REPORTING LIVE FROM KABUL

April 2, 2011

By Humaira

Afghans are famous for their hospitality. Guests are served the best food, they are offered the best seat in the room, and unconditional acceptance. This may be hard to believe given the terrible massacre of U.N. staff that occurred yesterday in Mazar i Sharif. But, it's important to understand that the barbarians who committed these heinous acts are not representing the Afghan people, at least not the kind and generous Afghans I have encountered in the past week.

The amazing hospitality encountered here has been from the Afghans as well as those in the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Military. I am part of a delegation invited by the U.S. State Department representing the Hayward Ghazni Sister City relationship. I have spent the past week in Kabul and Ghazni province. This trip was organized by an amazing group of Afghans and Americans to showcase our people to people outreach, and how two communities worlds apart can extend a hand of friendship to each other.

Over six years ago, I co-founded the Hayward Ghazni sister city relationship so you can imagine how thrilled I was to be recognized for the work we have been doing. But what really motivated me to go on this trip was to finally see the schools we started four years ago, meet the girls and boys we educate and talk to the women in our literacy classes.

Our hosts, the State Department representative and their military counterparts, were professional, hospitable and went out of their way to accomodate our needs. In Kabul we travel with embassy armored cars and in Ghazni with 50 pound bullet proof vests and helmets. We hardly blend in with the locals.

In our four short days in Ghanzi we had 20 to 25 military escorts protecting us at any given moment. At times I wondered why my life was more important than theirs? Why four people are dedicated to keeping me safe. I was humbled as I looked at the faces of the young men and women who were risking their lives to protect ours and how they bravely face danger everyday. I have newfound respect for all the servicemen and women who are working out here to help the Afghan people.

I was also blown away with all the reconstruction projects that we never hear about such as: agriculture training, computer classes for girls, medical clinics, medicine for the poor, district employee capacity building training, and many more amazing U.S.-led programs.

So, I am pleased to deliver the news that a lot of good work is taking place and there are many Afghans and Americans working 24/7 to bring peace to the people of Afghanistan. As I sit in my room during a lock down for all visitors due threats of violent riots in Kabul, I hope that peace will arrive soon. Here are a few photos I snapped with my phone to give you a bird's eye view of my experiences on this trip.

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.

THE UNLIKELY AFGHAN - FUL MEDAMES

March 30, 2011

By Humaira

Recently I attended a two day workshop at Stanford University on “Language, Literacy and The Social Construction of Authority in Islamic Societies”. I must admit, I was a bit intimidated. This was to be a group of highly educated academics, experts in their fields, and I’d be like the new kid at school. My wise eight and 11-year old daughters told me not to worry, that I should just make friends. So I did.

I introduced myself to the first person I sat next to, who turned out to be a delightful professor from Algeria. I was one of only four civilians, what I called us non academics, in a roomful of men and women who had flown from all over the world to present at this workshop. I assumed they’d all be knowledgeable and worldly with a deep understanding of the Muslim world.

But following a few conversations at lunchtime, it became clear to me that a Ph.D. doesn’t buy wisdom or worldliness. At my table were two Egyptians, two Iranians, and my Algerian friend. When it came time for me to introduce myself, they were baffled to learn that I am Afghan. The Algerian exclaimed, “I would have never thought that an Afghan woman would look like YOU! I thought they all wore the burka and were uneducated.”

The Egyptian women asked if I got pinched and grabbed by men when I travelled in Afghanistan, apparently a big problem in Egypt. When I told her no, she wouldn’t believe me, and was convinced that all Muslim men are barbaric and evil. The conversation turned to the subject of the cover of Time magazine that featured a photo of an Afghan girl with her nose cut off at the hands of her husband and her father.

The conversation bounced around, at times growing contentious, until we finally landed on the subject of food. That is when we all found something we could agree upon: That the cuisine of our home countries is superior. The Algerian spoke of couscous and tagine and was thrilled that I knew what they were. The Egyptians praised their national dish: ful medamas (slow cooked fava beans and served with olive oil, parsley, garlic, cumin and lemon juice). I told them about Afghanistan’s national dish, qabili palau.

