OTISFIELD, MAINE | Sapna Rasoul, a small, ponytailed girl, enjoys making friends and playing basketball at the Seeds of Peace Camp in the Maine woods, far from her native Afghanistan.
But as other girls splash around by the swimming dock, she’s thinking about being somewhere else: school.
Rasoul, 15, started attending school just six months ago after the Taliban’s rule came to an end. Education is a priority because she wants to help her people as a lawyer, or a judge, or a doctor.
“I miss my school,” she said from a bench overlooking an idyllic evergreen-framed view of Pleasant Lake.
The Seeds of Peace camp brings together teenagers from warring regions. This year, the campers include a dozen teenagers from Afghanistan, a country that has been at war with itself for years.
The Afghan teens have not known peace in their lifetimes.
The goal for most of the 160 campers attending the first summer session is to see the human face of their enemy. Those include Pakistanis, Indians, Palestinians, and Israelis, all of whom bunk, eat, and play together.
For the Afghans, the aim is different.
“Ideally, we’re hoping for them to open up, to get used to the idea of expressing themselves frankly and not be afraid someone is going to do something to their family because they said something,” said Bobbie Gottschalk, executive vice president of Seeds of Peace.
The Afghan campers have had to adjust since they landed in the United States. For many, it was their first trip on a plane and out of the country. Three of the girls, Gottschalk said, arrived dressed in burkas, the cloaklike coverings that many Muslim women wear and which were required by the Taliban.
A week later, they were outfitted in jeans, camp T-shirts, and sneakers, and learning about camp activities.
On a recent afternoon, Rasoul, who learned English in a clandestine school before the fall of the Taliban, translated as a counselor explained how the campers were supposed to navigate a series of tire swings. The girls gigged as they watched each other swing and grasp for the next tire.
“You must be monkey!” 16-year-old Weda Saghri said.
“Very delicious! Very beautiful!” 14-year-old Abida Attazada Ayda chirped with approval.
Afterward, the counselor, Annie Kelly, sat the girls down in a circle and asked them to talk about what they did well, what they could have done better, and what they learned about each other.
For campers from opposing sides of a conflict, these sessions foster teamwork and trust before they tackle the nearby rock-climbing wall where people entrust each other with their safety.
The Afghanistan program is still evolving and may end up being similar to one developed for Maine’s refugees.
“They had seen some terrible things,” Gottschalk said. “And when they came a few years ago, they looked like these kids from Afghanistan. They were traumatized, shut down.”