After what seemed like weeks of travel (but was really only two days), I finally made it to Peshawar. My luggage was not so fortunate. We were finally reunited today after a week apart. I wish it could talk. I think it has interesting stories to tell about its adventures in the past week. It looks like it has been through a lot anyway.

I arrived on a Friday and wanted to do nothing but sleep. I could not be productive as my brain was not functioning properly. I did have a meeting on Saturday though. One of my main projects to work on while I am here is to help AWM with a new web portal. My meeting was with the person who is in charge of this portal. He started using technical language and I was lost immediately. He was speaking English, but may as well have been speaking Farsi. Occasionally he would pause and ask for my ideas. I would just stammer and say I needed more information. I was relieved when the meeting turned to writing the project proposal. That is something I can do.

Today I began working on another project proposal for AWN. It is for an advocacy project to help imprisoned women and children in Afghanistan. Not only are the conditions very poor with a lot of reported abuse, but also there is much uncertainty surrounding the legality of their detention. The project is in its very early stages, but I hope that I am here long enough to see some of it carried out.

Along with proposal writing, I have attended some training sessions for AWN’s member NGOs that will help them implement the new web portal. Each member is learning how to design a website so they can do their own profiles on the web.

This weekend I am headed to Kabul to work at the office there. I have enjoyed working at the office in Peshawar, but I can’t say I will miss this heat…