Hearts and Minds (redux)

Lem and I took a journey to Kabul University this week. It was quite an eye-opening adventure. Along the way, we got to see parts of Kabul that we had not seen before – going through many local neighborhoods and really seeing the residents and how they live their daily lives. It was a very nice warm day – warm enough to melt the snow and ice on the roads which made for plenty of mud and water everywhere and accentuated the squalor that exists in most of Kabul. We saw the familiar fruit stands and tiny store fronts and hanging carcasses of meat, and the kids selling phone cards on the corners. However, something new we saw were the burka-clad women begging on the street corner and the lame man doing the same. I’ve read that during the Taliban’s rule, women weren’t allowed to do much of anything and the only way they could survive and take care of their families (because all the men were out fighting) was to beg for money or handouts.

Have you seen this car? Along the way to Kabul U, we got behind a Toyota Corolla with Pennsylvania license plates – which had expired in September 2007. Must be a very interesting story of how that Toyota from PA made it all the way to Kabul.


Along the way, we got to see many residential areas, here are some pictures of the some of the stepped housing on the sides of the hills. These houses have no plumbing and the only way to get to them is hiking up – no driveways or roads. I guess in one regard, it’s better to be higher up – it is said that “shit rolls down hill.” Also along the way, we saw people working, laughing, arguing, children playing soccer, people cleaning the dirt off of the dirt – not a totally unfamiliar seen in other big cities. But, there was just so much filth and destruction.

Unfortunately, Kabul U was not much better. It is an expansive campus with tons of big trees (how in the world did they survive 30 years of war?) and courtyards, but the buildings are missing windows, there is no electricity, no plumbing, and no heat in most parts of the campus. Our first stop at Kabul U was to see the Math Department Head. Lem and I had scheduled this visit in order to try and set up a cooperative relationship between the Math and Physics departments of NMAA and Kabul U (We are planning to do the same with Kabul Polytechnic University and the American University of Kabul.). Dr. Rudhi, the math department head and our host, was a very nice and smiley man. Lem explained all that he had been doing with the NMAA faculty and had brought a binder of math projects that he and the NMAA faculty had developed over the last few weeks. Then they discussed the possibility of NMAA faculty good come to Kabul U during classes to observe and that some of Kabul U’s math faculty could do the same at NMAA. Dr. Rudhi was very interested in this (and so were the three NMAA math faculty we brought with us). During a short lull in the conversation, Lem asked where the toilet was and Dr. Rudhi said they didn’t really have one because there was no working plumbing, but he gave us (via Dr. Wali) directions to where the “latrine” was.
Well, I’ll say this: they were western style toilets with blocks of urine-ice in the bowl – other than that, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. After we returned, Dr. Rudhi was so embarrassed that he could not offer us chai, nor heat (his office was freezing – a good 15 degrees colder than it was outside in the sun), nor a working toilet.


We headed off to the physics department from the math department. We didn’t have an actual appointment with the physics department because we were told that they were all still on vacation. But, we decided to go and give it a try anyway. The physics department was located in the basement of the adjacent building. We scurried down deeper into the building turning several corners in the poorly lit maze (they had some electricity). Finally, we came upon a long hallway with several doors – and a dead end. We checked a few doors, but they were locked. We realized we were in the right place, when I noticed on the upper corner of one of the doors, the word “phisicks.” The last door we tried, was unlocked and it turns out the Physics Department Head was inside. We startled him, but he greeted us with a smile. It was Professor Stanizai – the very same one that was the editor of NMAA’s physic textbook. He spoke pretty good English (he was schooled in India) and we chatted about what I was doing at NMAA and I gave him the notebook of projects that we had been working on and we chatted for a few minutes. We were on a tight schedule so we had to scoot, but on the way out, he wanted to show us the lecture hall. They teach 300 students at a time – in two shifts. Lem and I took pictures of the lecture hall. When we viewed the pictures, we noticed that our pictures looked like there were water dots on our lenses. We then realized that it was just the ever-present dust that exists everywhere in Afghanistan.


As we were leaving Kabul U we saw all the students walking around – not so different from any other university – and plenty of young women. The students were talking and laughing and sitting together and studying. It was quite a surreal picture of these students so full of youth and energy and optimism going to this wrecked school in this wrecked country. It was uplifting!


