Welcome to my first official blog entry! As you can imagine I’m very excited and a bit nervous at the same time about my trip to Afghanistan. I just hope that I’m able to do a good job and support schooling for young girls who haven’t really had a chance to go to school until recently. Basic literacy in particular is critical if we really want full societal and civic participation of women in the future – hence, my mission to start with younger girls now.

An Oruj Student learns to read.

My immediate concern right now is just getting logistics in order. Visa – check. Plane tickets – check. Dari lessons – um, anyone out there have any tips on this? It’s been crazy doing all of this in between finals, recent family matters that have come up, moving out, couch-surfing for the rest of May, and fundraising. But I’m really looking forward to being involved in women’s rights as well as my first trip to a non-Pacific Rim country. Most of my experience has been in east/Southeast Asia or with east/Southeast Asian communities in the States, so this will be a new challenge. Approaching education from both a human rights and international development perspective will be something new for me as well.

I definitely need to profusely thank all the people who donated and made this experience possible. You guys were GENEROUS and averaged over $100 per donor – and even those of you who gave smaller amounts were willing to do so in less-than-ideal circumstances (i.e. those of you who are students, still job-searching, or just had a baby). You were so generous it made me feel guilty and put my stingy ways to shame! I also want to thank the two people who didn’t donate money directly but donated thousands upon thousands of frequent flyer miles. I will have to wrack my brain to find a way to adequately thank all of you. And to anyone who may be reading this and hasn’t donated yet – AP will still be accepting donations throughout the summer on the same webpage. Thank you everyone!