Sesame Street comes to Kabul

A couple of great photos of Sesame Street coming to Kabul, courtesy of TOLO TV, the Afghan Ministry of Education, and the U.S. Embassy. Sesame Street's messages of love of learning and tolerance are as sorely needed in Afghanistan as in any of the other countries that broadcast their own versions of the show. And the additional push of Sesame Street to the very few classroom hours in the typical Afghan public school can't hurt. One wonders, though, how widely access to television is, especially in the areas where school attendance is lowest.

When life gives you pomegranates...

This video from USAID in Afghanistan shows a USDA employee working with pomegranate farmers to maximize the yield from their crops. I'm happy to see Embassy folks working directly on projects in the field, interacting directly with Afghans and, one hopes, helping them improve their lives.

I've always been impressed with USDA folks overseas. They add personal warmth to professional capabilities that other Embassy staff could learn from. Even in our training course, they really stood out.

In the context of genuinely nice people who contribute incredibly to Afghanistan's progress, I should also mention my former colleague Laura, the staff archeologist and cultural heritage manager for the Embassy. You can read about her work in an article in her hometown paper here.

Thinking about Kabul again

It's been quite a while since I've posted on this blog, but that doesn't mean that Kabul has gone away. The attack on the U.S. Embassy, for one thing, certainly gave me a kind of scare. It was never clear in the media reports exactly which building the Taliban were shooting from, but I've always assumed that it was the building up near Massoud Circle that I was told will someday be the Marriott Hotel of Kabul. A building that, for that very reason, seemed to be a source of great hope.

Then in another "you never leave your last post" moment (post being, in this case, the assignment, not the blog), I was able to join former Public Affairs Section colleagues to play Trivia at Tonic up the street. With great memories of the Red Tent on the Embassy compound and the fiercely competitive Trivia matches there.

And finally, an email from Ram, filmmaker, IT guy, and dedicated teacher. He was part of the International Writing Program group that came to Kabul in May and in between reading his own poetry, showing new techniques to film

students at Kabul University, and generally being the good guy that he is, he finished several video projects about the tour. I haven't yet seen the feature documentary, but here is a short video about the poet Nathalie Handal, with images of her workshops at Kabul University's English Department (here in the photo) and at the Education Faculty.