Posted on 09/15/2001 10:29:06 AM PDT by ODDITHER
My Brothers
Growing up in rural Colorado, my life had been sheltered and secure. When my Father came home (shortly before my eighteenth birthday) and announced that we were moving to Afghanistan I broke out into tears. Finally it was decided I would stay in Colorado to attend college and visit each summer. I arrived in Kabul after being stranded in Paris because of the war in Lebenon. I can only tell you, no one could have prepared a pampered eighteen-year-old for the differences in culture. After getting over the shock of no radio, television, electricity only during certain hours, 3-4 days to make a long distant telephone call (depending if the international lines were up), I soon came to love both the Afghan people and the country.
My parents lived in a secure compound and had several Afghans that worked for them. My mother's aspirin bottle and ability to speak foreign languages soon earned her the name of "docotor". Many nights, there would be a knock on the door and one of the houseboys would have a relative that was quite ill. Somehow my parents would find someone or something to treat the relatives illnesses. One night the knock on the door was our houseboy and in his arms was a baby. Clearly, near death the poor baby was limp in his arms. Nadia became a part of the household for the next year. Mother nursed the baby back to health staying up with her night after night. I still see her tears as she gave the baby back to the mother. She still has pictures of her displayed at home.
When the Russian war began, my parents were evacuated to Iran. They took their houseboys with them because they would have been killed had they stayed. It was the houseboys that kept my parents safe in Iran.
The houseboys were Hazaras. :
"Hazaras are among few races on the face of the earth about whose origin so little is known. Some research done on Hazara background suggests that they are the descendants of Changez Khan ( Genghis Khan), the great Mongol warrior of 13th Century." The Hazaras were among those who fought against the Communist government and they succeeded in liberating much of their homeland early on in the Russian/civil war. The Taliban forces have murdered many Hazaras.
I could tell the difference between the Hazaras and other Afghans when I was there because Hazaras would load bundles of goods to be sold so heavy and big that you could barely see them under their load. They were honest, hard working, humble and kind.
When my parents were forced to leave Iran, they made arrangements to get their houseboys out of Iran by adopting them. Both Rheza and Abdul arrived in the United States with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the same wide eyed stare they had seen on my face some 10 years before. They have become very successful businessmen using the same tireless work ethic that they displayed in Afghanistan. Over the years they have been able to get their families out of Afghanistan.
They are now American citizens who are the American dream. Humble, proud, America-loving, first generation citizens who have lived war, known life without freedom, and love America. Please remember my brothers in your prayers. Pray that the American people focus their righteous indignation towards the real enemy and not my brothers.
Your brothers sound like fine men and from what you've written, they come from good stock.
I will mention you all tonight when I talk to Him.
By the way, I have just added Hazaras to my pot of American stew and call them the "stock".
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story about some very special people.
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