Bpeace in Kabul

2 days later than we were supposed to, we took off from Kabul for Dubai on Saturday at about 5r:30 pm.

The Kabul airport was sheer madness.

Arrived in Dubai, not a hotel room to be found. Laura took a flight to Bangkok, Gwendy snagged a sofa at a friend of a friends, Paula went in search of a hotel.

Kate, Jim, Toni and Ray slept at the airport.Thanks to the Emirates Business Class lounge, we're showered and ready for our 14-hour flight to JFK. We arrive on Sunday at about 1:30 pm.

Keep checking the blog. We'll post more stories in the next couple of days.

For now, it's time for an Ambien and that flight home.

xxoo

A young Kabul kite runner.

One side benefit of our unexpected extra time in Kabul, is that Paula had a car and translator to herself, to run around Kabul city and snap away.

We're posting these images mid-day on Saturday our time (about 8 hours earlier than we usually do), because we're hoping to leave for Kabul airport shortly for our flight to Dubai.

We're hoping that the next time we post to the blog, we will be in some swanky Dubai hotel. (Of course we could just as well be sitting in the Dubai aiport all night...because Dubai is fully booked.)

Thinking of you all.

Driving game. 

Kabul mountain view.

Shoes for sale at Kabul's City Center. We learned that the locals prefer shoes from Turkey, which retail at about $20.

Debbie Rodriguez, the famous American who runs the Kabul Beauty School, and a private salon--The Oasis--does her magic on Laura, as Gwendy beams. 

Still in Kabul
A million miles away from home
Went to a German restaurant
It was a rice-free zone

We miss our you all
And are ready to fly
But the weather is blocking
Our Kabul bye-bye

Depite all the delays
We were very busy
Using every opportunity to network
And gathering names like crazy

We'll post pix in the am
Now it's time for some Tylenol PM

An easier day in Kabul.

We’re still in Kabul. Our flight was cancelled due to the low cloud cover, and it’s snowing again—of course.

Before we knew we were cancelled, Gwendy had a productive breakfast with Beth Gottschling and hatched a plan for an exhibition to sell products on Women’s Day—March 8th. Beth has worked with Latifa in the past, and they will partner on this exciting opportunity to make our SRT ladies better known in Kabul and to put cash in their hands. Beth mentioned that a mutual business contact is looking for talented crochet workers, and we hope to connect three of our ladies with him.

In another big score of the day, Laura connected Zohlayka (a friend of Bpeace who runs a local school) with Hossai, our SRT lady who makes uniforms. Ta da, an order for 200 uniforms emerged.

Jim, by popular demand, taught again at the University of Kabul to a mixed group of our SRT ladies, and members of the Afghan Women’s Business Council. Today’s topic: Balance sheets and cash flow statements. They were so excited, you’d think he was teaching “How to become a millionaire.”

For most of the team, it was a less pressured day than we’ve had. Kate, Gwendy, and Laura went to the National Museum and saw an exhibit of wooden statues from Nuristan (in the north of Afghanstan), and then shopped. Ray and Paula went to the Afghans for Tomorrow school, run by our guide, Najib.

Toni met with a new SRT candidate—Sara—who runs a second-floor dress shop, with 3 workrooms and 12 seamstresses WITH ELECTRIC SEWING MACHINES. Both Toni and Laila were impressed with her products enough to order some clothing. Sara’s shop—7 months old—is having cash flow problems. Foreigners—who had been her customers—stopped coming when the weather got cold. She really needs a sit down on how to downsize her costs, as she is running at a loss every month. Since we’re leaving town, we will try and find someone to work with her in Kabul. In the meantime, Toni taught her a “mini-lesson” on how to request deposits for custom-made garments—which Sara had not been doing.

Paula went back to visit Hamida, to snap some “at-home color.” She came back with several pair of wool hand-knit leggings and some of the great shots you see here. Paula has been tireless in pursuit of photo ops to give a well-rounded perspective to Bpeace work in Kabul. She hopes to present the best of her photographs on Wednesday, March 16 at our Bpeace Afghan Team Meeting in New York. (To rsvp to this meeting contact lhass@bpeace.org, attendance is limited to 50 people.)

