Local students talk to Afghan youths

OLYMPIA – Last school year, one of Olympia High School senior Alex Arbogast’s classes raised money to build schools in Afghanistan.

“It’s one thing to raise money for a school overseas, but to talk directly to the people affected and that you’re trying to help … ” she said. “Here you have to be reminded that there is a war, but there, they see that reality every day.”

Arbogast and about 60 other Olympia High School students gathered in the library Tuesday morning to hold a teleconference with a group of Afghan boys and men ages 13 to 22. Students from The Evergreen State College also joined the teleconference.

The Afghan young people are part of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, a group that is keeping vigil in Peace Park in the Bamiyan Province of Afghanistan in the hope that their message of ending the war in Afghanistan will be acknowledged by President Barack Obama when he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10.

They met with U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry in the hope that he will deliver that message to the president.

On the Olympia end, volunteers with South Sound groups that maintain a local vigil to support the Afghan youths’ vigil arranged the teleconference, using a cell phone after an Internet chat program wouldn’t make the connection.

A translator on the Afghanistan end, aid worker Teck Young Wee, also known as Hakim, interpreted between the two groups.

Olympia High School students asked the Afghans about their daily lives, and the Afghans asked the Olympia students questions about their involvement in U.S. politics and how much they might be able to influence the government to end the occupation of their country.

Answers about daily life in Afghanistan were illuminating for Arbogast. She asked the students if their parents had ever gone to college. One of the students replied that his parents had died, a statement that made a big impression on Arbogast.

“I can’t imagine living like that … not having my parents,” she said.

“They’re no different than us, it’s just that their surroundings are so different,” Arbogast said.

Olympia senior Kaycee Keegan said she came to the teleconference to hear what the young people in Afghanistan had to say and what questions they had for U.S. residents.

“I wanted to listen or take in what they had to say,” she said.

Keegan attended the teleconference because the topic is related to her senior project – raising money for and organizing a May visit from author Greg Mortenson. Mortenson, who wrote “Three Cups of Tea,” about promoting peace through building schools, runs a nonprofit organization that builds schools in Afghanistan.

The teleconference tied both into Keegan’s project and her hope that more people will articulate their desire for peace.

“I wanted to promote service and the goodness of peace,” she said.

Venice Buhain: 360-754-5445

vbuhain@theolympian.com

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