November 5, 2009

First Sergeant (1SG) Reese informed me that there are 5 good local workers (Safiulla, Akram Alizadah, Guldad Jandand, Seraji, Pacha Murad) who desperately needed a pair of running shoes each and told me where I could find them. I immediately went out and asked them to come in to the Project Afghan Literacy classroom at the end of the day.

I brought out most of the boxes of shoes before they came and had them try various pairs on to make sure the shoes were a good fit.

It is a great feeling to be able to help others even if it is just a pair of used shoes.

It maybe a pair of used shoes, that we do not wear any more, but to a lot of Afghanistan people, this may be their dream come true.

Just imagine you have to save your entire salary for 2-3 months in order to buy yourself a decent pair of running shoes. Could you really think about buying yourself a pair of running shoes when you can barely feed your family of 10 or more in the first place?

I feel very privileged that I had an opportunity to live in Afghanistan for a year and understood the culture.