Finally, Toni and Laila compiled the final list of ladies to will come to New York for the Style Road Trip. There are 18 in all! During our business assessments, we didn’t eliminate anyone. We still need about $25,000 more to bring them all over. (You can donate now by going to the left-hand column of the blog and clicking on DONATE NOW!) $6,000 covers the cost of bringing one woman here, including airfare, lodging, meals and training by Fashion Institute of Technology. A big nut for us is lodging in New York for 18 women for 18 nights.

Give us a boost here with some dollars for peace. You know your money will be well spent…it goes totally to the cost of the women. Bpeace members pay for everything else (including this mission travel) out of our own pockets.

Students at the Afghans 4 Tomorrow school. 

Hamida at home with her son and husband. 

Hamida at home by gaslight. 

Nassima, one of our SRT ladies, manages this group of seamstresses who work these non-electric treadle machines. 

Gwendy and Latifa (see more on Latifa in story below). 

Afghanistan's Minister of Women's Affairs Dr. Masooda Jahal and Toni. (We had a hard time finding a photo with Toni's eyes open, and not showing the streaks of mud on her slacks.)


Having trouble with the pix posting software today...so only 1 pix today, more hopefully tomorrow.

More assessments today. We recruited a woman from the provinces—Esmat from Heart, who we invited to join the Style Road Trip. She crochets skirts and doilies that use soda-bottle rings as a base. (Sounds awful, but looks pretty—trust us.) We are thrilled to have a lady from outside of Kabul in the Bpeace program. Esmat is committed to teaching the women in her area what she will learn on the SRT in New York.

While Gwendy was interviewing Latifa at the Afghan Art Gallery, and Paula was photographing, Ray was shopping the gallery. Latifa proudly displayed her unusual dress designs using embroidery accents and is hoping to open her own business with her designs which are popular with the local NGO community.

Laura and Paula visited with Hanifa…a former very prosperous businesswomen from Pakistan. Laura was trying to channel her into using her network to bring higher end fabrics to Afghanistan.

Jim and Laura spent quality time with Bakhtnazera, consulting on every aspect of her dress shop business. The problems are age old….attracting customers and managing cash flow. (Jim has operated at ends of the business spectrum in his career to date…from advising billionaire Ron Perlman on a megadeal to encouraging a dress shop owner on a side street in Kabul. What resume building.)

Kate met with Kamela and her partner Fahima and was blown away by these smart, gutsy ambitious women. They run a construction business which has two different enterprises. We learned of the oldest last June. It is a gabion business which employs 250 men and women who produce rock filled metal cage containers used to retain walls and floods. In the past several months they have launched a training center for carpentry and have trained 20 men and 20 women in the carpentry trade while providing literacy education. Their vision is to transform this school into a for profit enterprise which has synergy with the gabion business. They are working hard to obtain government and private contracts. Our translator was shocked and Kate amazed to see pictures of women running boards through table saws and hauling rocks. In this reconstructing country, Kamela and her partner have developed a business which taps into a real market opportunity. Kamela is so good that she is being increasingly asked to teach business skills to other budding male and female entrepreneurs. A consulting business is being born. Kamela and Fahima are breaking new ground. Bpeace will help them with business plan development and marketing.

Toni was out and about with Mercy Corps this morning, visiting a community center on the Kabul fringe. There she met 3 candle makers, working over a kerosene heater, who were thrilled to be creating something of their own. “I wake up in the night dreaming about candles,” said one of the ladies. Mercy Corps is hoping Bpeace will take these candle makers and 3 potters under our wing. While the women aren’t fast runners by our usual standards, they are fast runners in their community.

The entire Bpeace team, along with UNIFEM, and reps from the Afghan Women’s Business Council met with Dr. Masooda Jalal, the new Minister of Women’s Affairs who ran for President of Afghanistan last fall. Dr. Jalal has a strong vision, and was particularly interested in matching Afghan businesswomen with American businesswomen. (Hmmm….we may know of a group who can help with that.)

In between it all, Gwendy and Kate managed to shop…visiting Kabul’s gold district (who knew!). Don’t worry Steve, the shops were closed. They did manage to find a few old and rather fragrant textiles. (Rags for peace.)