Upon our return from Kabul U, Lem and I both confessed to each other how the travel and time at Kabul U had nearly brought tears to our eyes. I had a stomach ache while we were at Kabul U. Not because of the disgusting toilets, but because the whole ordeal was so gut-wrenching. We just want to do so much more in order for them to help themselves. They take it all in stride. I felt extreme pity. But of all the Afghans that I’ve talked with, all of them seem content, not happy, with how things are in Afghanistan.
They’ll even say, that they don’t wish for anything more. If you prod them a bit more, they’ll say that they are content because this is the best it’s ever been – at least as far as most have remembered. This contentment is also an inhibitor in that they don’t seem to want to give up this contentment, this better-than-it’s-been state of things. How can a people such as these, who have never experienced long-lasting peace have any vision or hopes or aspirations? It’s like a child who is learning to stand and just as he is about to, someone pushes him down. If this is done enough, then the child would learn to not bother to stand – just to give up. I think that’s what the Afghan people have done to some degree – they have given up on hope.

Case in point: You may recall our NMAA janitor Cujo. He is great fun and likes to practice his English and teach us Dari. There isn’t a day that goes by when Cujo doesn’t spend several 20-minute sessions with us in between work to joke around, discuss politics or his family, or what we’re doing in our jobs. Yesterday though, he grabbed an interpreter because he could not get his point across to us. After several minutes he began to say that he was sorry that he was not as smart as we are and that he could not communicate everything he wanted to say. This is a guy whose English is leaps and bounds beyond anything we can say in Dari. Cujo is a civil engineer, but he’s working as a janitor. Cujo is only 28 years old, but he looks a lot older. When you ask Cuju what aspirations he has for his life – he looks back in bewilderment because he has none. He says, “I finished, I only do this – iz goot.” Although he didn’t say it, he was telling us that he was just so thankful that we took the time to talk to him. Then he called us his “rafik” – friends. This is not so different from any of the Afghans we encounter. They are happy that we are here, but really makes them happier and seems to lift there spirits (and hope?) is that we try to get to know them on a personal level – beyond the work, and that we actually interested in their language and culture – very foreign concepts to them. In the Soviet occupation, the Soviets ruled by oppression – institutionalizing the Soviet way onto the Afghans. It was either conform or die. The Soviets didn’t care one bit about the Afghan language and culture (or anything else). Our bonding with the Afghan people on this personal level is what will have the lasting effect – not the physics or math projects and not the teaching methodologies. It is those interpersonal relationships that will last and give hope to the Afghan people and it is by those that we can measure our success here.

When you say the phrase “Hearts and minds” to our army brethren here, some would say, “that’s right, two to the heart (bullets that is) and one to the mind.” (Sometimes, it’s one to the heart and two to the mind.) I know it’s mostly ultra-machismo at work here because all of these guys have tremendous heart. And, really the key to success in this endeavors is through the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan. Although not planned, we’ve found ourselves working the “Hearts & Minds” concept on three fronts.

NMAA Faculty We are working directly with our NMAA faculty to try and help them learn to be better and smarter instructors. This is going pretty well, but Lem and I just realized this week that we are at our halfway point. We only have about six weeks until we will leave this place. And it is only now that it seems we’ve finally gained the confidence of our instructors. They are actually trusting in what we are saying and are willing to go out on a limb to embrace these new ideas with which we are seeding them. This week after we realized that we are on the downhill part of our tour, we both felt a little pressured – that there is so much more we’d like to do. We are both well-aware that that we can only scratch the surface during our short stay, and that our instructors will have to find it in themselves to sustain the little progress we’ve made here and sustain a cultural change of how they do things.

The Afghans, too, are well aware of their own limitations. On the global front – they don’t want us (the U.S. in general) to leave because many fear that if we did, then the tribal loyalties would again become the mainstay of their lives and Afghanistan will again be thrown into chaos and destruction. No doubt it would. They certainly don’t want that and it certainly wouldn’t be in the best interest of the U.S. either. You can’t have a conversation with any Afghan without hearing at some point how glad they are that the U.S. is trying to help. And, that things are pretty good right now because we are here. That doesn’t mean that things are perfect – corruption and nepotism are rampant, but in general, things are looking up. And, you will also hear in any conversation that things are looking up for the first time in 30 years. The conversation will go something like – “… after 30 years of war, our country was completely destroyed and we have to rebuild from nothing – we cannot do this without the U.S.” They are very thankful and are very much in a rush to make things better for themselves.

