Saturday, June 16, 2007

Day in Kabul

Today was an intense day. It started with an early morning suicide attack in the western part of the city. The bomb targeted the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by NATO. In the midst of the incident, however, several civilians were injured and one of them subsequently died. The news reports suggest that the ISAF soldiers opened fire on the Afghan civilians while ISAF claims that there was a "weapon malfunction." Dozens gathered in protest after the shootings of the civilians as incidents like these create much anger among the locals. The morale is already low among the Afghans, and many feel disillusioned by the bleak prospects of a better future.

While the day started with unrest, our students still showed up at 8:30 a.m. and continued to learn about accounting. As strange as it may sound, no one at the university mentioned the early morning suicide attack. Our interpreter, Dr. Jawad, who lives in the western part of Kabul didn't mention anything either. Perhaps he didn't want to talk about it or was unaware of what happened. As usual, however, he did an outstanding job at interpretation. I told him about his engaging style and excellent linguistic skills, and he was especially pleased by my comments.

Besides helping us with interpretation, Dr. Jawad is a pediatrician and works at a local clinic in Kabul. While my workday ends at 4:30 p.m., his lingers until 9 p.m. daily, except for Fridays. He is also an editor of two local newspapers that cover current political and socioeconomic situation in the country. When we talked about persian poetry, I discovered that he is a poet as well. Dr. Jawad amazes me with his unique character and strong personality. I frequently wonder where he derives his energy to smile and joke while having so much on his plate. This young man has certainly made a tremendous commitment to his war devastated country.

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