There seemed to be a meeting of the Afghan old guard alumni association in traditional dress in the hotel tonight, so we fled for a farewell Kabul dinner at a local restaurant, WHERE THEY HAD WINE!!! That’s all Laura needed to let loose with a laughing jag, which made us all join in. A tradition here is to bundle up any leftover food, and give it to the poor—which of course we did.

Jim teaches again in the morning…called back by popular demand by the ladies to talk more about finance.

Our UN flight to Dubai is sometime in the afternoon, and we hope weather conditions allow us to take off. We’re already dreaming of a scotch on the rocks, and a hot fudge sundae.

Another snowy day in Kabul.

Hello all from snowy Kabul where it is once again snowing on top of themud. Thank you all for letting us know you love us. Keep those comments coming in.

We hosted a lunch for the Afghan women who participated in Thunderbird’s Artemis program—the 2-week mini-MBA program in Phoenix last month. The ladies were radiant and abuzz with tales of the Thunderbird experience. They were so taken with the Thunderbird mentors that they are planning on launching their own mentoring program. In May, Kate and Laurie will go to Kabul to pick up our Style Road Trip ladies and bring them to New York. Kate will teach a workshop on “How to mentor.” Laurie will teach a workshop on business presentation skills.

Toni, Jim and Ray met with the new Minister of Commerce at the Presidential offices. He was most interested in decreasing Afghanistan’s trade deficit by increasing the country’s exports. It was an interesting meeting in that we didn’t always agree on the focus of programs.

Kate visited City Tower which is Kabul's, and therefore Afghanistan's, finest shopping center. No heat of course. So cold that you could see your breath. Male shopkeepers and their unemployed male friends sitting around in their coats under the falling ceilings. Few customers in what looked like construction sites. Beyond improving product, improving retail is a big opportunity for our women.

For the past two days most of the team has been conducting business assessments—benchmarking where the women are with their businesses, and understanding their most critical needs to grow their businesses. During 60-90 minute interviews we tried to gain granularity around their needs for finance, marketing, training and quality standards.

Gwendy, Paula, Laura and Kate spent time with the women in their homes.

Hossai is one of our favorite women and her husband was a delight. She is a pistol. Under the Taliban, she owned a forbidden satellite dish which was almost discovered. She managed to get rid of it by stashing in a neighbors home as the Taliban pounded on the door. Had they been caught, the husband would have had to wear the dish around their neck. Almost laughable until you think about it…that said Hossai and her husband had a chuckle. Today, she runs a successful uniform business. Her critical need: a generator and electric sewing machines, so she can double her production with the same amount of workers. What a woman!

Hamida’s husband was quite the charmer, dominating the conversation with Gwendy, showing her a photo album with all his international friends. Hamida has been selling hand-knit sweaters and gloves to the Embassy and NGO communities, with her husband as her “marketing manager.” He personally makes the rounds with flyers and generated orders for 40 pairs of gloves and socks from the Russian Embassy. In order to exploit the hand-knit niche, Hamida needs design help and better quality materials.

Laila, who is Bpeace’s program manager in Kabul, wants to grow her jewelry business in an innovative way by integrating a jewelry-making school. We have loved the professionalism she brings to our program here. Her big home run--when she found out the Ministry of Women’s Affairs had no heat and we would have to bring our own fuel, she cajoled the University of Kabul into providing us heated classrooms.

Rangina came over for dinner tonight. She was born in Kandahar, left the country with her family when she was 3, grew up in the US. She returned to Kandahar two years ago to work with women who only are allowed to come out of their homes for wedding celebrations. Embroidery from Kandahar is known as the best in the country and she needs help tweaking the traditional designs for the US market, and finding distributors here. Toni ordered a beaded lariat to wear during the Style Road Trip events in May.

Ray came off of his awesome training session as he and Jim had an inspiring meeting with the head of the Kabul Chamber of Commerce who suggested lots of ideas, including that we do some training on radio.

