An Afghan Outing And River Heals Us
Photo by Our Journey to Smile.
This story, published by Our Journey to Smile (OJS), talks about some of the important psychological and healing roles that dance can play in our lives. Thank you to OJS for sharing this story.
This was not a typical festive ‘first world’ outing, as its need and idea arose not from leisure, but from trauma.
Recently, Hadisa was broken after an ‘endless’ night of crouching nervously in the dark of her University dormitory, while bomb blasts and gunshots were ending precious lives only a hair’s breath away.
Nemat, in a safe space which softened Hadisa’s distress, remembered looking at a heavily-breathing comatose father in a bare Afghan government hospital ward with no monitoring devices. I was well aware of Nemat’s questions over his own undiagnosed lower limb weakness and limp, when he asked me in resigned desperation, “Do you think I should transfer him to another hospital?”
Ali, listening to and comforting Hadisa, had also just lost a loved one too, his older brother, Sultan. Sultan was killed by at least four bullets.
The Afghan Peace Volunteer community agreed unanimously, “Let’s go for a picnic, or let’s just be together for a day.”...
See a short video of the river outing at An Afghan Outing and River Heals Us : https://youtu.be/0wWybiyDaAQ