The Good Old Days in Afghanistan: When America Could Send the Peace Corps Rather than the War Corps

When I went to Kabul in September of 1965 there were about 200 mostly young Americans in Afghanistan, serving in the U.S. Peace Corps. Half of them were in Kabul, the rest spread around the countryside in other cities, including Kandahar and the Helmand Valley, and small towns and villages. The majority were teachers of some sort - English, math, science, nursing. Some were training secretaries for the Ministries in Kabul. Some were accountants helping the government switch the accounting system. Later a group of vaccinators joined the crew. The majority of these young Americans had never been outside the United States before. One of my roommates grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin; she was the first of her family to leave her COUNTY!

We rode bicycles everywhere, even we girls who wore shirtwaist dresses and NO headscarves. We traveled all over the country whenever we had days off and the only place that was off limits was Nuristan, and that just because it was so remote and the government worried that if foreigners were injured or became ill, help was too far away. Some of the volunteers in my group who lived in Kabul actually rode their bicycles all the way from Kabul to Jalalabad. We climbed mountains and rode on top of the highly painted trucks. We rode through the streets of Kabul on Christmas Eve singing carols at the top of our lungs. No one paid the slightest attention.

Those of us outside Kabul had to arrange our own housing and deal with our own landlords. I was 22 when I moved from Kabul to Herat. I rode all over town viewing candidate houses and finally found the perfect place. A large compound with alfalfa and potatoes growing there. A brand new house that didn't even have glass in the windows. I moved in, had a well dug, passed on installing a flush toilet and made do with the new latrine. My roommate didn't show up for three months so I lived alone - to the landlord's consternation. I was given a puppy named "Gorg" (wolf) by the little brother of a fellow teacher at the girls' high school where I taught 10th grade English. I also taught FOUR classes of 7th grade boys in a teachers' training school for boys from the countryside. At the beginning of the school year their heads were all shaved for lice prevention, outside under a mulberry tree. Those sweet boys - most of whom wept while losing their locks - would now be 57 years old. Those, of course, who are still alive which given the 37 years of turmoil and war may not be many.

We worked hard. We had to ride two miles across town to use the only mimeograph machine to print up examination papers for the students. We practiced eating wonderful Afghan food with our hands. We learned to speak Dari and made friends, some of them for life. We sat on the ground and chatted with the elders like U.S. servicemen are learning to do now. We visited mosques and shrines and were welcomed in theseplaces by Afghans happy to share their special places and pleased that we were interested. We went to Bollywood films 40 years before most Americans ever heard of them. We learned to carry pine nuts in their shells in our winter pockets because they were a "warm" food. My roommate and I went to the public bath once a week because it was SO much cheaper than the cost of the wood needed to heat water at home.

In those days there was a balanced and sound relationship between the monarchy and the tribes, between and among the ethnic groups. Afghanistan in the 1960s was not a democracy but it WAS a sovereign functioning country. The people lived a calm and peaceful Muslim life and everyone, Afghans and foreigners alike, could go and come as they pleased.

We PCVs had a life-changing, wonderful experience. We learned much in Afghanistan that we couldn't have learned anywhere else. We were welcome there and we made a difference. Children learned things and began to imagine where we came from and what it was like there. Many people in Afghanistan today still remember - fondly - the name of their Peace Corps teacher. Many of the Ministers in the cabinet created in Afghanistan in December 2001 had Peace Corps teachers. We all need peace in Afghanistan today. What a day it would be if we could again send our peace rather than our war corps to live and learn and help places all over Afghanistan.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Peace Corps. We can renew our commitment to this important tool for learning about and helping the rest of the world.

Misguided Ideas at Harvard

A controversy rages at Harvard about whether to re-instate an apparently long lost Religion Department. Missing the point completely, one side claims that since most of the students at Harvard are not "religious", it would be a waste of resources. THE POINT IS: how could one pretend to value a liberal arts education or any education for that matter which does not insist on or at least allow for an understanding of world religions. Whether we like it or not, all civilizations on this planet so far have been primarily driven by their religious beliefs. Politics, economics, philosophy -- not to be deciphered without reference to the underlying religious ground. No student of society with half a brain would deny this. The value of studying religion as a major impact on history does not have anything to do with the belief systems of the students.

