Afghanistan Postscript: The Women Say Goodbye

August 22, 2007

Please remember that this is my experience in Afghanistan. It will not necessarily be yours, or anyone else's. This is a personal blog full of opinions -- it's not a series of newspaper articles. I make no claims to being completely accurate and I make NO claims to being impartial. There are opinions here that you may disagree with, based on your own knowledge and experience, and that's fine. In fact, I've changed my opinions since writing these blogs - even I disagree now with some of the viewpoints I express here in these blogs. I hope I come from a place of honesty and sincerity in these accounts, and I hope you will respect that this is merely one foreigner's perspective about what she saw and experienced, and that these capture a moment.
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So, I made it home to Germany. Just as we pulled into Sinzig, the fireworks for a city celebration started, and Stefan said, "See what I arranged for your homecoming?" It was so nice to hear "friendly" explosions, though I still jumped a little inside each time there was a boom.

Albi was very happy to see me, and very happy to go on a long walk this morning.

After I posted my last blog from Kabul, the Afghan women that I work with came to my office. I had written them a goodbye note and asked Friba to translate it into Dari and read it to them over lunch on Saturday. In the note, I had told them that I believe they are powerful, that they can do anything, and that I believe they and women like them are the hope of Afghanistan. So there they all stood in my office, with a small heart-shaped red box, and they chided me for waiting until I had almost left to tell them I was going. I felt a little bad about that... but I really didn't want a big fuss. I opened the box, and there was a beautiful silver and lapis set of matching earrings, a bracelet, a necklace and a ring. I started to cry. It is an expensive and very thoughtful gift (the lapis of Afghanistan is beautiful). I went around hugging each of the women, who were all also crying. I hugged one young woman, and as I pulled away she said, "Don't go." It just made me cry harder.

I may not be in love with Afghanistan... but I shall always feel an obligation to it, no question. Especially the women.

a group of women stand or sit in front of the doorways of an office. Many are in head scarves. Some smile, some have blank faces. There are many stories on the faces in this photo.

I'll be posting some final photos by the end of today.

Okay, really, last blog for a long while.

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