After lunch I realized that like all these professors who were “experts” in their subjects, I too am an expert. My role is to bring better understanding of Afghanistan and the Afghan people to my community and the people I meet. There is much teaching to be done.

In celebration of the brave people of Egypt and my friend’s enthusiasm about ful medamas I am sharing a recipe I found on epicurious.com. When I made the dish I had some trouble finding Egyptian black fava beans so I used dried, peeled fava beans. I added the salt, garlic and olive oil to the beans for the last hour of cooking before they were fully done. I must admit, when I tried the beans without these ingredients it was horrible, so I added allot of salt. Since I have not had a traditional version of the dish, I decided to share the original recipe with you rather than my modified version. I have to say, my favorite way of eating ful medamas is the Syrian style, with lots of you guessed it, yogurt.

Ful Medames (Egyptian Brown Fava Beans)

Epicurious, April 2009 by Claudia Roden

2 cups dried, small Egyptian fava beans ( ful medames), soaked overnight (and left unpeeled)

Salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Extra-virgin olive oil

3 lemons, quartered

4 to 6 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled

Red chili flakes

Cumin

Drain the soaked beans and put in a large saucepan with a fitted lid. Cover with water by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Cover with the lid and cook until tender, checking from time to time to be sure there is enough water. When the beans are soft, add salt to taste, remove the lid and continue to cook so that the liquid reduces. It is common to scoop up a ladle or two of the beans, mash them with some of the cooking liquid, and then stir this back into the beans. This is to thicken the sauce.

Serve the beans in soup bowls sprinkled with chopped parsley and accompanied by Arab bread.

Pass around the dressing ingredients for everyone to help themselves: a bottle of extra-virgin olive oil, the quartered lemons, salt and pepper, a little saucer with the crushed garlic, one with chili-pepper flakes, and one with ground cumin. The beans are eaten gently crushed with the fork, so that they absorb the dressing.

Variations:

A traditional way of thickening the sauce is to throw a handful of red lentils (1/4 cup) into the water at the start of the cooking.

In Iraq, large brown beans are used instead of the small Egyptian ones, in a dish called badkila, which is also sold for breakfast in the street.

Optional Garnishes: Peel hard-boiled eggs—1 per person—to cut up in the bowl with the beans.

Top the beans with a chopped cucumber and- tomato salad and thinly sliced mild onions or scallions. Otherwise, pass round a good bunch of scallions and quartered tomatoes and cucumbers cut into sticks.

Serve with tahina cream sauce or salad, with pickles and sliced onions soaked in vinegar for 30 minutes.

Another way of serving ful medames is smothered in a garlicky tomato sauce.

In Syria and Lebanon, they eat ful medames with yogurt or feta cheese, olives, and small cucumbers.

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.

A PIT STOP IN DUBAI ON MY WAY TO AFGHANISTAN

March 28, 2011

By Humaira

I write this post from Dubai where I have stopped off for one night on my way to Afghanistan, a trip that takes around 21 hours. I decided to stay in Dubai for a day to rest and work on getting over the time difference.

My day here started with an elaborate breakfast buffet in my hotel. There were at least eight kinds of cereal, a Chinese food buffet, several egg options, and every kind of bread you can imagine. All the items looked familiar, except for a cheese labeled "Arabic Cheese" and a variety of dates with which I am unfamiliar.

After pondering what will happen to all the leftovers, and not finding an answer, I decided to go in search of "local" food. So, I hit the City Center Mall. That is one of three large malls in Dubai, a city well known for its mall culture.

The City Center mall is located in the older part of town so I thought it might be a little more authentic than other shopping centers. Yet apart from a few hijab-clad women and ethnically-attired men, I could have easily been in the U.S. There amongst the luxury stores was a Baskin Robbins, Chili's, Potbelly Sandwiches and even a Cinnabon.

Still hopeful, I headed to Carrefour, a mega store within the Mega mall. Carrefour is like WalMart: it has everything. I went up and down every aisle, hoping to find some indication that I am in an Arabic country. Finally, in a corner, I found a little island of nuts, dates, and beautifully arranged spices. It wasn't nearly as elaborate as the soft drink aisle, but I was happy to have accomplished my mission.