Exams and Pakistan

I regret that I have been too busy to update here. As our students have prepared for their first semester final exams, ANIM's role within the Kabul community has grown. Our students performed at the Goethe Institute, an American brass band visited our school for a performance, and myself and two other teachers were interviewed on Killid Radio.

Exam preparation took over my life for a while. This was the first exam I had designed since my arrival, and I was very anxious for all my students to do well. I offered them all as many lessons as they wanted after school, and to my delight, the girl who needed the most help, a painfully thin and shy child from an impoverished background, asked for an extra lesson every day. I am proud to report that after a huge amount of work, she received 84 of 100 points on her exam, which was to perform "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with all variations.

Now, I write from Islamabad, Pakistan, where I just arrived yesterday to begin the Cultures in Harmony project there. I'm looking forward to a benefit concert on Saturday, since the proceeds from this concert will benefit ANIM's sponsorship program, enabling girls like the one who showed such dedication in preparing for her exams to continue studying at our institute in Kabul. This concert is an excellent way to combine my passion for ANIM, to which I have been very dedicated since my arrival in Afghanistan in March, and my work with Cultures in Harmony, the non-profit I founded in 2005.