The Kite Runner
Lynne Goulette
Grants Pass, OR
12"h x 12"w

 

Artist statement: My quilt is based on the novel "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. Last year I went to Afghanistan for two months to teach Community Midwife Students, the first class ever. I worked with the International Midwife Assistance team and the country of Afghanistan. The beautiful blue-eyed women had been nominated by their village and spent 18 months in school in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, known as the "Jewel of Afghanistan", and home to the ever-tortured Hazara people. This is also the place where the 150-foot tall Buddhas, standing tall over the town and gilded in gold, had been destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban.

The novel illustrates the resilience of the human spirit, and I witnessed this with my visit to these sensitive people. The people of Afghanistan are a poud and independent people who have for decades defended their country against one invader after another. It also talks about the price of betrayal, and these people have been betrayed for the past three decades. The people of Bamiyan are a beautiful people, in a country destroyed by 25 years of war.

While taking a walk one day around my guest house where I stayed, I ran across this little boy and his father flying a kite. I had to capture it in a photo because it so reminded me of the story, and that once again, kites could be flown in Afghanistan. During the Taliban occupation all kite flying, among lots of other rules, was forbidden.

Afghanistan is a country without anything, no running water, no roads, no electricity, no phones, no banks, no post office, most things we take for granted. The novel tells the world this tale, and remains etched into memory forever, as did my visit there among these beautiful people.

Working there with the International Midwife Assistance team gave me optimism about Afghanistan, "Inshallah" or God Willing, that their country will survive and heal. Even though what I accomplished there felt like a drop in the bucket, I feel that with many drops the country can
survive and rise again.