Bpeace in Kabul

If yesterday we felt totally out of control, in a mere 24 hours we got the hang of it, and today was business as usual. More beadwork, more embroidery, oh, did we say more embroidery? Seriously, the women do beautiful needlework but it reinforces our assumption about the lack of differentiation and appeal of the current work to western markets. They need the Style Road Trip.

Today we interviewed 2 mother-daughter teams--one were real stars (Shiny Apples we're calling them because we want to bring them to the Big Apple, see their pix above). And the other mother-daughter team, well, Laurie will have to tell the story but the punchline is "Mommy Dearest."

The big excitement of the day was Toni taught her first workshop to about 40 women at the Ministry of Commerce. She tried to manage the unruly bunch with the concept of a meeting where only 1 person speaks at a time...but they didn't seem to get it. So everytime 2 people started talking to each other, Toni just stopped until there was silence. (They may have liked it better that way?) Toni had been asked by the Ministry to teach "How to Write a Business Plan," but since some women didn't have jobs, or were in the non-synergistic businesses of (furniture making and health care and embroidery at the same time), the wiser course was to shift the curriculum and stress basic business principles of centering your business around the customer.

There were some aha moments (although they were in Dari, so we're really not sure if aha doesn't mean something else). These came when Toni suggested that they offer a free ice cream cone with every pair of trousers (makes sense to us), and to offer a selection of fabrics when making furniture.

The women had some great insights, and most responded with spot-on questions. It was very gratifying

3 more days of teaching to go. Hopefully Toni won't start tomorrow's workshop by getting tangled up in her headscarf again.

Masuda and Toni had a great meeting with USAID professionals--smart women with lots of ideas and there may be some real opportunity to partner with them.

In a country of no alcohol, we found some alcohol free-beer in the hotel coffee shop, and managed to get a buzz. We're desperate.

Thanks for checking in. Keep those cards and letters coming.

Masuda, Laurie, Corinne and Toni