Sylvia's Journal

A message came in this morning that several armored vehicles had been stolen and that Taliban were on the loose in Kabul out to kidnap high level ministry officials and foreigners to hold as ransom for a Taliban prisoner exchange.

Getting a phone message like that at 8 AM when you are in a deep sleep is a bit of a shock. There was a fleeting moment where I felt teetering on the edge of a deep dark pit. It is a reminder of where we really live, something that is easily forgotten considering the comfortable life we are living.

And so we were grounded for the morning and not able to go on our Friday morning walk in Bagh-bala. It felt a bit like a snow day – no need to get dressed. We strung out our breakfast, Susan having her second of the day, with French toast and the Christmas jelly that has had brought.

By the time the all clear was given, a couple of hours later, it was too late for us to go for the walk because of a lunch appointment that had been made two weeks ago with a colleague in a part of Kabul that is nearby and generally considered safe.

I wondered how our security people could call the ‘all clear’ without a capture. As it turned out the story was, once again, a rumor, playing out through phone messages across continents. This is part of the daily chatter of imminent attacks. One could argue that evidence can only be determined after the fact but apparently there are people who can do informed guesses distinguishing chatter from the real thing. We are grateful for the people looking out for us.

While my colleagues enjoyed their usual outing to Chicken Street we immersed ourselves into a small piece of Afghan society that gives us lots of hope. My colleague has four small children under the age of 10, three of them girls. When I asked their mother what her dream was for the girls she told me ‘any profession they want.’ At this stage all of them want to become doctors and the father, a doctor himself, is helping them on their way by sending them to a private school.

They are learning English and the oldest two (8 and 10) could speak better English than I could speak their languages (Dari and Pashto). While waiting for the meal to be served we practiced our Dari on the children and they practiced their English on us. We named just about every object in the sparsely furnished room.

The house is still being finished. In 1992 the family fled Kabul with only the clothes on their backs as one or another warlord’s troops closed in on their neighborhood. In between the fighting that destroyed a good part of Kabul in the ensuing years, all their possessions and everything that could be removed from their house was carted away by armed thugs, down to the wires, doors, windows, glass and tiles.

When the couple returned eight years after their forced departure all they could do was leveling what remained of the house and start over again. It made me realize how much of an over-insured society I come from. When such things happen to people in the US there is always a lawyer ready to sue someone or some institutions and a sense that one shouldn’t have to pay for such an injustice. Here there is never any recourse. Where would you go?

Now, ten years later, the new house is nearly finished but a few essentials are missing, such as running water, sinks, flushing toilets, curtains. There are some rooms with heat and a few naked light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. With every paycheck something more gets finished with the money that is left over after taking care of other family members, living expenses and school fees. I can see why it is a slow process.

Still, the lunch that was prepared under such conditions was phenomenal. I did not do it any justice with my chicken appetite. Axel tried a bit harder.

After lunch we went to the roof which was made with dreams of long and peaceful summer evenings in mind. We sat in the warm winter sun drinking green tea and eating various dried foods for which Afghanistan has always been famous. We enjoyed watching the four children riding their bicycles; the roof terrace was designed for that too.

At the end of our visit Axel and I received a present each from our hosts. I received an embroidered shawl and Axel a dress shirt with fancy tie. These were offered to us to thank us for being in Afghanistan and helping the country build a better future for their children. It was very touching and, we feel, entirely undeserved.

There may be a lot of people in the US and Afghanistan who think that having more troops here is bad – but this Afghan family is very grateful for the sacrifices that some American families are making on their behalf.