Beverli J. DeWalt is the daughter of Kent residents Arnold and Sue DeWalt, and is an alumnus of Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn. But right now, she\u2019s about as far away from western Washington as she can be.<\/p>\n
DeWalt, 32, is currently in Afghanistan, serving as a U.S. State Department foreign service officer helping to get the war-torn country back on its feet. She\u2019s one of 10 American civilians stationed in Afghanistan as part of the Civilian Response Corps.<\/p>\n
Since June, she\u2019s been embedded with a military unit to assist the Kapisa and Parwan Provincial Reconstruction Team. Kapisa and Parwan are provinces (roughly equivalent to U.S. states) just north of Kabul, the nation\u2019s capitol. She\u2019s scheduled to remain in the country till December.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is to help advise the commander and the rest of the unit on political issues,\u201d she said, in a phone interview from Afghanistan. She also meets with local political leaders to help them create a better and more stable government.<\/p>\n
In her three months in Afghanistan, DeWalt said she\u2019s had to face a number of challenges \u2014 politically and culturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I wasn\u2019t really expecting was how much there still is to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She compared the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan to the work done in post-WWII Germany: \u201cAfter World War II they had something to start with. Europe was already \u2013 before the war \u2013 one of the more advanced societies in the world. Afghanistan, on the other hand, has always been a very decentralized government … very reliant on the clan and the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without a base of local understanding of good government to draw upon, DeWalt said, reconstruction efforts are moving slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have been through so much war they haven\u2019t really had a normalized society,\u201d she said. \u201cYou go into a meeting at the provincial level, and they don\u2019t have an agenda, and they don\u2019t even know how to make an agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another difficulty has been the difference between Western and Middle-Eastern communication styles.<\/p>\n
\u201cCulturally here, if you want to talk about a computer, that\u2019s the last thing you talk about,\u201d DeWalt said, adding that \u201cyou can expect to sit in any meeting at least an hour and a half (to get around to discussing a single point).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Helping women<\/p>\n
Along with her work as a diplomat and liaison between U.S. military and local Afghan leaders, DeWalt said she\u2019s also focusing on women\u2019s issues in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been working with line leaders (appointed Afghan government officials) … to identify needs of local women, and address them through programs of the Provincial Reconstruction Team,\u201d she said, adding that one of the major goals is to find ways to help Afghan women support themselves financially.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we\u2019re just getting started here is a saffron project,\u201d DeWalt said.<\/p>\n
Saffron, one of the costliest spices on the market, is a crop international groups have been pushing as a viable alternative for farmers involved in Afghanistan\u2019s huge \u2013 and illegal \u2013 opium industry. (Afghanistan\u2019s poppy fields generate an estimated $4 billion in illicit revenue annually, according to the CIA\u2019s online World Factbook.)<\/p>\n
Part of the saffron harvesting process includes hand-picking the thin red filaments out of the saffron crocus blooms, a job often done by women. So if the saffron industry grows, so too will the job market for Afghan women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen don\u2019t have a lot of economic opportunity here, but agriculture is an acceptable (trade for women),\u201d DeWalt said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Life in Afghanistan<\/p>\n
When she arrived in Afghanistan, DeWalt said one of the first things she noticed was the walls \u2014 foot-thick adobe brick walls around nearly every building.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the grand country of walls,\u201d she said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
DeWalt said that a lot of women like having a wall around their houses \u201cso they can be outside without men seeing them.\u201d The walls also offer a way to safeguard a family\u2019s animals \u2014 an important consideration in a largely agrarian society.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt almost feels like you\u2019ve walked back in time a thousand years … except occasionally you\u2019ll see a car or a bicycle,\u201d DeWalt said of the scene in a typical Afghan neighborhood.<\/p>\n
With the danger level still so high in her area, DeWalt said that she doesn\u2019t get to go out and mingle with the locals much. When she does get the chance, though, she said what she finds is a people who have lived with war so long, they simply shrug and accept it. With a life expectancy rate of 44 years, few people alive can remember a time without war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a phrase, \u2018In sha\u2019a Allah.\u2019 It\u2019s an Arabic phrase that means \u2018God willing.\u2019 You hear that a lot,\u201d DeWalt said. \u201cMost of your average people are poor, very poor. They don\u2019t really know or care too much (about the political situation) as long as they\u2019re left in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
War and poverty have done nothing to dampen the famous Middle-Eastern hospitality, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very, very hospitable…. If they have nothing, it doesn\u2019t matter; they\u2019ll make sure they have something for you as a guest,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s very humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n
And even when she\u2019s not stopping for long, the people will always offer her a cup of tea. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of tea offered to me,\u201d she said. (DeWalt said she doesn\u2019t drink tea, so she also has to do a lot of polite declining.)<\/p>\n
The work of rebuilding Afghan society will not happen overnight, but DeWalt said she\u2019s optimistic about the progress her team and other international groups are making.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the short-term, we\u2019re making lots of strides,\u201d she said adding that the long-term goal of \u201chaving (Afghanistan) be a modern society\u201d will take a long time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Contact staff writer Christine Shultz at 253-872-6600, ext. 5056, or cshultz@reporternewspapers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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