I have not been back to Afghanistan since I left in August 2007. I have tried to go back: I've applied for four short-term jobs there, all mostly-remote consultancies where I would only have to be in Kabul for a few days. None of the jobs have worked out.

I worked with a Spanish woman in Ukraine in 2014 who had just been working in Kabul, and what she described to me regarding living conditions was jaw-dropping. I thought of how constrained and lonely I had felt - and I had much more freedom than international workers have there now. I wouldn't go back to Afghanistan for more than a few weeks - I know that mentally I could not handle the confinement on the UN compound for more than that.

I've stayed in contact with my former assistant in Afghanistan over all these years. She now works at a water and sanitation program in the same government ministry where we worked together. I edit her press releases and program reports and various communications materials, advise her on her job profiles when recruiting other staff, and guide her in her goals and aspirations, personally and professionally, as best I can. She came to the USA in 2019 on the US State Department's International Visiting Leaders Program, and we got to reunite face-to-face in Chicago at long last.

The cricket-playing Afghan HR manager who helped me stay safe from one of the expats who was making staff oh-so-uncomfortable got married, had children, and got to come to the USA with his family on a special program - he's living on the East Coast and I'm hoping my work will take me there eventually.

One of the women you see a few times in my photos from my time in her country fled Afghanistan with her entire family, walking - yes, walking - to Germany about a year before the influx of refugees from her country and Syria into Europe began. I didn't know until she started posting from Germany that she is, in fact, Ba'hai - she had to flee with her family because her brother's wife, a Muslim, claimed the family was trying to convert her. She's now married and has children and seems very happy.

I've stayed in contact with three of my fellow foreign expats - one has a small business promoting hand-made goods from Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Zambia, one is in New York and we got to see each other just a few years ago - we stay in touch via Facebook - and one is back in Kenya, where I think he is happiest - we stay in touch on Twitter mostly.

I get to meet with people from Afghanistan here in the USA, via World Oregon-organized visits for the US State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP, like this gentleman who was oh-so-happy to have a real American cowboy hat. Or these amazing journalists from Kabul. When World Oregon calls, if I am available, I always respond, especially for Afghan visitors.

I wonder and worry about so many of my Afghan colleagues. I do not know of any women that I worked with that doesn't want out of the country. And I so understand it. It makes me profoundly sad that things have become so dire there - when I left, I had so much hope.

If you want to help people in Afghanistan, I recommend:

• Stay up-to-date on what's happening. Here's my own curated list of Twitter accounts from Afghans themselves or related to Afghanistan. Look at what they are posting even once a month, and retweet things you want to amplify.
   
• Donate to Mayhew International. Yes, they help street animals, mostly dogs. But they also help build the capacities of Afghans that want to be veterinarians and otherwise help animals.
   
• Donate to PARSA. Prince did!
   
• Buy something Afghan-made from Gundara.
   
• Give to CARE International, and designate your gift for Afghanistan.

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