Gwendy and Laura had dinner with a reporter from Bloomberg News, a local architect, Zolaykha Sherzad who is updating traditional Afghan silk into modern fashions. Suzanne Thompson also joined them (an American staying at the Inter-continental with us—her Roots for Peace program helps families revive their orchards).

So it’s 11:30 pm, and we’re still up, doing the blog. We have our second wind. Tomorrow should be our last full day in Kabul. If we can get a flight out on Thursday. The low cloud cover is keeping lots of flights grouned.

Gwendy and Hossai. 

Hamida's workers. 

Ray teaching embroidery transfer. 

Paula, Kate and Gwendy outside the Hotel Inter-continental, Kabul. 

Burka eyes. 

No pix tonight, and not much text either. Here's what you need to know: Had a great day. Talk to you tomorrow. And post some comments, will you! Except for a few loyal fans (thanks Laurie, Trish, Steve and Mary), there's a big cone of silence out there.

Are the mountains blocking the transmissions? We're on strike until some more of you readers post.

xxoo
The tired, but happy, team

We have their attention.

Style Road Trip ladies using their new Bpeace calculators. 

Jim's on the floor making a profit. Gwendy's mood boards surround the walls. The integrated wheels of business: finance and creativity. 

On the way to the market, check out the high heels and the handbag with this burqa.


How many activities can you cram into a Kabul day?

Laura, Gwendy, Paula and Kate went to the fabric market with Mahbooba, head of the Afghan Women’s Business Council. There was not a natural fiber in sight.

Jim repeated his stunning “How to Make a Profit” performance, this time to the Style Road Trip ladies. They poured over their new Bpeace calculators, and realized how hard it is to make a profit. Jim’s recurring theme was “unless you make a profit, your business won’t be sustainable.”

Gwendy stimulated their creative imaginations with Keith Recker’s “mood boards”—a series of photo montages on color and design. The lively, fun session had the room buzzing with delight. Turns out our Afghan ladies love green and purple, and designs from China and India.

Ray and Gwendy conducted an embroidery design transfer demonstration. Ray has spend the prior three weeks buying supplies including chalk dust, rulers, tracing paper, Mylar, push pins and had “goodie bags” of supplies for all the ladies. His effort was much like a Thanksgiving meal, weeks in the making, and over in a half hour. He did a great job.

Paula was all over the day like sauce—shooting 600 photos from the market to the end of day’s training wrap-up. (By the way, it takes her an hour every night to download all her photos, and another hour to convert the photos we want to use on the blog. We hope you all are enjoying the photos, because Paula is sure working hard to bring them to you.)

Toni and Jim met with the Kabul’s tip-top businessmen, the leaders of Afghanistan’s International Chamber of Commerce. We met the top biscuit-maker, and the man who is leading a $50 million hotel development.

Kate had an unexpected learning experience with a visit to the Kabulpolice after her handbag was stolen from one of our vans during a flattire change. Typical Afghan bureaucracy gave Kate ample time to spendwith the middleclass detectives and policemen. Kate's interpreterMaywan facilitated a major cultural breakthrough between these curiousAfghan men and a Bpeace woman. They learned about American women andour projects. Kate learned that these men believe in a growing rolefor women in their society. Indeed they shared pride in theirdaughter's accomplishments. They believe that education and businesstraining is the foundation to keep Afghanistan free from tyranny andconflict, expressing deeply felt gratitude for our work inAfghanistan. The officers thanked Kate's husband for allowing her tocome to their country and look forward to meeting him when heaccompanies her on a future visit.

The entire team enjoyed dinner with Rodolphe Baudeau of Altai Consulting. His firm of more than 200 employees has been in Kabul for three years. Some of his predictions of where big business opportunities are for women, are right in line with our thinking—including hospitality and niche adventure tourism (mountaineering).

Whew…we’re pooped.

And now for a commercial message: if you are reading this blog, and are not a Bpeace member, please add your name to our mailing list. Look in the left-column for our little sign-up box.

Why didn't we pack those skis? Facing the Intercontinental driveway at 7:15 am.

Do you want to sell 100 handbags at $10, or 10 at $100? Profit margin, an entirely new concept.

It may look comfy, but for the Americans, does anyone know how to spell chiropractor?