Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

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Kweilin, Steve, Wan in Kabul

My sister and mom are visiting my father in Kabul, Afghanistan. Kweilin wrote the following update.

Hi Li!
It is 9:00 p.m. here and we had a really full day. Kabul is poor and
quite dusty and everything has been bombed really badly over the past
few decades-- by Russians and Afghan rebels and then recently by
Americans.  Most of it was done by the Afghans themselves as they
fought for power.  I used the camcorder A LOT, so you'll be able to
see it.  It is really hard to believe things are in such ruins.
The people are beautiful here-- very striking.  They have dark
features and green or blue eyes.  They are honest people but they all
have pretty difficult lives.  Most women walk around in light blue
burkas.  I bought one today for $5.  They actually use mostly dollars
here although they will also accept afghans.  The burka covers
EVERYTHING.  There is a lace-like opening for my eyes, but that is a
really minimal view.  I can't even see my feet with it on!  I don't
really have to wear it, though, because most women here just wear a
scarf and long sleeves all the time, so I can get away with just
covering all my hair and neck-- everything except my face.  I think
I'll do that for a while.
Yesterday we got to Delhi at 9:00 p.m. and spent the evening at the
airport.  There was a nice Sheraton hotel lounge that we paid $15 each
to be in (including drinks and snacks!), so the night was quite
comfortable-- we slept on the couches there.  In the morning we
rechecked the boxes of Chinese food and other ingredients that mommy
brought along and then got onto the flight for Kabul.  Kids and adults
were walking around the flight and not paying attention to the "fasten
seatbelt" sign the entire time.
Flying in we saw all the mountains around Kabul-- everything is so
dry!  All day long there are small sandstorms when you have to close
your eyes and turn your back to the sand.  Apparently these are
nothing to the big ones they get later in the year.
The MSH people are very nice.  It is a small world and we've met most
of them already.  Today is Thursday and at 1:00 p.m. Daddy started his
1.5 day weekend.  So we went with a driver around town and saw a lot
of things.  There are bombed out planes and falling-apart buildings
everywhere.  We went into someone's house to see their living quarters
and I taped a bunch of kids laughing and playing.  The camcorder is
great because I can play it back for them and they get really
excited.  Tonight we went out to dinner (not so good-- quite oily)
with some other MSH people.  There are surprisingly a lot of fruits
and vegetables here-- mostly imported from Pakistan.  There is also
excellent "nan" or Afghani bread.  We can put peanut butter and kaya
and other things on it.
I think we're going to visit a traditional Afghan wedding tomorrow--
that will be fun. On Sunday we might be leaving for a three day trip
to Mazar-e-Sharif in the north (it is safe and we're getting a driver
who really knows the area).
We have email access in the house (we're all staying in the MSH
compound), but it is quite slow.  We will keep writing, though, so
definitely send us an email every so often!

Love,
JAY

posted by Li at 1:25 AM