Afghanistan in Reality evening

I needn't have worried. In the end there must have been two hundred or more, and only just enough food and chairs to go round. The venie was the 'Welcome Centre in Cheetham Hill, where regugees are dumped by the state when they arrive seeking asylum form death squads back home. Hamid, my latest lodger had been one of them.
Jonny, 'my son of whom I am well pleased', had organised an evening to 'celebrate and raise awareness' of Afghan history and culture. He was doing this on behalf of RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Participatory Action Research group), a Greater Manchester voluntary sector organisation working for local people who have had their human rights denied. They are often refugees or asylum seekers, and many are from Afghanistan. As this is the biggest thing he's done I was sharing his anxiety that people wouldn't turn up.
In the end it was an interesting, stimulating and enjoyable evening. No one really minded the pink tinged projector slides, the slightly over long speeches, and queue for food. It was a good old lefty meeting reminiscent of the early days of CND meetings, and we were showing solidarity with the oppressed and destitute.
Well done Jonny