Afghan Hands

My friend Matin Maulawizada started an organization some time ago called Afghan Hands (http://www.afghanhands.org/). I have put an explantation of who they are below. They are a finalist in the BBC's World Challenge 2009, which awards an organization that has "shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level." I have been aware of Matin's project for several years now and cannot imagine anyone who would deserve it more. Afghan Hands definitely deserves to be recognized for its work in helping Afghan women.

If you would, take a moment and Please vote for them here:
http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2009-finalists-project12.php





On the organization's website, which I think states their goals and purpose beautifully, I found the following Mission Statement:

"Afghan Hands teaches skills to help Afghan widows gain independence, literacy, and a livable wages. At our centers in and around Kabul, women learn to create embroidered shawls and scarves, and the exquisite embroidery they make connects them to a wider world.

The centers are places to gather, study, and work. We pay the women to attend classes in the morning and embroider in the afternoon. Without this project, they could not educate themselves. Through Afghan Hands, they leave the walls of their compounds and attend seminars on basic human, legal, and religious rights. They prepare for work as free women do elsewhere in the world. This way, no one will ever imprison them in the name of law, honor, or religion.

We are a nonprofit organization. We are also linked to the Mirmon Orphanage. Our mutual efforts keep expenses as low as possible so that the funds we raise go to women and children.

In the future, we hope to establish small parks and playgrounds for children who now live in areas devastated by wars, drought, and environmental damage. We envision green havens where words of encouragement and hope are shared.

For now, Afghan women, by their own hands, are transforming their lives. This is our mission. Thank you for your interest in them and in their one-of-a-kind handmade pieces."


Please vote here:
http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2009-finalists-project12.php

If you could spread the word about the vote that would be great! The voting ends November 13th!

Life in the "Real World" and my newfound obsession with Podcasts!

So I moved into an apt with Tyler about the time that I wrote my last blog entry. It's pretty nice here because there are views of the river and there are some cool trails where I can let Hanz run around and be his cute self.

It was very difficult to find work here in Missoula, unfortunately, but I was glad to find some seasonal work at a local plant nursery that has a wreath and christmas tree business in the fall and winter. It's working out really well because I get to make some money, learn how to make wreaths, and I also can take a month to go back home to New York to visit my family and friends. I am so excited! It's so beautiful here in Montana and Missoula is a great town but it is a very difficult transition moving away from all of my family directly out of college, coinciding with the time that I buy my first car, start paying student loans, and no longer have health insurance! Oy! Sometimes the reality of being a "grown-up" feels like a slap in the face. As if with my graduating from college, where I studied environmental issues, I'm supposed to automatically switch to being a fully functional adult who understands all the mumbo-jumbo jargon associated with credit cars, insurance, liability, energy bills, etc. all while facing numerous ethical and philosophical quandaries and trying to figure out how to best spend the hours that make up the days that make up the years that make up my life. I went from the routine of school starting every autumn and ending every summer and then beginning again for 22 years and now that I don't have something that I know I have to do at a certain time of the year my life just feels very unstructured. It can get very overwhelming but I'm trying to piece things together a little at a time. I'm interested in doing SO many things with my life that the more I try to figure out what I want to "be when I grow up," the more cool occupations I discover, the more confused I become! So I think I'm ready for that clarity thats supposed to come along (hint, hint to the higher power!)

Since I've been making wreaths now for 3 weeks I've become pretty adept at it and definitely came to need some more intellectual stimulation. My iPod joined my computer in the grave but once again Tyler came to the rescue and gave me an iPod shuffle and I have pumped that little baby full of podcasts galore! OH MY GAWD the world of Podcasts has been opened to me! I don't have a tv or radio but I can listen to all of the NPR and PRI programs I could ever want to through the podcasts they produce.

My favorite podcasts so far are:

PRI's How We Got Here
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=102779705
(created by Jeb Sharp who is an amazing reporter/ interviewer with the BBC. Check her out more at: http://jebsharp.wordpress.com/)



The World
http://www.theworld.org/

The Changing World
http://www.thechangingworld.org/
(I haven't listened to the most current ones which are about the financial crisis, even thought I'm sure they are very enlightening, because I'm just sick of hearing about it.)

NPR's Car Talk
http://www.cartalk.com/
These guys realllly know what they are talking about plus they're HILARIOUS

NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=35
If you haven't heard this classic before, do yourself a favor and give it a listen :)



I discovered these in podcast form last week and I have probably averaged about 5 per day so every night when I come home I'm just bursting with new-found knowledge that I just want to spew out so I'll remember it! "How We Got Here" is especially awesome because it takes a current event and it looks at the history behind it to give a more well-rounded explanation or understanding of it. It's a brilliant idea and Jeb Sharp is always coming up with fascinating stories and interviews to share.

Oh My Goodness!!