At NMAA, the faculty and administrators want to become more knowledgeable and they really want a way to send their faculty to other countries for further education in their disciplines and to learn about more effective ways to teach. I am always hearing from my physics faculty and the NMAA administrators that what they really need is to be able to send their instructors overseas for training or education. Lem and I are hoping to be able to bring some NMAA faculty to USAFA for 1-month stints (during their semester breaks) as visiting professors where they would audit a course in their discipline, shadow a USAFA faculty, practice their English skills, and just get familiar with a culture outside of Afghanistan. A one-month visit to USAFA could provide so much to these faculty and so much that they could take back and share with the other NMAA faculty. At the same time, it is obvious that they need to send their best and brightest cadets away from here as well. It is in the best interest of Afghanistan and the cadets to go to the best possible schools they can – and if they could send just a few overseas or to Europe, then in the long run, they could provide for Afghanistan so much better. Currently, USAFA and West Point are hosting one Afghan cadet each (see Abdul and Shoaib. Abdul didn’t do very good his first year at USAFA, in fact, he flunked all of his classes. He didn’t flunk them because he was stupid, but because of the adjustments he had to make. Lem got to talk to Abdul right before we came here and he asked him what the hardest part of going to the Air Force Academy was. Abdul said, “getting used to the system.” Sounds like any new cadet would say about the Academy system, but his statement really comes to light if you’ve been here and see that Abdul had gone from a place where there was virtually no system to a place of a highly developed system of systems! No wonder it was difficult. Abdul’s second year at USAFA, he took the same classes all over and in the Fall 2007 semester, he managed to pass all his courses. He is on his way. Can you imagine going from a war-torn country abundant with chaos to a school in a foreign country that is the model of virtually no chaos, but strict discipline and order?

Institutional Change The bulk of what we do at NMAA affects only a limited number of people – those in our immediate disciplines really, and the interpreters. We do have a lot of contact with the leaders of NMAA, but the bulk of our work and progress is with the individuals within our departments. Not only are we trying to help them learn their disciplines more, and teach them how to teach more effectively, but they need a lot of help at helping themselves in the little bureaucracies in which they must work. When I first got here, I would suggest things that needed changing and the faculty I worked with would say, “You need to go the Dean and request this or that, or get approval, …” and every time I said, that I would not do it, but they were the ones that needed to take ownership. And, I would be happy to go along with them. Further, I encouraged the physics instructors to consider themselves as a team and anything they wanted they should work together to try and achieve. They are now seeing themselves as a team and watching each others’ backs and pushing each other – it’s a very observable thing.

Lem and I are trying to push this team concept even a little further. We’re helping the NMAA math and physics faculty host a “Projects Expo” where they invite their counterparts from Kabul U, Kabul Polytechnic Univ, and the American University of Kabul to NMAA for a morning of project sessions. The idea is that the NMAA staff gets to show a little pride in their institution and in the work they have been doing over these last several weeks. They get to show some new ideas (the new techniques they have just learned) to the faculty at the other institutions and hopefully it will lead to a collegial collaboration of ideas from which all the faculty participants will learn. On Wednesday, during my meeting with my physics faculty, I brought up this expo idea to them. After Dr. Wali translated the idea (including miming my gestures, enthusiasm, and facial expressions – Dr. Wali is great!), the faculty stoically sat there. I paused waiting for some reaction. I got none, then I turned to Dr. Wali and said, “well there are so excited about that idea aren’t they Dr. Wali.” He laughed at my sarcasm and translated it to the group. They shamefully laughed while turning their heads away. I asked, “what do you think of this idea?” Finally, one spoke up and said, “of course it’s a great idea, but we have no idea how to do such a thing.” I smiled and said, “we are a team, you don’t have to do it all – I will help you, Lt Col Myers will help, the math department will help and the interpreters will help – we are a team.” They really liked that.

It’s funny, I get to act just as goofy with these faculty as I do with my own students back at USAFA.


