English Lesson, A4T Schools, Kabul, Afghanistan

In March 2005, I traveled with the Global Exchange delegation "Women Making Change" to Afghanistan. I returned to Afghanistan in March 2007, as a volunteer for the NGO Afghans4Tomorrow, teaching English in the A4T Schools.

My plan was to do a postcard and photograph exchange between the students at Kabul Vocational and Training Center in Kabul and Knightsen School in California. It was going pretty smoothly until I got out the Polaroid camera, at which point, all hell broke loose. As I should have anticipated the girls were very excited to have their picture taken and weren't willing to surrender the Polaroid images. The most commonly repeated English phrase was "teacher take my picture!"