It has been extremely hectic for me. A brief run-down of my life since my last blog is that I had my graduation party; I said goodbye to all of my lovely Harborside Vet co-workers/boss and then to my family and friends; I got picked up by Tyler in NY; Ty and I went on a week-long trip across the country to Montana (we took the "Southern" route, hahaha); I floated rivers and played frisbee golf; I flew to Virginia with Tyler for his brother's wedding; I went "boat camping" except we didn't make it past Bigfork because the thunder and lighting would not desist; I got a position working in Missoula with the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program (CFWEP); I worked extremely diligently on my garden; I did sub work at a preschool; I got a bicycle(!); I started running again; I got semi-settled in Missoula but now I'm moving again to an apt while Tyler's mom, Kitty, stays in her house for the fall semester while she's at school.

I'm taking time off before graduate school because I am interested in so many different things. One of my biggest flaws is my tendency to spread myself too thin. I have time to do some community service but I get so excited that I do too many things.  I'm definitely working on that. I'm just trying to figure everything out right now in my life because I'm basically starting from scratch. It is definitely very difficult at times but I'm hoping that if I do what my heart tells me, what feels right to me, then I will end up in a good place... eventually. As for right now, it's just me doin' my thang and hoping i get it right. I just got a sweet cowboy hat and that turned out alright! :)



I love being in Montana. I love living in a place where people go outside as a part of their normal routine that doesn't necessarily involve cars. There are so many people on bikes around here and, as a result, the city just painted all of these new bike lanes into the streets! It's great! I love the sky here, I love the weather, I love that there is a river that goes right through the heart of this city, I love that the people have such pride in where they live and consequently they value and fight for it to continue in that manner. I love that there are two farmers markets on Saturdays and that they both get so much support from the community. I just haven't had much exposure to places like this so it's hard for me not to gawk and talk about it so much! I mean seriously, just look at this sky!
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Summer

So aside from being super busy working at the animal hospital and preparing for the moving sale and for my graduation/ goodbye party I've also had time to do one of my favorite summer activities... read! When college was in session I never had the chance to read for fun because I always had a ridiculous number of reading assignments. Whenever I had a break the first thing I would do was pick up a good book. I love the late spring when it isn't too muggy out and there is a nice breeze so I can sit outside with a nice cold drink and a good read.

The first book I read was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It was a very good but extremely grim and depressing story set in a post-apocalyptic America.




Right now I'm reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose. It documents the journey of Lewis and Clark into the American West and is absolutely fascinating. When Tyler and I drive out to Montana we are going to actually be following some of the same route that they took. I'm still piecing the trip together, trying to make sure it's well-planned while still leaving room for spontaneity since it's supposed to be an adventure! I'm really excited to get the chance to take this trip! I hope we meet cool people along the way- that's one of my favorite things about traveling.

It seems like it's only right that I know something about the history of the land I will be inhabiting. I find fascinating the idea of so much having happened on the ground that I now walk on, and that others will walk on in the future. Sometimes when I'm hiking or walking somewhere I will wonder whose footsteps struck the very same ground; it's an intriguing thought!

I'm learning a lot from the book. Even if I do not agree with everything that Lewis and Clark did, and with my hindsight being 20/20 that comes up a lot, it is still fascinating to see what they went through. They were also the first "white" people to go as far West as they did, entering into Montana and Idaho and making it all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The descriptions of the land, ecology, and wildlife are very interesting as well because neither were highly trained scientists so although they were somewhat trained, a lot of their initial observations and accompanying assumptions are highly amusing.



It's also really sad though, to know what was to become of that land and its inhabitants, both human and not. They talk of seeing passenger pigeons, now extinct, migrating in flocks so dense that they block out the sun. Coyote and wolf populations were thriving and the Corps of Discovery, as they called themselves, obviously had no idea about the absolutely pivotal role that predators play within their ecosystems. Beavers, appearing around every turn, are a keystone species (meaning the fate of many other organisms is directly tied to their presence because of the ecosystem functions that they provide- in this case creating dams, etc). I guess beavers were the number one victim of the fur trade at the time, and their tails were considered a delicacy (I still don't get that...). From the notes that Lewis makes in his journals, detailing the daily goings-on of his men, it is easy to see how those who followed in their footsteps would take advantage of the land. There is mention, time and again, about how there is literally "too much land" in the context that our biggest obstacle is figuring out how to use it up. That aspect of this history is so frustrating to me. I wish I could go back in time and somehow convey the importance of treating the land and all living creatures with respect and not taking them for granted.

It's incredible, as well, to think about how our lives would be different today if one little thing had gone differently on that voyage. There were so many close calls during their journey. What if just one of them had turned out differently? It's a thought with tremendous repercussions that I don't think anyone could fully grasp. We destroy the natural world to make room so we can build things that will make us happy but those things don't end up making us happy at all. And we wonder why we feel a void at the end of the day, when we're sitting alone. We have everything so backwards! Those places that we are destroying are the very ones we should be protecting. If we ever want to be happy, or to have any kind of peace, we must learn to respect ourselves, each other, and the earth, including all of the life on it. We must understand the ways in which our fates are linked.

Fun Things

I bought the shoes as a graduation present for myself :)

The rest of the photos are Dior couture creations that I absolutely adore. I love the makeup on the close-up models too. I wish I could always have funky eye makeup like that!