Relief vs Development

Today we assisted the U.S. Military in some relief efforts to build trust within the community in which we have relationships with. The idea is to later go and initiate development efforts for education, health and agriculture. The main goal of all of this is to make the people self sufficient. These things take years to develop.


For those of you who interested in knowing the difference, here are some general thoughts in regards to NGO work.


Relief:
Giving something away to sustain life. (food, clothing, blankets)


Development:
Building programs which will sustain and improve the quality of life. (education, agriculture programs, training and health) Development aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. There are three things I can think of which effect this idea, they are social, environmental and economic impact.


More later.

Food and more food

Diner at Dr. Hadi's tonight. Same scene as yesterday, only a different menu and more people. I felt like it was a family reunion, only with relatives I've never met before. There were at least 30 of them, and they explained they had to keep it quiet otherwise there would be over 100. Whoa!

Thoughts:

We eat to survive, but sharing a meal with people and enjoying it is where it's at. It's amazing to me that everyone here isn't 5000 lbs! The food just keeps coming! On the contrary, people here seem to be in good shape and health. Maybe it has to do with the "type" of food they eat, fresh, bought or picked that day and prepared right away, I'm sure that plays a part in it.

Aaron's comments on my diner experience yesterday and how we typically view things in the U.S. are so true. It's been quite an honor to be a part of several family groups "on the inside" here. It's certainly different if your traveling and eating in hotels, fancy restaurants or the greasy spoon. Not that I mind, but a $75.00 breakfast at the Waldorf is a bit much and although I miss my $3.00 biscuits, gravy, bacon and eggs, I'm probably saving myself from having to worry about my cholesterol.

In a way, sharing meals here reminds me a lot of being at my parents house when people just stop by. I talked about the similarities with my new friends here. They have their own customary practices that parallel ours. For instance, the words "no thank you" don't really mean anything. See below:

Example A: US household.

Mom's house

Mom says....."want some pie?" No thanks "cake?" No thanks, I'm not hungry. "cookies?, Pizza?, eggs?, bacon?, spinach dip?, Ritz crackers?, Texas sheet cake?"..........meanwhile, she's placed silverware, plates, drinks, chips, snack food, made coffee, and piles of goodies on there. "Eat" she says.

Example B: Afghanistan household.

Dr. Hadi's house

Someone gets up and holds up a plate of lamb, you politely take some, then someone else spoons 3-4 heaping mounds of rice on there when your not looking, then vegetables, then meatballs in a red sauce (lamb), then yogurt, then eggplant, then naan, then a macaroni dish, then watermelon, then mulberry's freshly picked (there were about 25lbs of them on a plate....I thought I was in Rome).

Get the picture? Anyway, so much to talk about, so many nice people, such GOOD FOOD!

The entire day today, until our food induced coma, was spent working out details on what the Ministry of Economy needs for reporting. They constantly change their requirements from day to day. It's been such a nightmare trying to figure out what exactly they want and need. No filming lately due to that. Before I return in a few days I'll head out for some landscape shots and shoot BRoll of people in some of the streets, hopefully make it to chicken street and write letters for my new friends and hosts to express my gratitude for their hospitality. Still several more days to go, I hope there's enough time for everything!

Dinner traditions

Last night was dinner at Hamid's home. It was nothing short of an extraordinary experience.

Tradition:

1. bring a gift

2. sit on the floor the entire time

3. don't point the bottoms of your feet at anyone

4. when using your hands to talk, don't point, position your hand with your fingers extended and closed together along with your thumb to motion in one direction or another

The meal:

First I want to say that everything we experienced and ate there was really good. I was so full when we left I didn't think I'd make it to the car. Before the meal, we sat along the wall on a cushion and had tea, bread and candy. After some time, the younger members of the family brought a round bowl and a watering bucket for washing your hands before we ate. They went around to each person, very systematically and proper starting from one side of the room to the other.

The main course arrived beginning with naan, 3-4 lamb dishes including kabobs, a mildly spicy red sauce, and some small pieces on bones. They also have their own version of dumplings which look like pot stickers, only they seem to be baked and include spice infused lamb and a hint of yogurt. Rice is the staple here as well, along with a fancy decorated salad plate. There were several drinks including tea, soda(s) (pop if you're from Pennsylvania), and water. All of this was placed on the floor and covered about a 20-30 foot area. There's enough food to feed an army.

After the main course, it was time for ice cream WOOOOOO! And fruit...bananas, apples, and mangos.

Then more tea and drinks.

Then, we received some gifts from the family. (a rug and shirt for Betsy, and shirts for everyone else)

Diner started at 6:00 and was complete by about 10:30. We all took a tour of the home, stood on the roof and and had some great conversations about solving all of life's problems. It was a really fun and interesting experience. The structure and timing during the evening was something I had never experienced. It reminded me a lot of the dojo traditions we have. There's a lot of respect and tradition in regards to who does what first, how long and why. I really felt comfortable and at home.

