Nasar

One of the things that is great about Afghanistan is Nasar. Somehow, Afzal found him more than a year ago, and he basically does everything around here. Need a meal? Nasar can fix you something. He just got his drivers license, so he is our evening driver. He also vacuums. Waters the flowers. Runs errands. Fixes/fuels the generator. And the other day, when we needed to take money to our field office, he flew down on the military flight to deliver the cash.

Nasar basically doesn’t have a home. He is one of those kids that all of the conflict here just kind of chewed up and spit out. He went to Pakistan. Then to Dubai for awhile. Now he is back in Kabul, where he still has some family. He makes it day-to-day just doing whatever needs to be done. He also lives with us, since he doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. Soemtimes he has a bed, sometimes he has a floor, depending on the number of people who are here.

More than anything, Nasar is incredibly resilient. He constantly has a smile on his face. He is taking English classes. He loves my Johnny Cash music. Somehow, he just has fun. This picture shows him suited up in our body armor (nice helmet—a big incentive to stay alive, since no one wants to get caught dead in one of those). There are millions of people in Afghanistan with stories like Nasar. I hope they have his resilience.