As I mentioned yesterday, research for next year's thesis has been coming together much more rapidly in the past couple weeks. Mostly because I've been trying to think hard about, and act on, those research-related experiences that I wouldn't be able to get back in the States. So it's a lot of speculation and brain-storming on the fly about what exactly I'll have wanted to check out while here this summer, as I write this thing over the coming months. At this point I've got something good going, a solid place to start I think: examining the three PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) that fall under the US Military group called Brigade Task Force Warrior, which are Bamyan, Panjshir and Parwan-Kapisa.
PRTs are local governance structures generally tasked with providing security and aiding development in their areas of operation. Bamyan PRT is headed by the New Zealanders, while Panjshir and Parwan-Kapisa are run by the Americans. But all three fall under the Task Force Warrior subdivision in the US' Command of RC-East: basically the eastern quarter of the country. So I'm looking at the differences in their structures--which are partly determined by their relative security situations, and also by the personalities of the American leadership vs. New Zealander leadership--as well as the PRTs' overall relationship with their surrounding Afghan communities. (Uh oh, get a pillow, sounds like Matt's gonna write another policy-paper blog...)
To get deeper into this research while I'm here, I decided to push back my date of departure from the 8th to the 12th. In doing so, I'm sacrificing four days in India that I had set aside for myself before returning to the States--my Air India flight back to San Francisco was supposed to pass through there anyway, I had just turned a lay-over into a short stay-over. But I'm happy with this decision to just go straight from Kabul back home, mostly because I feel like I still have things to do here, like research and some projects for Trust in Education, that I want to complete before heading home. Also, Afghanistan has been a 100% summer adventure in itself. India would be a little bonus, but four days really isn't enough time to give the mighty Sub-continent justice. I'll tackle it another time.
Yesterday I went up to Kapisa province, and definitely over-booked myself as well as my translator/driver Naweed as we went to four meetings all over the small province. I found Naweed though a friend I play ultimate frisbee with...I can't even tell you how many useful connections I've been able to make while just playing frisbee once or twice a week. Naweed teaches Pashto and Dari (the two main languages here) to ex-pats like myself at his tutoring clinic here in Kabul, and my friend Mike (one of Naweed's tutees) recommended him to me. He's been a great help as I've travelled to Panjshir, Parwan and Kapisa...my Dari skills just aren't that strong. We'll be sitting in a governor's meeting, like we were yesterday in Kapisa's government center, and he'll lean over to me and quietly translate what's going on, or just write down notes about what's being discussed on a paper pad I brought. I'd be lost without his help, obviously.
Plus, on the car rides up to Panjshir and Kapisa, as we pass the great expanse of the Shomali Plains on our right, we talk about things like differences in American and Afghan cultures. For example, dating here is incredibly hard (if not impossible) for young Afghan guys, as Afghan ladies really give off the vibe of being off-limits, and family members often discourage anything that even resembles dating. We also discuss the interesting gossip of what was said at the meetings that he couldn't translate openly to me. Apparently, the Panjshiris (the most fascinating Afghan cultural group to me) thought I was an American Government spy sent to their local council meeting to eavesdrop on their conversations. The Panjshiris were already angry before the meeting began, because they only received a quarter of the food relief that they felt USAID had promised them. Therefore, they were short on positive things to say about the U.S. of A. when I caught up to them.
In all the meetings I attend, I typically start with the same questions: What kind of presence does the PRT and its members have in your lives? Do they come to your shura (local council) meetings? Do they do a good job? Do they listen to your concerns? How could they improve? I write notes a lot, and also record their (translated) comments with a little dictaphone thing I brought. These meetings and individual interviews have been a once-in-a-lifetime way to gather information for my research. Just sitting in and listening to them discuss their usual concerns like water rights, land issues and frustrations with the central government...and then being able to ask them directly how they feel about the people who have come from far abroad, charged with the responsibility of helping Afghans develop their land and provide security for themselves.
I'll be flying out to Bamyan again tomorrow for a couple more shura meetings, and hopefully an embedding with soldiers from New Zealand as they go out on their patrols around the valley. Exciting stuff.
