Monday, August 10th
KABUL
Today was another interesting day.
I am conducting repeat meetings with The Ministries of Public Heath to corroborate my recommendations. So this afternoon I met with a brilliant man named Dr. Tawab Kawa Saljuqi. He is a medical doctor and the Director of The Health Behavior Unit. His unit is responsible for determining what the public health issues "are" - and then figuring out how to develop campaigns. But, by his own admission, the capacity in Afghanistan for doing good social marketing or health behavior campaigns is week. Adding to his challenges, he has to manage consultants from The U.S, The U.K.. Australia, Holland, Poland and Canada. All of these short-term ad visors storm in with wildly different ideas. So today I suggested we strip his office of the responsibility for rolling out campaigns and focus it on managing health behavior data and research - and then form an in-ministry "agency" that will develop campaigns with the assistance of qualified international experts. He practically kissed my feet.
After the meeting my team and I went out to do a bit of handi-craft shopping in the yard. Because security is so tight, the shop-keepers set up a kind of bazaar in our yard. They brought amazing items - including brightly colored burkas for the "American Market." So my team of medical doctors got a bit punchy and decided to dress up in traditional garb. We laughed our heads off. Our chief epidemiologist is wearing the pink burka in this photo. The most heroic doctor I've ever met (Dr. Hamidi) is wearing the turban. Dr. Nazir Asif is dressed like Shah Massoud and my dear friend Khan Mohammed Poya is wearing the Hamid Karzai hat. I'm standing in the middle with my beloved Burka over my head.
I've come to love this team. They are the most intelligent, well-mannered, heroic people I know. I adore them and I adored today. It was so much fun to laugh and dress-up and let loose a bit. I will miss them.
Ilove that team too! How good of them to set up a private bazaar for you ...! ; )
ReplyDelete.. how good of the shop keepers to set up the bazaar, I meant ...
ReplyDeleteOK, that explains the garden area as seen in a previous photo. I wondered if you were living in a bazaar or having a USAID garage sale. There are some tempting items out there in the garden. What a fun group. It's a healty sign when you can play together as well as you work together. ~DeeDee
ReplyDeleteI am glad to know you are safe and good to see you (almost live). The challenge you are facing in Afghanistan is overwhelming to me. When you get back, you may need to dumb down a version of the issues for me.
ReplyDeleteDavid