This past week, one of the interpreters, Marit, asked if Lem could help him with some math skills. His wife is currently in the U.S. and he is trying to get a special visa to do the same. A couple of weeks ago, we had talked to Marit about him going to school in America. He initially wanted to go to America and become an interpreter. Brian brought up the fact, “hey, you are going to be one of a just a few in America that can speak English and Dari – you will be valuable commodity – don’t settle on just being an interpreter, try bettering yourself more – go to school.” So, now he wants to go to college for international business. So, he wanted some help in math to help get him prepared. Lem and I decided that it would be good if we offered this opportunity up to all of the interpreters. We meet everyday for a half-hour except Thursday (panj shanbay) and Saturday (shanbay). We have downloaded worksheets from the internet and Lem and I tag team at answering questions and explaining concepts. It’s great fun – we are in the classroom teaching! After this first week, all of the interpreters (8) have participated except one, Freshka. She wants to, but her husband already has a hard time that she works to begin with – she doesn’t think her studying math would go over too well. When they miss a one of our classes, they are very apologetic and our standing saying is, “we are doing this only for you – so you choose if you want to participate in this opportunity or not.” They are very appreciative of what we are trying to do. Unfortunately, most of the army folks treat the interpreters as commodities – they are paid to do a job and they should just do it. Some of the army folks are just plain mean. For example, the other morning we came in and I greeted the ANA guard at the building with “salaam aleikum” – peace be with you. The guard responded in English, “good morning, how are you?” As I made my way up the stairs, I heard the army guy behind me say, “good morning you dumb ugly bastard.” And the guard responded in English, “good morning, how are you?” Thank goodness, the guard didn’t understand it all – I told the army guy to knock it off. Yes, hearts and minds – what about respect and dignity too?

Community During our outing to Kabul U the other day, we passed by a local elementary school. Scott had pointed out that the NMAA staff delivered 50 backpacks with school supplies to the school last October. On that day, they were all very excited to be able to deliver these backpacks and supplies that had been donated by family and friends back in the states. After some coordination with the head mistress of the school, they showed up. They showed up and realized that what they had brought was totally inadequate. It turns out that the school had over 4000 students – 4 groups of 1000 students at a time. The head mistress, who had actually been to the U.S. and spoke a little English, had picked 50 of the youngest pupils to receive the backpacks. Luckily the NMAA staff had some other things to give to the other students there that day. The school is run mostly out of tents – some of the tents have desks, some do not. Some of the tents have chalkboards, some do not. All of the tents have kids and very little else. Many of you have written and asked if there was something you could do to help out what it is I’m doing here. So, it got me to thinking that why couldn’t we try to set up something to help an even larger group of these students? So, coming very soon, be ready to help out with the Colorado to Kabul Kids, “Empty Backpack Campaign.” Most of us are familiar with the “Empty Stocking Campaigns” around the holidays. The school year here begins in April. The goal is to try and get as many backpacks as possible loaded with supplies to the kids at this school by the time school starts. Stay tuned for further details, but if you want to jump the gun to help - please contact Natalie, or if you really want to jump the gun even more, we’re looking for kids’ backpacks loaded with ONLY the following items:

• One pair of blunt-end scissors
  
• One 12-inch ruler with metric markings
  
• 12 new pencils with erasers
  
• One small pencil sharpener
  
• One large eraser
  
• One box of colored pencils (crayons melt in the summer heat!)
  
• One package of lined notebook paper
  
• One composition book
  
• Three folders with inside pockets
  
• One ink pen (apparently these are a status symbol for kids - maybe one of those that has the four different colors in one pen)
  
• One zippered pencil bag
  
• One non-religious coloring book
  
• One kids' book in English (simple sentences and words – they are taught some English)
  
• One picture of kid/organization/school that donated (optional)
  
• One item of candy
  

Of course, they need just about everything at the school, so if you want to send only part of the supplies or just a backpack, or whatever, it is all appreciated and nothing will go to waste. It seems like this could be a really good drive for American school children – kids helping kids. You can send all donations to the following address:

Douglas Morris
NMAA – KAIA
APO AE 09354

A more informational announcement is forthcoming, but again, please contact Natalie if you'd like to help out - she can use all the help she can get. Thanks in advance for your support!

I have so much more to write, but I am just as tired of writing as you are of reading all this. So, as always, thanks for your interest and patience.