Mula meeting

At the Ministry of Health Meeting today, we found out that they are interested in Mental Health programs.

It just so happened that one of the women from Doris's school is a mental health therapist. So after the Ministry of Health meeting, we traveled to her clinic and learned about the programs they have in place there.

There is alot of severe mental trauma experienced by the native people here due to the war and other incidents. We sat in a room with a group therapy session listening, while the patients explained some of the things which led them to the mental health facility and how it is giving them hope to continue on.

Doris then gave words of encouragement through Dr. Hadi (to translate for them). Doris has such a way with words, it was a very emotional time for everyone in the room. Out of the blue, one of the women stood up and walked toward Doris with a handful of documents with pictures them of her late husband and children. The woman explained her husband was the victim of a suicide bombing who died recently. The entire room welled up with tears, Gip started praying, Doris embraced the woman and I turned on my camera...I think my media brain kicked in. I think it's the only way I'm able to not get caught up in the moment.

Afterward, we traveled DEEP into the Hazara district with our local contacts to meet the military for some relief effort planing and to view the 2 schools for children there.

The government doesn't fund any education programs or schools, so the one or two local literate people there are teaching the children during the day. There are hundreds and hundreds of children there.

Then we headed out through the narrow, winding alleyways to the Mula's home. When we arrived, they motioned for us to go upstairs, then we sat on the floor to wait for the military to arrive and drank orange pop. After quite some time passed, I started thinking to myself "yep, hurry up and wait"....(I was in the military so I guess I can say that). Long story short, they made it, and we managed to figure out a good location for the relief effort, then left to check it out.

The actual relief effort date is kept secret and will occur later. Telling too many people in advance causes issues.

Mula...What's a Mula?

One may think Mula is an English term referring to money. You know, "Gimme some mula, I want to buy a candy bar."

Well, the word Mula in this culture refers to a person in charge of a tribe or village of people. If you want something, you typically need the Mula's permission for it.

In order for us to distribute anything for this relief effort into a community (ultimately to do development work instead of relief), we have to talk to the Mula in the specific area there first.

More later....

Kutchi Camp

Call 'em what you want...Gypsies, Nomads or "Koochi's" or Kutchi (sp?). They are basically homeless people who live a wandering lifestyle. No job, no home, nothing.

What's the connection with us?

We're going to supply a female doctor to the Kutchi women who are pregnant or who have never seen a physician.

What's the importance?

This country has the worlds highest infant mortality rate in the world. Doris went to the Ministry of Health to inquire about several things regarding setting up a non profit clinic/pharmacy/hospital. We learned some interesting facts. The individual at the Ministry of Health told us they were able to decrease the mortality rate numbers by about 30%, yet they still have the highest mortality rate in the world. I think that's an accomplishment? Right?

Other things.

Went to a nice quaint international friendly coffee shop with no signage or recognizable markings complete with armed guards and a winding path to the back of the building (for security purposes I would imagine). We sat in a bamboo cabana looking area with a raised floor, huge pillows for seats. Very cool. I drank a Dr. Pepper, Doris had a cappuccino and Hamid had sweet tea. We told Hamid to put sugar in his glass if he wanted the "Georgia" way to drink tea.

Then we took a trip down some dark alleys and had "pizza" after getting lost and asking a bunch more people with rifles and guns where to go. Thank you Hamid for being able to speak 4 or 5 languages.

Almost got into a car accident on the way back to the safe house...but still no dent's at all in Hamid's car. WOOOOO! We're safe.

Relief

How hard is it to give something away?

MISSION: A SIMPLE RELIEF EFFORT
To give away food, clothing, and school supplies from the U.S. to about 70 familes


It's been tough just communicating. Effective communication is difficult enough for people who can speak the same language at times. Try mixing in a few different government agencies each with their own rules, and where one of 4-5 languages are spoken (and all you know is english).

Meetings

Yesterday we attended a gathering for international workers here in this part of the world. We also visited the U.S. Military base later on yesterday evening.

At these places, we made several contacts which will help the efforts here for the current school Doris founded. We also learned that the military can distribute school supplies, food and clothes which were donated from the U.S..

The challenges for distributing supplies is that they tend to get over run with people if they're not careful about how they go about it. The commander in charge of the project told us they hand out tickets ahead of time, then return to distribute at a later date which seems to work OK. The only snag is that word spreads so quickly here, that neighboring people who are also just as deserving find out. The military always takes more material than tickets to help with this, but no matter what, there's never enough to go around.

The plan today is to set up a place and time for this in the slums and to locate potential buildings to open medical clinics with Dr. Hadi. Through our contacts here locally we will be able to gain access in these areas.

More later. Time to hit the road.

Hamid

Doris's right hand man is Hamid (Hah-mead). He's in charge of running the WTTW school here.



