This is what I saw:
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=5257
Soldiers portray Western ideas to Afghan families
By Sgt. Stephanie Hall
September 24, 2003
Maj. Tito S. Martinez, executive officer and Bamian Provincial Rebuilding Team engineeer, uses butcher board to rehash an English lesson taught to a class of Afghani families.
Sgt. Stephanie Hall
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BAMIAN, Afghanistan (Army News Service, Sept. 24, 2003) -- As they approach the small Afghan villa made of mud and straw the U.S. Soldiers are greeted by a mass of smiling faces and shouts of "how are you."
A gathering of five Afghan families greet the Soldiers like old friends, and the young children run up to the Soldiers to grab their hands and lead them into the villa as they proudly show off their English vocabulary.
The sessions began before the Bamian Provincial Reconstruction Team site was officially opened, and was already in place when the team took over, said Maj. Tito S. Martinez, the team's executive officer.
Soon, though, the cultural exchanges will stop. A team of New Zealand Forces officially took over the team's area Sept. 23, said Master Sgt. Mel M. Ramos, who also taught the classes and was the acting sergeant major for the Bamian PRT.
The families say they enjoy it when the Soldiers visit because "they are good people to teach us," said 14-year-old Abdulazime Kazime, one student of the Soldiers.
For several months, Martinez said he took from his personal time to visit the families and continue a tradition stared before him because "it's very invigorating."
"It's good therapy to just leave everything behind for the day, not deal with it, and just play games with children, or teach them," he said.
The teachings also served as a way to integrate new ideas and "pretty much to (help) build the future" of Afghanistan, said Ramos
Each encounter flowed smoothly because this particular group doesn't adhere as strictly to traditional rules as some other families do, so the males in the family allow the females and children to be exposed to western ideas that sometimes contradict their traditional values, said Martinez.
"Very seldom will the (males) show up and monitor what we're doing," he said. "One of the unique things is their trust in us as males going in to teach the young girls, daughters and wives, so we've been lucky that they've put that trust in us and it's worked out so far."
The actual teachings go far beyond the spoken language and add a new aspect to the confined lives of these families, said Martinez.
"It's teaching our culture, our way of thinking (and) our attitude," he said. The Soldiers showed them American food and houses, and even how Americans live, Martinez said.
"We describe and talk about some of our cities; we teach them slang sometimes just to have fun," he added.
Within the lessons, Martinez said "seeds of ambition and goals" are planted in the minds of the village's women.
They tried to expose the ladies to the things American women have accomplished, like being doctors and lawyers, said Martinez.
"Hopefully some of these ladies, some of the younger ones, will be better exposed and have different goals and ambitions than their mothers and grandmothers who have been subjugated and subservient for so long," he said.
Each visit was divided into three parts. The children still too young for structured learning would flock around the Soldiers because they knew they were first in line for the Soldiers' attention. With the children, Martinez said it wasn't about teaching, it was about playing games with them to teach them "motor skills, thinking skills, or just help them with their emotional growth (and) build their confidence."
After playing with the children, the Soldiers would teach an intermediate class to older children. They received homework, reviewed the previous day's homework and taught some basic English grammar and conversation, Martinez said.
"Not to just improve their speaking abilities, but also their conversation and build up their confidence," said Martinez.
In an advanced class, "we got into some heavy grammar, concepts, writing, and conversations," said Martinez. "A lot of those lessons are on butcher board, so every once in a while we would go back and rehash it before I introduce a new concept or something more complex."
Their participation and eagerness to learn demonstrates "(the) family is blessed with a lot of talent, and a lot of brain power," said Martinez. "They realize this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be associated with so many people from the states with so many different ideas, so they're just trying to capitalize on that and get their family exposed to it."
"If you look at their house, it's basically a fortress," said Martinez. Their whole lives are "within those walls, and the world is very small for them," he said. "They don't have a lot of access to satellite TV, radio, personalities, both celebrities and political, we are exposed to, so when we go there, and especially when we bring somebody else there, we're basically expanding their world beyond those walls they're use to."
Although he and Martinez will no longer be able to teach the families, Ramos said he savors the memory of sharing his experiences with these families who did the same. "I enjoyed (learning) about their daily lives, their way of life and some of the customs that we don't understand, which they'd explain to us," he said.
(Editor's note: Sgt. Stephanie Hall is a journalist with the 4th Public Affairs Detachment in Afghanistan.)
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Looks like a worthwile effort to me
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