Bpeace in Afghanistan (Again)

Wendy and Farah were at Bakhtnazira's on Day 1 of an intensive 3 day mentoring session. Following the lead set by Julia Sloan and Masuda Sultan (in pre-mission cross-cultural training in New York), Wendy and Farah began the meeting in high context mode:
"Good Morning BK jan" "How are you?"
FINE
"Your dresses are so beautiful"
THANK YOU
"Oh, I’d like to buy something to wear to the Bpeace gala"
NO PROBLEM
And after 2 hours of tea, cookies and cake, looking at and trying on the clothes, outlaying several C notes and talking, talking, talking, we got down to business. Bakhtnazira's new designs using the new fabrics she bought from India are gorgeous!! Very chic! (Kate, even you would approve.) Farah, who used to be a seamstress in Tehran, showed BN how to refine her finishing although it was already quite good. BN is going to start to design window treatments to supplement her income and she is excited about doing this.

Toni and Pam swept in at noon and within minutes, Pam proceeded to clean out BN’s entire accessory inventory as Chanega (BN’s husband) looked on in total disbelief!

The entire team, including BN, Chanega and Suria went off to B’s for lunch. Ray then went off with Laila to a meeting at the First Microfinance Bank trying to determine which banks in town are open to making loans to our associates. Then he picked up the training workbooks we printed in Kabul! The quality looking quite excellent.

Toni and Pam met with Mary Beth Wilson of Altai Consulting who had just finished a major research project on Afghan handicrafts. By the end of the meeting, Toni had recruited Mary Beth as a new Bpeace member! Pam had one of BN's purses in hand, and Mary Beth said it was something she and her friends in the States would immediately buy.

By 4:00 pm, we were back at our hotel to host a focus group. Bpeace has always advocated that the associates attend to their local market in Kabul. But in addition to Afghans, the local market includes ex-pats, i.e., foreign nationals working in Kabul. Rosemary and Laila helped us invite 14 American and European participants some of whom were quite vocal about their shopping Kabul habits. Many of the people who work at NGO's (non-profit organizations) spoke of security contraints that prevent them from going to local bazars to shop. As a result, they often send their drivers shopping. T hey said they would buy more if shopping came to them. We responded with the idea of a Style Caravan, a shoppingmobile that could go to guest houses and other places.

The focus groupies voiced a desire to support the people of Afghanistan and want labels that say "Made in Afghanistan" and want to know the true story and source of products. There were complaints about prices and quality and the lack of things to give as gifts for men.

A big AHA for us is that 90% of the expat population is male (and they are not interested in embroidery) . A big (and very pleasant) surprise to us was there is "Kabul Shopping List Serve," sort of The Daily Candy of Kabul edited by 2 young women who claim their greatest passion is shopping.