We rounded the corner of yet another of the cement/shipping container buildings as a peal of thunder sounded following some lighting we’d began to notice. I turned the group of 10 of us as encouraged everyone to just head back to the gym. We’d been walking for 45 minutes and while we hadn’t completed the full 5K walk, we had to be pretty close and I knew my friends were anxious to move on to dinner.
The lead at the MWR office Sgt. 1st Class Falone handed me a stack of small slips of paper to pass out to the small group of walkers and we all got excited when we saw that it was a coupon for a free massage at the little spa on base.
I had just wrapped up a phone call with Jason, who was back home completing the local walk, when our friend Aryan here in Afghanistan said he had something to present to me.
Aryan is a carpet vendor here in the small group of shops that the military works with to provide service members the opportunity to buy souvenirs, and to provide local vendors a stable and lucrative source of customers.
My friend and fellow Public Affairs Officer, Jonathan, had introduced us to Aryan and his store a couple weeks earlier. Jonathan is a shopper and has purchased a number of rugs from Aryan and his friend Chari throughout his deployment here. It is a small shop packed to the ceiling with folded carpets of many colors. I purchased a small rug from him for our room here, and another one for Mom.
Aryan comes from a family that has been in the carpet business for generations. His grandfather was a well-respected carpet vendor and leader of the carpet union before the Russians came in the
He speaks very good English that he told us he learned by watching American movies. He also speaks fluid French that he learned in school. His friend and business partner, Chari, doesn’t speak English, but speaks animatedly while Aryan translates. He has shared with us about his family who makes many of the rugs sold in the shop. The rug I purchased was made by his mother, and he showed me a rug designed to look like the American Flag made by his 10-yr-old daughter and her friend.
He told me about the process of making the wool and then turning it into carpets. He shared his vision of expanding his business to include neighbors in his town who live in even greater poverty than his family. He has just over 200 sheep and showed me a picture of his favorite one.
I asked him what he would need to expand his business. Did he need more sheep? Newer equipment to spin the yarn? He told me he needs more water.
Afghanistan is headed into a drought and water has been harder and harder to come by. He said in his village the water is bitter and filled with minerals that keep them from being able to use it in the wool-dying process.
His family walks 5 kilometers to fetch buckets of better quality water for their wool. The drought affects the sheep as well and they don’t produce as much wool or as high a quality as in previous years. He expects this year they will only be able to make half of what they could last year.
His eyes lit up as he described the vision he had for building a workshop where he could employ more people.
Jonathan had encouraged Aryan on a number of occasions to make a trip to the United States. It wasn’t until during our walk yesterday that Aryan opened up that he and his brother once planned to come to the U.S. They passed the English test and were set to come, and then their father was killed in an attack in Kabul.
He now has to provide for his many brothers and sisters and does so by continuing on the family business of selling carpets.
Aryan smiled at me as one of the other guys that helped to set up the walk handed him a bundle. I recognized it as a carpet wrapped in the traditional scarfs here.
He presented it to me with one hand on top and one on bottom and told me he wanted me to have it.
“I want to contribute.”
Not an hour before I’d been waiting for our Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides walk to kick off. I’d coordinated a simultaneous one here in Kabul, and while I was waiting for it to start I was describing to him Cohen’s illness and why we were walking. He’d asked me if he could walk with us, which of course I said “absolutely.” He’d said he had to go back for his hat.
Now he was handing me a carpet and explaining that the pattern was one that represented longevity and health in life, and he wanted us to have this for Cohen.
Some gifts you cherish because of the value, but other gifts you cherish because it is so much more. I can assure you this is one our family will cherish for generations.
This one made me cry. Thanks.
Aw! Not the intent, but I appreciate the support.