In this country, it's very unusual for this culture for a male to be in a role like this. You see, males cannot teach or be in charge of women while inside (like in a school setting for instance) but it might be OK to be in charge of a group of women working in the fields, like harvesting crops outside. There are lots of interesting cultural normality's here that just aren't typical in the U.S..

Getting back to Hamid, he's also an aspiring medical student and snazy dresser. He's definitely got style. He drives a red Toyota Corolla with a German sticker on the back. Gip thinks he looks like James Bond. He also speaks excellent English and carries himself well. He's the kind of person you want to know in a place like this.


Driving:
Since there are no street names, lights or anything at all for people, drivers, bikers or animals wandering the streets to be aware of what your doing while your driving, it's a LITTLE bit hectic.


Hamid has driven us throughout the city a lot and is an excellent driver. I asked him how he deals with all this insanity and his explanation was "Corey, you must consider that everyone else is crazy and you are the only one which is not". Well, it must work, because his car is dent free. I think I could probably apply that bit of knowledge in other areas of my life as well.


Thanks Hamid.

The Journey

The journey to our final destination has been long, but full of unique meetings and opportunity. Regardless of how experienced you are as a traveler, the adventure of seeing new destinations is always exciting. I guess that's why we do it.

There are 4 of us traveling from the U.S. together. Doris: the founder of Women to the World, Gip: a horticulturist, Dr. Hadi: a medical doctor from the middle east currently living in the United States and myself, traveling as a filmmaker to document the ongoing work in the middle east.

There are a lot reasons for the trip which will be described as they unfold. For now, I'm shooting the surroundings to tell the story. Specifics of our whereabouts will be kept general for security reasons. Any close friends and family reading this will already know where we are anyway.

We arrived Tuesday evening (we left Georgia on Sunday).

On Wednesday, we started our first actual day at about 4:30 am. The comforting sound of the rooster next door made me feel at home. (We currently have 29 chickens at my house in GA).

Accomodations are good and our new friends here are taking care of us extremely well.

For those in "the biz", here's a list of equipment:

An HVX200, mac laptop, 220 power converter and a Terabyte hard drive. Shooting on P2 Cards and downloading when and where it's safe. Nice and mobile....and acceptable as "carry on" baggage internationally.

Details on the trip from the begining.

Travel Log:

SUNDAY

Lexington, GA

9:00 am - 3:30 last minute packing (as usual for me). Along with finishing up the repairs on the truck with my dad. (thank god he was there)

3:31 meet with 2 members of our group at Doris's house for the trip to ATL airport.

Atlanta, GA

6:30-7:00 arrive at the airport in Atlanta and meet with Dr. Hadi who flew in from Washington D.C.

9:00 Get on the plane. (Delta, which I believe is short for "don't even let them aboard")

We find our seats, which were carefully planned out so we could work and have meetings throughout the flight (all aisle seats). What happens? We get asked to move around so a "family" can be together for the journey. OK, sure. Now the fun begins...musical chairs.

Doris gets bumped to first class and I get some more leg room just behind business class (woo!), Dr. Hadi politely moves to the back of the plane and poor Gip gets stuck with "the family" with crying babies (the whole trip). He'll get a medal for that I'm sure.

I slept like a baby for about 11 of the 14 hours, then strangely enough watched "the kite runner" while talking to the passengers next to me..."Gary" an American truck driver working in Iran (in it for the money) and "Jay" from The Four Horseman International. Nice guys.

11:00pm

We arrive in Dubai, find our bags and take them to a "holding" area so we can reclaim them later on after touring the city on our 12 hour layover. We meet up with Taj, one of Dr. Hadi's friends who took us on a tour of Dubai:

1. Grocery store

2. Cityscape tour including that HUGE hotel shaped like a sailboat. (you know the one, everyone has seen the discovery program I'm sure)

3. FOOD at a really cool buffet style restaurant in a mall at about 1-2am. The view was fantastic and the food was out of this world. (well, it was actually just in Dubai) We also met up with Taj's brother Ahmad there.

4. Return to the airport, claim our bags and sit around until 5am until the security gates open so we can once again recheck our bags for our next flight.

Dr. Hadi runs into a very good friend who also is a Dr. and lives in the U.S. (Whoa!)

I did manage to have a latte and croissant for "breakfast" (also one for Doris, and a bottle of water). Getting the latte reminded me of my wife. This is where I start to miss her and wish she were traveling with me.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you weren't sure if paying 14 dollars for 2 cups of coffee, a bottle of water and a roll was too much money? I've never been good at math, I'm an artist. I didn't know the currency conversion rate so all I did was watch the girl taking my money "cheat" and use a calculator to do the conversion and give me the correct change back...then I asked her (nicely) "are you SURE that's the right amount?" (as if I knew exactly what change I needed in return). After she double checked, I said "OK, thank you". Maybe I got ripped off, maybe not....who knows?

7:30 am

Get on the plane for our final destination (time for another nap).

About 10:00 am.

Land.

WERE HERE!