deal of work ahead of us, and days like this only make me more and more anxious, sometimes I feel like I will explode if I don’t do something more.
But I keep reminding myself I am doing something.
We are doing something.
Every one of you who over the past few years that have dropped their dollars and cents in to our humble little donation boxes is doing something.
It’s a steady crawl, but we are moving.
Having been born and raised in the west I must admit I have become accustomed to instant gratification.
I expect things to get done in a timely manner, and by the book.
Here there is no book no clock and no expectations.
Expectations only lead to disappointment, I learned that the hard way.
Its better not to have expectations that way you will not get disappointed
I have learned instead, to ask when someone tells me something will be done in a day if it will really be done in a day or if it will be an Afghan day, meaning 5 or 6 days.
This makes them laugh, but they know its true.
I realized that learning to relive your life and plunge into the mundane tasks of daily life after nearly 30 years of war is not an easy thing to do.
I remind myself to exercise patience and that I cannot have the same expectation as I do of those trained for bureaucratic service comfortably in the west.
Our work is moving along but very slowly due to the ridiculously huge bureaucracy and amount of red tape we have to cut through.
To get the job done here you have to know someone, and bless my uncle he knows everyone, otherwise we might be stuck at ground zero forever…(thanks Kaka Kabir!!)
For each of our programs there is a separate ministry with which we must register before our work can go forward, for example the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Women, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education to name just a few.
Each one of these entities is a beast in itself.
They are enormous, slow and corrupt.
To make things worse, these ministries have recently become danger zones as 4 were recently targeted for attacks.
Nonetheless, we are here to get the job done, and finish we will.
We all knew from the start that this would not be a walk in the park, and really couldn’t know what to expect until we arrived.
I will tell you one thing, the realities on the ground are far from what we hear in the states.
Sure the bureaucracy is beastly and corrupt, many might even ask why we have to jump through so many hoops to perform such a righteous deed.
It was not until I arrived here that I learned why the process is so lengthy.
In the past, predators have done evil deeds in the name of aid.
Hundreds of orphans were taken from the streets under the auspices of various orphanages.
Later it was learned that these very orphans were slaughtered and their organs sold in Pakistan. What can you say to that?
Such truth leaves me speechless and pushes me harder, faster and more determined than ever to keep these innocent children from falling into the hands of devils.
I know we cant save them all, but if we can rescue even a few then we have performed a great deed.
I only wish that my words and photos can relay the sense of urgency I feel when I walk the streets here.
I wish you all could be here to see it for yourself.
I swear not one of you would leave without doing something to relieve just a little of these people’s pain.
The realities are consuming.
It’s my duty to bring the facts to you all, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that my words can compel you enough to help us help them.
I know we cant save them all, but today because of your generosity we are able to help ten.
With your continued support we can help, 50, 100,or 1000.
But we cannot do it alone.
