Jesse Wiens

And then… 40 children came to play… I feel perplexed at how I will use words to describe or explain the life that now vibrates in me after spending the day with pure joy. One of the four million exciting surprises for me today were the children that came from the school for the deaf. I could speak their language! Knowing American Sign Language I was able to sign with them because Afghan sign is very close to ASL. I was reminded of the absolute serenity I feel when I get to hang out with people who are deaf. There was a moment when kids were finishing up a chalk art project and I sat off to the side to begin creating origami balls. This summer I learned from Sura Hart how to create origami balls that you can toss into the air and then pop them with your hand to send little paper butterflies flying. I sat silent as I constructed the balls. First the kids that are deaf joined me in the silence. Without words, only heart connection, we constructed these balls then tossed them to “POP” and send the butterflies flying. Giggles from a child who has never heard what they are suppose to sound like is one of the sweetest sounds I know. It is the reminder that even in silence love can be heard.

The oasis outside our rooms. This is where we take tea and get sun. You can also hear the morning and evening prayers in the distance from here.

If you’d like to read Jiva’s daily accounts of this trip, visit his blog here.

And then… The world got very different. I joined the other women on the plane raising my scarf and positioning it cover all but my face before descending the stairs to the tarmac. The police requested that Jesse put the camera away so we did not film our entry into Afghanistan. Customs was quite easeful and soon we were in the parking lot being greeted by a tall smile named Said Agha. Said will be our driver while we are here. He is the brother of Khan who is the organizer of the NVC trainings. The drive from the airport to The Naween Guesthouse actualized our journey. Was it the sand and dirt that define the landscape of Kabul? Or was it the military presence? Or was it the family of three: a father with no eyes and a mother in a Burqa holding a solem toddler tapping on the glass of our vehicle? Or maybe it was the ease with which Said navigated through the chaotic traffic of cars, bicycles and people? Or the little girl running along side our van asking for something so she could eat? My small epiphany on this ride was that there is no way to judge this country. I found myself asking how could anyone comment about what Afghanistan is like or what the people here could possibly need without seeing it first hand. I am curious how anyone could comment with any certainty about the situation here by only having his or her information siphoned through CNN or NPR. Beginner’s Mind is the only thing that came immediately to me as a response to all I was taking in on our ride.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki

From the air: vast deserts, as far as the eye can see, dusty hard-edged mountains, and dry, dry, dry.  On the flight over, I was reading the biography of Badshah Khan, the “Frontier Gandhi”, a Pashtan (I believe I read that 40% of Afghan people are Pashtan) who raised up history’s first nonviolent army of