I had an argument in college with my political science professor about this. She wanted me to change my major from religion to poli sci. I was interested in Islam and Sufism and thought I was learning more poli sci in my religion classes than in hers. She thought an understanding of religion unimportant. Well, she died before Al Qaeda and terrorism so I cannot say "I told you so".

The 1950s Medicine Chest

Talking with a friend last week I was remembering something which seems mind-blowing given how people live today. Do you realize that a mere 60 years ago the following was the ENTIRE medication kept in an average American home?: aspirin, iodine (for disinfecting cuts), calamine lotion (for itching from bugs or poison ivy), a foul, tar-like spray for sore throats name of which I have blessedly forgotten, and a tin of bandaids. Sometimes instead of iodine people kept mercurochrome. I was unable to swallow anything like aspirin (very sensitive gag reflex) so my mother had to grind it up and mix that bitter stuff with applesauce. When I was about nine (1952) I had penicillin for the first time. Each capsule (which was a new invention) cost 25 cents and my mother threatened me with dire consequences if I ruined even one by not being able to swallow it.

Something Rotten in Pennsylvania?

You may have noted the passing during the last two weeks of Rep. John Murtha (D-PA). The first notice of his medical problem recorded in The Washington Post said that he had contracted an infection during surgery for his gall bladder. By the time of his burial and obituary (as noted in the same paper) the cause of his demise is given as "complications following gall bladder surgery". Technically that is correct but it seems to me a euphemistic way of covering the truth. It implies that something to do with the gall bladder killed him when in fact it was the hospital that killed him.

This scandalous state of affairs is being covered up all over the United States. Most hospitals seem to be infected with various bacteria and viruses that are killing more people than the injuries and diseases that took them there in the first place. Two years ago this happened to my cousin's husband. A perfectly healthy man got a broken leg repaired. Ended up on life support for three months with an insidious infection in his lungs - from the anaesthetic equipment - and then died.

I was told more than five years ago never to even go to visit someone in a hospital if I had a papercut! And I don't.

In the olden days each hospital room was completely disinfected between patients. Entire bed was washed down not just the sheets. Have you seen anyone doing that lately?

Snowcalypse: Canceling Life One Day at a Time

We have now been housebound for one full week. Yesterday the drifts on north-south roads were six feet high. Buses are halted and the metro only runs underground. No one has been to work or school for one week. People are cross-country skiing down my street and I just saw one woman on snowshoes! Since I am alone, I am not afraid of running out of food. Just glad I don't have to worry about where my dog can go to the bathroom.

Each day I have cancelled the program for the next day. Until Tuesday when I just went ahead and cancelled the rest of the week. The radio says that Baltimore has had 72 inches of snow this year and Philadelphia 60. They say Washington 54 inches but it must of been more than that since they had a deep snow here in December when I was away. I am so curious to see how long it will take to melt away. There is nowhere to put it. Instead of plowing they are now loading it into dumptrucks and taking it away.

Well, I always say winter in Washington, DC is boring but that ain't true this year!!!

The REAL Problem with Massachuetts

My husband tells a very cute tale about trying to learn how to pronounce "Massachusetts" when he was growing up in Afghanistan. Written in Arabic script it would look like this: (of course written from right to left, but nevermind that now) MSCHSTS. Being a foreign word it did not come written with diacritical marks to indicate which vowels go where. The geography teacher would say: "Well, maybe it is Misachasetus. Or maybe it is Masichasetis. Or maybe it is meschesetis." I don't think my husband was totally sure until he came to the U.S. and heard it pronounced here.

BUT GOOD THING HE DIDN"T ARRIVE IN AMERICA IN 2010! Lately a lot of people have been talking about Massachusetts because of the Senatorial seat election there, and I have noticed that many of the commentators on the radio or TV cannot pronounce the name of this state. Most of them mispronounce by saying "Massachuses." They completely do not pronounce the "t"s at the end. So weird.

The truth is that "Massachusetts" is a Native American (Algonquian) name and probably NONE of us is pronouncing it the way they would.

Big Snow of 2010!

This is so much fun! It has been snowing for most of the past 24 hours. We are up to 20 inches and it is still coming down. A friend is doing my shoveling and I am about to go into the sauna, then a fire, hot chocolate and a good book. So I ain't complainin'. My favorite time of the year!

Here are a few photos in case you don't believe me.