Love Hate

To follow up on my last post, I wanted to clarify a few things.

While I’m clearly fed but with the US occupation of Afghanistan, this doesn’t mean that I don’t love the place in many ways. Afghanistan is a place of love/hate relationships.

Most of the areas that I discussed in my last post don’t really affect me on a daily basis. Generally I really enjoy my life here and will miss it one day. At the same time, I feel that it is my responsibility to critically look at Afghan development throughout my time here. Without taking time to reflect, it is harder to identify possible solutions.

Afghanistan is like a train wreck where you can’t help but watch. Being here you also feel like you are part of that train wreck.

As messed up as things are, I also vacillate between feeling better trying to be part of the solution or getting out altogether. Despite how bad things are, leaving isn’t always the answer either. One of the huge problems here is that expats only stay for short periods of time before leaving, thus adding to the learning curve needed to understand such a complex country.

We’ll see where this will take me in the end, but it’s good to consider how we are each responsible in different ways. Whether near or far we are all related in this mess.

Best,

Miel